釋氏稽古略 4.202

4.202

Chan Master Fohui was named Faquan, born to the Shi clan of Suizhou (Suizhou was subordinate to the Xiazhou Circuit of the Jinghu North Region). In his youth he left home; he read widely through various books, committing them to memory at a glance, and was elegantly named 'Ten Thousand Fascicles Quan'. He visited spiritual friends everywhere, with an incisive awakening to the profound mechanism. Answering the needs of the world as abbot, he was repeatedly transferred to great monasteries. During the days he dwelt at Jiangshan (Jiankang in Jiangdong), he ascended the hall on account of snow. Summoning the great assembly, he said: 'Is there anyone who can surpass this color?' After a long pause, he said: 'Mañjuśrī smiles; Samantabhadra is angry. Having no sinews in one's eyes, one remains impoverished all one's life. Meeting together, all talk of leaving office and retiring; yet amidst the woods, when has one ever seen a single person?' He ascended the hall [another time and said]: 'A quick person needs one word; a swift horse needs one whip. If your eyes are still wavering and hesitating, you cannot avoid being wrapped in hemp inside paper. Underfoot is the ground; overhead is the sky. If you do not believe it, just look: in the eighth and ninth months, falling yellow leaves fill the mountains and rivers.' In his later years, he was summoned by imperial decree to dwell at the Daxiangguo Zhihai Chan Monastery in the capital. He ascended the hall and asked the assembly: 'Going to Zhihai or remaining at Jiangshan—how is it right?' The assembly did not know how to reply. He then returned to the abbot's quarters, asked for a brush, and wrote a verse: 'Neither Buddha nor mind—to speculate in vain; / Attaining the skin or the marrow—to dispute to no purpose. / On the verge of departure, take care, my fellow Chan companions: / Outside the gate, the blue mountains bask in the evening sun.' He threw down the brush, sat cross-legged, and passed away. When the emissary returned to report, the Emperor marveled at it and imperially bestowed the posthumous title Chan Master Fohui. The master was a Dharma heir of Chan Master Xiaoshun of Yunju (Shun was titled Yaofu). Shun was the heir of Cong of Dongshan; Cong was the heir of Zhen of Wenshu; Zhen was the heir of Mi of Deshan; Mi was the heir of Chan Master Yan of Yunmen (Liandeng lu). The master once composed 'A Song of Mount Beimang' (the name of a mountain in Luoyang). Its text said: 'The front mountains and back mountains tower high and lofty; / Hearses rumble along, passing by day after day. / Mournful songs and deep laments fill the crags and ravines; / Those who hear them secretly grieve at the song of "Dew on the Shallot". / A single mournful song marks a parting of a thousand years; / Filial sons and compliant grandsons weep tears of blood in vain. / What thing in the mundane world can remain firm and lasting? / The great ocean and Mount Sumeru must eventually be worn away. / Human life is also like the morning dew, easily dried; / From the beginning, whatever meets must in the end separate. / Suffering, joy, sorrow, and feeling do not cease for a moment; / Even more so, a hundred years rush by like a startled dream! / The departed drift far away and do not return; / The people of today do not understand the mind of the people of old. / Planting pines and erecting stone monuments to guard the tomb gate, / They intend to make long-term plans for the dead. / Souls flutter and waver; the bodily form turns to earth; / The five destinies (devas, humans, hungry ghosts, hells, animals) endlessly turn like a wheel in a well. / The people of today are buried again in the graves of the people of old; / Present graves and ancient graves have no permanent master. / The millions of people in the city of Luoyang / Must ultimately become the dust beneath Mount Beimang. / Sunken in delusion, they do not remember the road to return; / For your sake, I sit alone in long sorrow and bitterness. / In former days, they saw others off, weeping on the long road; / Today, they lie under the fragrant grasses as solitary graves. / Foxes burrow holes to conceal their offspring; / Plowmen overturn bones searching for pearls and jewels. / Ancient trees rustle, stirring up wild winds; / East and west, mounds of earth connect to the clear sky. / The Cold Food Festival has passed—who will make offerings? / Beside the mounds, leftover flowers remain solitary and red. / The sun and moon hasten on like flying arrows; / The rich, the poor, the worthy, and the foolish are all like this. / How can we wander together in the realm of Eternal Joy, / Where, even through kalpas of fire, there is neither birth nor death?' (Ying Zhongwen, Yunwo jitan). In the summer, there was a great drought in the capital region. The Emperor fasted and prayed with great fervor. At night he dreamed that a monk rode a horse in the sky, spitting out clouds and mist from his mouth. Soon afterward, abundant rain fell in sufficiency. The Emperor was greatly delighted and sent people to search for him among images. He was found as the thirteenth venerable one among the five hundred arhats in the gate pavilion of Xiangguo Monastery in the capital. The Chancellor Wang Gui congratulated him with a poem: 'A good minister serves as the seasonal rain, fulfilling expectations in vain; / A miraculous monk produces mist, answering earnest prayer.' The Participant in Determining Governmental Affairs Yuan Jiang said: 'The celestial steed mounts the clouds, piercing the procession below; / The Buddha flower blows rain, circling the flow of heaven.' People vied to recite them (Dongxuan bilu).