高僧傳 4.42

4.42

Zhu Fayi's origins are unknown. At the age of thirteen, he met Master Shen and promptly asked: 'Benevolence and benefit are what the gentleman practices; why did Kong Qiu rarely speak of them?' Shen said: 'Creatures are seldom able to practice them, and for that reason he rarely spoke of them.' Shen, seeing that he was young yet intelligent and perceptive, urged him to leave home. Thereupon, he lodged his aspiration in the Dharma gate and studied under Shen. Moving deftly through the various scriptures, he was especially adept in the Saddharmapuṇḍarīka-sūtra. Later, he took leave of Shen and went to the capital, where he again opened wide his lecture seat; Wang Dao and Kong Fu both admired his demeanor and befriended him with respect. In the Xingning era of the Jin dynasty, he returned to the region south of the Yangtze and rested at Bao Mountain in Shining; he constantly had more than one hundred disciples receiving instruction. In the second year of the Xian'an era, he suddenly fell ill with chest ailments; constantly mindful of Guanyin, he dreamt of a person who cut open his belly and washed his intestines, and upon waking, his illness was cured. Fu Liang often said: 'My late father associated and resided with Master Yi, and whenever he heard him speak of the spiritual miracles of Guanyin, everyone, old and young, was reverent and awed.'