釋鑑稽古略續集 1.242

1.242

孚中禪師　諱懷信。字孚中。姓姜。奉化人。母劉氏。夜夢大星墮室中。有光如火。取而吞之遂娠。及誕狀貌異凡。遇僧即喜。年十五從法華院子思出家祝髮。受具戒於五臺寺。學三觀十乘於半巖全公。扣禪宗大旨於竺西坦公。又值雲外岫公。後出世明之觀音。遷住普陀。鎮南王虛心問道。宣讓王亦遣使。奉旃檀香紫伽黎衣。請示法要。師搆姑蘇寶石。造多寶佛塔。詔賜廣慧妙悟智寶弘教之號。升住中竺復遷天童。後住持大龍翔寺。提唱宗乘萬耳聳聽。大小驩然而親戴之。一旦晨興謂左右曰。吾將歸矣。汝等當以荷法自期。勵精進行可也。書偈曰。平生為人戾契。七十八年漏洩。今朝撒手便行。萬里晴空片雪。是年八月二十四日壽臘六十九云。

Chan Master Fuzhong: taboo name Huaixin, courtesy name Fuzhong, surnamed Jiang. He was a native of Fenghua. His mother, Lady Liu, dreamed at night that a great star fell into her chamber with a light like fire; she took and swallowed it, and thereupon became pregnant. When he was born, his appearance was extraordinary; whenever he met a monk, he was joyful. At age fifteen, he renounced household life and took tonsure under Zisi of Fahua Cloister. He received full ordination at Wutai Monastery. He studied the Three Contemplations and the Ten Vehicles under Master Quan of Ban'yan, and inquired into the essential principles of the Chan school under Master Tan of Zhuxi. He also met Master Xiu of Yunwai. Later he appeared in the world at Guanyin in Mingzhou, and then moved to reside at Putuo. King Zhennan humbly sought instruction in the Way; King Xuanrang also dispatched envoys bearing sandalwood incense and a purple saṅghāṭī robe to request an exposition of the essentials of the Dharma. The master built the Baoshi [Monastery] in Gusu and erected a Stūpa of Prabhūtaratna Buddha. By imperial decree, he was granted the title Guanghui Miaowu Zhibao Hongjiao ("Broad Wisdom, Wondrous Awakening, Jewel of Wisdom, Expander of Teaching"). He was promoted to reside at Zhongzhu and then moved to Tiantong. Later he served as abbot of Dalongxiang Monastery, expounding the ancestral school so that ten thousand ears listened attentively, and everyone high and low rejoiced and felt close reverence for him. One morning he rose and said to his attendants: "I am about to return. You should take upon yourselves the burden of the Dharma and exert yourselves in energetic practice." He wrote a verse: / "All my life, perverse and crooked; / Leaking out for seventy-eight years. / Today I let go of hands and walk away; / A flake of snow in ten thousand miles of clear sky." / He died on the twenty-fourth day of the eighth month of this year, with a monastic age of sixty-nine.