高僧傳 6.35

6.35

From the time Huiyuan settled on Mount Lu for over thirty years, his shadow never left the mountain and his footsteps never entered the secular world. Whenever he saw off visiting guests, he always took Tiger Creek as his boundary. In the eighth month of the twelfth year of the Yixi reign of Jin, he first became indisposed; by the sixth day, he was gravely ill. Venerable elders all touched their foreheads to the ground and begged him to drink fermented bean wine, but he refused; they begged him to drink rice water, but he refused; they begged him to drink syrup made of honey mixed with water, whereupon he ordered the Vinaya master to unroll the texts to see whether it was permissible to drink or not. Before half the scroll was finished, he passed away at the age of eighty-three. His disciples wailed and lamented as if they had lost their own parents; religious and secular rushed to attend, carriages following axle-to-axle and people shoulder-to-shoulder. Considering that the feelings of ordinary mortals are difficult to sever, Huiyuan had instituted a seven-day period to display mourning, and left final instructions that his corpse be exposed beneath the pine trees. Afterwards, his disciples gathered his remains and buried them; Ruan Bao, the commandery governor of Xunyang, excavated a grave and cut a tunnel on the west ridge of the mountain. Xie Lingyun composed the stele inscription, eulogizing his bequeathed virtue. Zong Bing of Nanyang also erected a stele at the temple gate.