續高僧傳 10.21

10.21

釋靖玄。姓趙氏。天水人也。識度淹弘清鑒懸遠。七歲任郡學生。勤閱三冬藝該六典。皇隋肇運便業李張。名預黃巾身同觀宇。呼吸沆瀣吐納陰沈。每思五千道德良非造真。七誡超昇本為浮詭。乃捨其巾褐服此伽梨。澄練一心專宗經部。時年在息慈頻登法匠。華夷欽仰緇素屬目。受具已後聲勢轉高。遂使化靡隴西扇榮河洛。以秦涼荒要佛法澆侈。將欲結其頹網布此遺矰。具列正法要務奏上文皇。蒙勅允述綸言獎拔。登下河右頒條依用。元德太子籍甚芳猷翹想欽揖。爰降令旨遠召京華。玄遂恭承嘉惠來翔帝宇。有令於大興善道場盛弘法會。飛軒鳴玉杖錫挈瓶。總萃觀風德音通被。縱達論體舒散疑蹤。能使難者由門解宣盡力。時璨法師居坐謂曰。自河涼義侶則道朗擅其名。沿歷至今。爾其接軫。代不可削。斯人在斯。由此顯譽京師。綽然高步。會高祖昇遐欝興禪定。遂應詔住焉。常轉梵輪弘匠非少。大業七年正月二十九日。無疾而化。春秋四十有三。初玄生平言論慈悲為主。每許遺骸棄之林野。有天水同侶沙門慧嚴。追想昔言送屍山麓。肌肉已盡。便鳩聚遺身。搆茲塼塔於終南龍池寺之西岑。樹銘塔所用旌厥德。沙門明則為文。則本冀人。通玄儒有才慧。訥言敏行。尤所承統。文藻雖馳時未之賞。乃制覺觀寺碑。物亦不悟。僕射楊素見而奇之。由斯一顧方高聲問。奏住仁壽宮三善寺。東都譯經又召入館專知綴緝。隋末卒於所住。有集行世。薛道衡每曰。則公之文屢發新采。英英獨照。其為時賢所尚也如此矣。

Shi Jingxuan’s secular surname was Zhao, and he was a native of Tianshui. His intellect and tolerance were profound and broad, his pure discernment clear and farsighted. At the age of seven he was admitted as a student of the commandery school; he diligently read through three winters, his skills encompassing the six classics. When the imperial Sui began its dynastic fortunes, he took up the teachings of Laozi and Zhang Daoling, his name enlisted among the Yellow Turbans and his person dwelling in Daoist abodes. Inhaling the mist and exhaling the heavy shade, he constantly reflected: “The Five Thousand Words on the Way and Its Virtue are truly not the path to ultimate truth; the seven precepts of ascension are originally empty pretense.” He then cast off his Daoist cap and coarse robe to don this saṃghāṭī robe, purifying his mind to specialize in the sutra section. When he was of the age of a novice (śrāmaṇera), he frequently ascended the seats of Dharma masters; Chinese and foreigners admired him, and both monks and laity fixed their gaze on him. After receiving full ordination, his renown rose higher still, causing his teachings to spread over Longxi and bring glory to the Yellow River and Luoyang regions. Seeing that in Qin and Liang, remote and strategically key, the Buddha Dharma was frivolous and extravagant, and desiring to tie up its broken net and spread this surviving snare, he drew up an outline of the essential tasks of the true Dharma and presented it in a memorial to Emperor Wen. He was granted an imperial decree assenting to and praising his words, promoting and encouraging him; down in the region west of the Yellow River, his regulations were promulgated and adopted. Crown Prince Yuande, hearing of his widespread sweet fragrance, longed for and admired him with bows, and issued an instruction summoning him from afar to the capital. Xuan then respectfully received this fine benevolence and came soaring to the imperial city. An order was given for him to broadly propagate a Dharma assembly at Daxingshan Sanctuary. With light carriages and ringing jade pendants, leaning on his staff and carrying his water pot, all gathered to observe the wind [of his virtue], and the sound of his virtue reached everywhere. Unfolding and mastering the body of the treatises, he dispersed traces of doubt, enabling questioners to find clarity and exert their full effort upon passing through his gate. At that time, Dharma Master Can, sitting among the assembly, addressed him, saying, “Among the doctrinal companions of the He and Liang regions, Daolang was famed; down to the present day, you now follow in his tracks. A generation cannot be lacking; this man is here!” Because of this, his renown became prominent in the capital, and he stepped forth loftily at ease. When Emperor Gaozu passed away and the Daxiangguo Chanding Monastery was built, Xuan was invited by imperial decree to reside there. Constantly turning the wheel of the brahma teaching, he was an eminent master to not a few. On the twenty-ninth day of the first month in the seventh year of Daye (611), he passed away without illness at the age of forty-three. In life, Xuan’s discourse had always made compassion its primary aim; he often promised to abandon his corpse in the forest wilderness. A companion śramaṇa from Tianshui, Huiyan, recalled his past words and sent his body to the foot of the mountain. When the flesh had been consumed, he gathered the remaining skeleton and constructed this brick stupa on the western peak of Longchi Monastery on Mount Zhongnan, erecting an inscription at the stupa to manifest his virtue. The śramaṇa Mingze composed the text. Ze was originally a native of Ji; he was conversant with the dark learning (Xuanxue) and Confucianism, endowed with talent and wisdom, and was hesitant in speech but agile in action, exceptionally maintaining the ancestral line. Although his literary talent flourished, it was not initially appreciated by the times. When he composed the stele for Jueguan Monastery, people still did not comprehend it. Vice Director of the Right Yang Su saw it and marveled at it; only after this single look did Ze’s reputation rise. He was memorialized to reside at Sanshan Monastery of the Renshou Palace. When scripture translation was carried out in the Eastern Capital, he was again summoned into the translation bureau to take charge of compiling and editing. At the end of the Sui, he died at his residence; a collected work of his circulated in the world. Xue Daoheng would often say, “Master Ze’s writings repeatedly emit new splendor, radiantly shining alone.” Such was the esteem he received from the worthy figures of the time.