高僧傳 8.85

8.85

釋慧集，本姓錢，吳興於潛人。年十八於會稽樂林山出家，仍隨慧基法師受業。為性愨實，言無華綺，而學勤昏曉，未嘗懈息。後出京，止招提寺。復遍歷眾師，融冶異說，三藏、方等並皆綜達。廣訪《大毘婆沙》及《雜心》、揵度等，以相辯校，故於《毘曇》一部，擅步當時。凡碩難堅，疑並為披釋，海內學賓無不必至。每一開講，負帙千人。沙門僧旻、法雲並名高一代，亦執卷請益。今上深相賞接，以天監十四年還至烏程，遘疾而卒，春秋六十。著《毘曇大義疏》十餘萬言，盛行於世。

Shi Huiji was originally surnamed Qian and was a native of Yuqian in Wuxing. At the age of eighteen he left the household at Mount Yuelin in Kuaiji, and subsequently studied under Dharma Master Huiji. By nature he was sincere and honest, his speech without flowery ornamentation, and he studied diligently from dawn to dusk without ever resting. Later he went to the capital and stayed at Zhaoti Temple. He then visited various masters broadly, reconciling divergent doctrines, and comprehensively mastered both the Tripiṭaka and the Vaipulya teachings. He extensively consulted the Mahāvibhāṣā, the Saṃyuktābhidharmahṛdaya, the Skandhaka, and other treatises to debate and compare them; thus, in the entire field of the Abhidharma, he walked unrivaled in his time. He resolved and expounded all profound difficulties and thorny doubts, and scholars from throughout the realm unfailingly came to him. Whenever he opened a lecture, a thousand people carried their book-wrappers [to attend]. The śramaṇas Sengmin and Fayun, both eminent in their generation, also held texts to ask for his instruction. The present Emperor deeply appreciated and received him. In the fourteenth year of the Tianjian era he returned to Wucheng, fell ill, and died at the age of sixty. He composed an Exegesis of the Great Meaning of the Abhidharma in more than one hundred thousand words, which widely circulates in the world.