釋氏稽古略 4.353

4.353

"Origins of Bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara Responding in Dreams": In the Song dynasty, on the seventh day of the first month, Dharma Master Ruone, Huiguang, Registrary of the Buddhist Clergy of the Left Precinct from Upper Tianzhu, was summoned for an audience at Xuande Hall. The Emperor said, "How long has it been since the origin of Upper Tianzhu?" Ne said, "It began in the fourth year of the Tianfu era of the Shi-Jin dynasty. A monk named Daoyi built a hermitage in the mountains. At night he repeatedly saw a great luminescence radiating from the mountain before him. Upon seeking it out, there was an extraordinary piece of wood. He arose, took it, and carved it into a sacred image. A divine person appeared to him in a dream, saying, 'Tomorrow a monk will arrive from Luoyang; you should request relics from him.' He indeed obtained three relics, which were placed in the usnīṣa of the Bodhisattva. During the Kaibao era of Taizu, King Qian Chu, Zhongyi of Wuyue, dreamt of a heavenly being in white garments who said, 'My dwelling place is extremely mean and simple.' Awaking, he investigated the truth of it and expanded its halls, naming it Tianzhu Sutra-Recitation Cloister. During the Zhiping era of Emperor Yingzong, Shen Wentong and Cai Xiang successively governed Hangzhou; they fully memorialized its history, and Grand Councillor Zeng Gongliang presented the matter. The imperial name plaque 'Linggan Guanyin Cloister' was bestowed. Now, receiving Your Majesty's imperial calligraphy, the cloister has been upgraded to a monastery, thus becoming a great monastic center" (Huiguang zoudui lu). Ganshan jitan says: The Shu monk Zuxiu, styled Zizhi, early became renowned for his literary talents among the scholar-officials. Admiring the spirit of Song [Qi] and Mingjiao [Qisong], he composed The Unofficial Biography of Ouyang Wenzhong Gong, to which Su Xiang, styled Yangzhi, wrote a preface heading the text. It states in brief: "Gentlemen consider that the Buddha's teaching was not attested in the ages of Yao, Shun, Yu, and Tang; and after Confucius and Meng Ke, although the former Confucians of successive dynasties held sway over the state, they did not prohibit it in the least, allowing it to overflow across the realm. There have been those holding this argument from antiquity to the present. Master Xiu alone considered: Yao's son Danzhu was unworthy to be handed the administration, so he abdicated to Shun; Shun also worried about Shangjun and abdicated to Yu; down to the dynastic revolutions of Tang and Wu—this was the starting point of the teachings. Even had Confucius carried out affairs, how would it have differed from this? From Yao down to King Wu, there was a reason the Buddha was not yet born. After Cheng and Kang had passed away, the Buddha then manifested traces. Yet it had not reached China, awaiting the Sage's birth in Lu to achieve the grand synthesis of the teachings of the ancient kings. How grievous that the Sage was hard-pressed in Lu, Wei, Chen, and Song, wishing to dwell among the Nine Barbarians and ride a raft to float upon the sea! At that time, had a teaching from tens of thousands of li beyond been imposed upon China, who among the Son of Heaven and the feudal lords would have listened to it? The Buddha's Dharma is not transmitted carelessly; had Emperor Xianzong (Emperor Ming of the Later Han) not been moved to seek it from afar, it might not have responded so swiftly." These were all letters from Master Xiu while in the capital; his treatises, which startled antiquity and shook the present, exceeded tens of thousands of words. Xiu also composed a eulogy for a portrait of Su Dongpo: "Under the Han, there were Sima, Yang, and Wang; / under the Tang, Taibai and Zi'ang. / These five gentlemen were all born in the commandery of Shu, / yet none was like the master in his dazzling brilliance. / As for the master's poetry, who could rival it save Zimei? / As for the master's prose, who could ride beside it save Zichang? / His rhapsodies were superior to Qu and Jia, / his calligraphy was more vigorous than Zhong and Wang. / These consummate arts of the master / were merely the chaff of the supreme Way. / The master's Way was that of Houji and Yi Yin: / it could elevate his sovereign to the level of Yao and Tang. / When contemporary opinions were about to subject him to battle-axes, / the master all the more made satirical remonstrance in poetic stanzas. / His exile beyond the seas was like returning to his native village. / Truly, among the five outstanding men of Shu commandery, / none could even peer over the master's wall." By this year, the guisi year, Xiu retired in old age to the mountains of Shu (Ying Zhongwen wenji).