高僧傳 12.45

12.45

Shi Fagong, whose lay surname was Guan, was a native of Yong Province. When he first left household life, he stayed at Anyang Temple in Jiangling. Later he went to the capital and resided at Dong'an Temple. In his youth his austere practices were extraordinary: he wore cloth garments, ate pulses and wheat, and recited over three hundred thousand words of sūtras. Whenever he chanted at night, there was always an extraordinary fragrance and rare aroma, which all who entered Fagong's room could smell. Furthermore, because his worn patched robe harbored fleas and lice, he always wore it to feed them. The three emperors Wu, Wen, and Ming of the Song, as well as Yixiu, the Wen King of Hengyang, and others all revered his virtuous simplicity. The offerings he received from the faithful he always distributed to the poor and sick, never hoarding them for personal use. During the Taishi reign period of the Song, he returned to the west and died there, at the age of eighty.