釋氏稽古略 4.182

4.182

Chan Master Danguan was named Tanying. He was a son of the Qiu family of Qiantang in Hangzhou. At the age of thirteen, he relied on Longxing Temple to become a fully ordained monk. At twenty, he traveled to the capital. The Master was extraordinarily refined in character, acute and marvelous in wisdom, and there were no books or histories he had not read; his literary compositions were especially elegant and beautiful. Duke Xia Wenzhuang (Song), Duke Wang Wenkang (Shu), Duke Ouyang Wenzhong (Xiu), and the Military Commissioners Li Duanque and Li Duanyuan all knocked upon his mystery-gate, venerated him with the etiquette due a teacher, and took extraordinary delight in one another. They recorded his words at the time and titled them *Dengmen ji* (Approaching the Gate Collection). The Master first visited Chan Master Dayang Ming'an, and next visited the venerable Shimen Cong. He attended upon him for a long time and fully accorded with the profound mystery. Traveling eastward, he first resided at Xianglu Peak in Shuzhou (modern Anqing Circuit). He moved to Yinsheng Taiping Temple in Runzhou (modern Zhenjiang Circuit), Yinjing Temple, Xuedou Temple in Mingzhou, and moved again to Jinshan in Runzhou. By New Year's Eve of the fourth year of Jiayou, he sent an attendant with a letter to bid farewell to Academician Diao Jingchun of Yangzhou, saying: 'Tomorrow morning I must depart, and there will be no time to see each other; take good care of yourself.' Diao was alarmed and said: 'What should be done?' He then wrote a reply in farewell, and the courier rushed to the shore. The Master immediately ordered the drum beaten and ascended the seat, narrating the circumstances of his assuming the abbacy from beginning to end to encourage the assembly not to be indolent. He also said: 'When I pass away, the prior [Huai]xian should fill the vacancy' (Chan Master Huaixian of Jinshan). Stepping down from the seat, he finished reading Jingchun's letter and returned to the abbot's quarters. The great assembly gathered round and followed him. Sitting cross-legged for a good while, he passed away. His age was seventy-two, with fifty-three summer retreats. The Master was the dharma heir of Chan Master Cizhao Yuncong of Mount Guyin in Xiangzhou. Cong was the dharma heir of Shoushan Nian; Nian was the dharma heir of Fengxue Zhao—this is the Linji lineage (*Xu deng*). Danguan once composed the *Xingbian* (Discourse on Nature). Its text says: 'When ancient and modern sages and worthies spoke of nature, they only grasped feelings. If they could fathom principles, why were they unable to exhaust nature? They did not know that the Three Powers and the myriad things are all nature. Heaven's nature is to ascend; Earth's nature is to descend. Metal is sharp, water is moist, wood is straight, fire is hot, and earth is thick—these are the natures of the five phases. Discussing them comprehensively and investigating them subtly, the nature of the myriad things can be seen clearly. Among them, the most numinous is human beings. Born of the mingling of yin and yang, that which moves through change and transformation is feeling. Generally, human feeling is pure and unmixed. The reason one can go upward or downward, become worthy or foolish, is that those who receive the higher nature are noble men. External feelings cannot delude their nature; even if mingled with petty persons, they are like gold and jade among earth and stone. As for Yao, Shun, Yu, and Tang handing down their names through ten thousand ages, they preserved high positions and adhered to the constant Way at that time, examining human feelings and establishing laws according to nature. Jie, Zhou, You, and Li were deluded by wealth and rank and lost the great treasure, indulging their own nature so that it was shifted by feelings. Although Heaven and Earth are without feelings, wind and clouds alter their seasons throughout the four periods, and mountains and rivers disorder their forms among the myriad things. Only humans dwell in their midst, estimating Heaven's seasons and following Earth's advantages without losing their proper measure. Thus humans are the mind of Heaven and Earth. Feelings, thought, and consciousness are all rooted in nature. Manifested according to things, they merely have various external names. The rest cannot be fully recounted. Feelings are the mind, tethered to functioning; thought is the intention, recorded in affairs; consciousness is knowledge, discerning things. Love, hatred, joy, and anger are all feelings. Now, as for the great sages, their nature is definitive. They are not deluded by the external and not tethered by feelings; nature governs feelings. Therefore, our teaching calls it right awakening. The *Book of Changes* only knows the saying of fathoming principles and exhausting nature, but has not seen the way that transcends the ancient and enters the modern' (*Sengbao zhuan*).