釋氏稽古略 4.193

4.193

Chan Master Huanglong of Longxing Superior Prefecture was named Huinan. He was a son of the Zhang family of Xinzhou. Relying on Chan Master Letan Cheng, he held a separate seat to guide students, and his fame shook all quarters. Once, traveling in the Western Mountains together with Chan Master Yunfeng Wu, they conversed at night about the Dharma way of Yunmen. Wu said, 'Although the Venerable Cheng is a successor of Yunmen, his Dharma way is different.' The Master inquired why it was different. Wu said, 'Yunmen is like the nine-times transformed cinnabar elixir, transmuting iron into gold. The Venerable Cheng's medicine is mercury: it can merely be played with, but once it enters the furnace it flows away.' The Master became angry and threw his pillow at him. The next day Wu apologized, yet also said, 'Yunmen's bearing was like a king; would he willingly submit to dead words? That there is a Dharma to confer upon people is dead words. Can dead words bring people to life?' The Master said, 'If it is like this, then who meets your approval?' Wu said, 'Shishuang Yuan's methods surpass all quarters. You ought to see him.' The Master immediately set out thither. On the way he heard that Ciming attended to no business and neglected the monastic groves. Thereupon he climbed Mount Heng and visited Fuyan Xian, who appointed the Master to manage the office of monastic scribe. Shortly afterward Xian passed away, and the commandery prefect appointed Ciming to fill the seat. Upon entering the monastery, he disparaged the teachers of all quarters, enumerating point by point their perverse understandings. The Master was demoralized on account of this, and thereupon went to his room. Ming said, 'The scribe leads disciples to travel across the land. Supposing there are doubts, you may sit and discuss them.' The Master's earnest pleas became even more fervent. Ming said, 'You have studied Yunmen Chan and must be skilled in its import. Take the saying: "Giving Dongshan thirty blows of the staff"—did he deserve to receive the blows, or did he not deserve to receive the blows?' The Master said, 'He deserved to receive the blows.' Ming, with a stern countenance, said, 'From morning to evening the magpies chatter and the crows caw; all deserve to receive the blows.' The Master hastily burned incense and paid homage. Ming sat upright and received it, and asked him again: 'Zhaozhou said to the old woman of Mount Wutai, "I have seen through you." Now where was the place where he saw through the old woman?' The Master sweated profusely and could give no further answer. The following day he visited again, and Ming reviled and cursed him unceasingly. The Master said, 'How can cursing be the Dharma gift of compassion?' Ming said, 'Did you take it as cursing?' The Master was greatly enlightened at these words. He composed a verse, saying: / 'Preeminent in the monastic groves is Zhaozhou; / His seeing through the old woman had good reason. / Now the four seas are as clear as a mirror; / Let travelers not take enmity with the road.' / He presented it to Ciming, and Ming nodded in approval. Later he inaugurated his teachings at Tong'an. On the day he first accepted the invitation, when a monk from Letan came to inquire about his discourses, there were the words: 'The ocean of wisdom has no self-nature; by realizing delusion one becomes an ordinary mortal. Realizing that delusion is fundamentally empty, right in the ordinary mind one sees the Buddha. Just cease right here; do not suppose Tong'an offers no compromise. Follow your perverse desires—seven in the Southern Dipper, eight in the Northern Dipper!' The monk reported this to Cheng, and Cheng was displeased. The Master resided at Huanglong. In his room he established three turning phrases: 'Everyone has a causal condition of birth'—then raising his hand, he said, 'How is my hand like a Buddha's hand?' Dropping his foot, he said, 'How is my foot like a donkey's foot?' The monastic groves named them 'Huanglong's Three Checkpoints.' He moved to Huangbo. The Master was the Dharma heir of Chan Master Ciming Yuan. At this time, on the seventeenth day of the third month in the second year of Xining, at the hour of noon, after entertaining guests, he rose and went to the front of his bedchamber. As the great assembly reverently attended him, he sat upright in the full lotus posture and passed away. His cremation with jhapita yielded five-colored relics (śarīra), which were enshrined in a stupa on the mountain in front. He was granted the posthumous title 'Chan Master Pujue.' His Dharma-inheriting disciples included Zhenjing Kewen, Donglin Changzong, Huitang Zuxin, and others (Pudeng lu).