高僧傳 9.36

9.36

Fotudeng was eight chi tall, with an elegant and composed bearing. He had a wondrous understanding of the profound sūtras and broad mastery of worldly treatises. When preaching and expounding, he would merely mark out the principal themes, so that the phrasing from beginning to end was made clearly evident. Moreover, his compassion was bestowed upon all living beings, rescuing those in peril and suffering. During the time when the two Shi rulers were fierce and violent, inflicting tyrannical and unprincipled cruelty, had it not been for their sharing the same era with Fotudeng, who can say what would have happened? Yet the common people received the benefits, making daily use of them without realizing it. Several dozen celebrated monks, including Fotiao and Subhūti, all came from Tianzhu and Kangju. Not daunted by a journey of tens of thousands [of li], they traversed the drifting sands on foot to visit Fotudeng and receive instruction. Shi Dao'an from Fanqiao and Zhu Faya from Zhongshan both crossed passes and rivers to hear Fotudeng expound [the scriptures]. All wondrously attained the refined principles and delved into the profound and subtle. Fotudeng himself recounted that his birthplace was more than ninety thousand li from Ye, and that he had forsaken household life and entered the Way a hundred and nine years earlier. Wine never passed his teeth; he did not eat after midday; he never took a step contrary to the precepts; and he was free of desires and seeking. Several hundred people continually followed him to receive instruction, and from first to last his disciples numbered nearly ten thousand. In the provinces and commanderies through which he passed, he founded eight hundred and ninety-three Buddhist monasteries; the flourishment of his propagation of the Dharma was unprecedented.