高僧傳 7.90

7.90

Shi Fazhen, surnamed Yang, was a native of Hedong. In his youth he was fond of learning, traveling ten thousand li to seek instruction. During the Jingping era of Song (423–424), he came to travel through Yan and Yu. He thoroughly mastered all the scriptures and was broadly conversant with the various schools. Later he listened to Master Jing of Dong'e lecture; the assembly repeatedly asked Fazhen to repeat the exposition, and Master Jing sighed, saying: 'I am not his equal.' During the Yuanjia era he crossed the Yangtze; Shen Yanzhi of Wuxing held him in exceptional esteem and invited him back to Xiaoshan Temple in Wukang, Wuxing, where he stayed for nineteen years from first to last. Unless invited for Dharma services, he never stepped outside the gate. Residing in Wukang, he lectured every year, and scholars from the three Wu regions carrying book-boxes filled the roads. He wrote doctrinal commentaries on the Nirvāṇa, Saddharmapuṇḍarīka, Pañcaviṃśatisāhasrikā-prajñāpāramitā, Śrīmālādevī-siṃhanāda, and other sūtras. In the sixth year of Daming (462), an imperial edict instructed the commandery of Wuxing to send him with ceremonial respects to the capital, to reside together with Daoyou at Xin'an Temple, so that the two doctrines of sudden and gradual awakening would each have their respective champion. Upon his arrival he immediately began lecturing; the imperial carriage arrived, and all the hundred officials attended the assembly. Although Fazhen was in the twilight of his years, he never altered his simple vegetarian diet; his adherence to the precepts was pure and spotless, and both clergy and laity took refuge in him. He died in the Yuanhui era of the Song, at the age of seventy-six.