高僧傳 7.41

7.41

Shi Hui'an: it is not known what sort of person he was. Eating vegetarian food and living austerely, he mastered the meanings of the sūtras, was skilled at preaching, and was also praised for his dedicated discipline. He recited more than four hundred thousand words of sūtras. He resided at the Lingyun Temple on Mount Lu; students gathered like clouds, coming from a thousand li around like grass bending before the wind. He always carried a staff, which he said had been gifted by a monk from the Western Regions. The color and luster of the staff were brilliantly translucent, and it also had a pleasant fragrance. On it were Sanskrit letters, which no one could read. Later, he entered the Guanzhong region to visit Kumārajīva, carrying the staff with him. Seeing the staff, Kumārajīva was astonished and said, "How is this staff here!" He then translated its writing, which read: "Originally born in the śāla forest of India; / Amid the chaos and ruin of the south, it arose alongside the grass; / Later it was obtained by Kumārajīva, and the teachings of the Way flourished." Later, Hui'an gifted the staff to the foreign monk Po-sha-na (Pāṣāṇa?), who took it back to the Western Regions. Hui'an died during the Yuanjia era of the Song dynasty at a mountain temple.