高僧傳 7.90

7.90

釋法珍，姓楊，河東人。少而好學，尋問萬里。宋景平中，來遊兗、豫。貫極眾經，傍通異部。後聽東阿靜公講，眾屢請覆述，靜歎曰：「吾不及也。」元嘉中過江，吳興沈演之特深器重，請還吳興武康小山寺，首尾十有九年。自非祈請法事，未嘗出門。居于武康，每歲開講，三吳學者負笈盈衢。乃著《涅槃》、《法華》、《大品》、《勝鬘》等義疏。大明六年，勅吳興郡致禮上京，與道猷同止新安寺，使頓、漸二悟，義各有宗。至便就講，鑾輿降蹕，百辟陪筵。珍年雖栖暮，而蔬苦弗改，戒節清白，道俗歸焉。宋元徽中卒，春秋七十有六。

Shi Fazhen, surnamed Yang, was a native of Hedong. In his youth he was fond of learning, traveling ten thousand li to seek instruction. During the Jingping era of Song (423–424), he came to travel through Yan and Yu. He thoroughly mastered all the scriptures and was broadly conversant with the various schools. Later he listened to Master Jing of Dong'e lecture; the assembly repeatedly asked Fazhen to repeat the exposition, and Master Jing sighed, saying: 'I am not his equal.' During the Yuanjia era he crossed the Yangtze; Shen Yanzhi of Wuxing held him in exceptional esteem and invited him back to Xiaoshan Temple in Wukang, Wuxing, where he stayed for nineteen years from first to last. Unless invited for Dharma services, he never stepped outside the gate. Residing in Wukang, he lectured every year, and scholars from the three Wu regions carrying book-boxes filled the roads. He wrote doctrinal commentaries on the Nirvāṇa, Saddharmapuṇḍarīka, Pañcaviṃśatisāhasrikā-prajñāpāramitā, Śrīmālādevī-siṃhanāda, and other sūtras. In the sixth year of Daming (462), an imperial edict instructed the commandery of Wuxing to send him with ceremonial respects to the capital, to reside together with Daoyou at Xin'an Temple, so that the two doctrines of sudden and gradual awakening would each have their respective champion. Upon his arrival he immediately began lecturing; the imperial carriage arrived, and all the hundred officials attended the assembly. Although Fazhen was in the twilight of his years, he never altered his simple vegetarian diet; his adherence to the precepts was pure and spotless, and both clergy and laity took refuge in him. He died in the Yuanhui era of the Song, at the age of seventy-six.