高僧傳 11.124

11.124

釋僧祐，本姓俞氏，其先彭城下邳人，父世居于建業。祐年數歲，入建初寺禮拜。因踊躍樂道，不肯還家。父母憐其志，且許入道，師事僧範道人。年十四，家人密為訪婚，祐知而避至定林，投法達法師。達亦戒德精嚴，為法門梁棟。祐師奉竭誠，及年滿具戒，執操堅明。初受業於沙門法穎。穎既一時名匠，為律學所宗。祐迺竭思鑽求，無懈昏曉。遂大精律部，有勵先哲。齊竟陵文宣王每請講律，聽眾常七八百人。永明中，勅入吳，試簡五眾，并宣講《十誦》，更申受戒之法。凡獲信施，悉以治定林、建初及修繕諸寺，并建無遮大集、捨身齊等，及造立經藏，搜校卷軸。使夫寺廟開廣，法言無墜，咸其力也。

Shi Sengyou originally had the surname Yu; his ancestors were from Xiapi in Pengcheng, and his father's family had lived in Jianye for generations. When You was a few years old, he entered Jianchu Temple to pay reverence. Rejoicing and delighting in the Way, he was unwilling to return home. His parents, pitying his aspirations, permitted him to enter the Way, and he served the monk Sengfan as his master. At the age of fourteen, when his family secretly sought a marriage for him, You learned of it and fled to Dinglin Temple, where he placed himself under Dharma Master Fada. Da's monastic discipline was strict, and he was a pillar of the Dharma gate. You served his master with utter devotion, and when he came of age to take the full precepts, his conduct was firm and pure. At first, he received instruction under the śramaṇa Faying. Ying was already a renowned master of his time, revered in the study of the vinaya. You then exhausted his mind in probing and inquiring, without slackening day or night. He thus became exceptionally proficient in the vinaya-piṭaka, surpassing the earlier sages. Prince Wenxuan of Jingling under the Qi frequently invited him to lecture on the vinaya, with audiences usually numbering seven or eight hundred. During the Yongming era, an imperial decree sent him to Wu to examine and classify the five assemblies, expound on the Daśādhyāya-vinaya, and elucidate the methods for receiving precepts. Whatever donations of the faithful he received, he used entirely to restore Dinglin and Jianchu and to repair various temples, as well as to establish great gatherings of non-obstruction (mokṣamahāpariṣad), assemblies for abandoning the body, and the like, and to establish the sūtrapiṭaka, searching out and collating rolls of manuscripts. That monasteries were expanded and the words of the Dharma did not fall into ruin was entirely due to his efforts.