釋氏稽古略 4.176

4.176

Xuedou: Chan Master of Mount Xuedou in Mingzhou, named Chongxian, courtesy name Yinzhi, was born into the Li family of Suining Prefecture on the eighth day of the fourth month in the fifth year of Taiping Xingguo. In his youth he went to Superior Renxian of Pu'an Monastery in Yizhou to leave home. Having received full ordination, he left Shu and drifted along the waters around Jingling. Once, while serving as guest master at Dayang, he traveled north to Fuzhou. Chan Master Zuo of the Northern Pagoda appreciated the Master's keen diligence and kept him for five years, where he fully attained his way. As he was about to set out for Qiantang, he met Academician Zeng in Huainan. Zeng recommended the Master with a letter to Chan Master Shan of Lingyin. By the time the Master arrived, he had remained hidden there for three years. When Lord Zeng, on an official mission to western Zhejiang, visited the Master at Lingyin, among the more than one thousand monks in the hall, none knew him. Searching through the bed rosters, they located him by his appearance. Zeng asked about the letter he had sent previously; the Master produced it from his sleeve and presented it. Zeng laughed heartily, and Shan regarded him as all the more extraordinary. The Master assumed abbacy at Cuifeng in Suzhou and moved to Xuedou in Mingzhou, greatly revitalizing the tradition of the school. By this point, on the tenth day of the sixth month in the fourth year of Huangyou (one source says the seventh day of the seventh month), he bathed, brought out his staff, sandals, robes, and bowl to distribute among his disciples, gathered his robes, and passed away facing north. His age was seventy-three; his monastic age, fifty. His entire body was placed in a stupa in the western valley of the monastery. He was granted the title Great Master Mingjiao. Among those who attained the Dharma, the leader was Chan Master Huai of Tianyi and others. In his twilight years, the Master grieved that learners sought the stream and lost the source, and composed a verse on "the Way diminishing daily": "Two-thirds of time have already slipped away, / Yet the single point of the spiritual terrace has not been polished. / Clinging to life, one scurries about day by day; / Though called, they will not turn back—what can be done?" His wondrous words, gāthās, and verses expounding the essential tenets were spread throughout the monasteries everywhere. The Master was the dharma heir of Zuo of Zhimen; Zuo was the dharma heir of Yuan of Xianglin; Yuan was the dharma heir of Chan Master Yan of Yunmen (*Chuandeng [lu]*).