續高僧傳 10.30

10.30

釋僧曇。姓張。住洺州。少小出家。通諸經論。慨佛法未具。發憤求之。以高齊之季結友西行。前達葱山。會諸梗澁路既不通。乃旋京輦。梵言音字並通詁訓。開皇十年。勅召翻譯。事如別傳。住大興善。後勅送舍利於蒲州之栖巖寺。即古雲居寺也。山曰中朝。西臨河涘。世稱形勝莫尚於斯。初送達州治。而栖巖佛殿內有鍾鼓之音響振一寺。迫而就檢一無所見。靈輿至寺。是夜於浮圖上放大光明。流照堂內通朗無翳。如是前後頻放神光。或似香爐乘空而上。或飛紫焰如花如葉乍散乍聚。或如佛象光趺宛具。或如虹氣環遶塔帳。累日連宵昱光難准。又州治仁壽寺僧。夜望栖巖。光如樓闕照於山谷。又去山寺八十里。住者見光如火。皆謂野火燒寺。及來尋覓乃知靈相。其祥瑞之感如此也。至仁壽末年又勅於殷州智度寺置塔。初至州治。見佛像垂手正坐在于瓶內。迄至入凾常不變異。又地生羅文。屋上見青蓮華及菩薩像。大眾同覩。又見龍盤蛇屈之象并大人足跡及牛馬鳥狩等迹。又置塔處有小蛇二枚。停住不去。因即構基。入地四尺飛泉上涌厲疾已下六根壞人。服者通損。既值斯緣。乃移北置以避於泉。故二蛇之住深有由矣。曇以傳譯之美繼業終寺。即大業初年矣。時有慧重沙門。姓郭。雍州人。練道少年綜尋內外。志力方梗不憚威侮。攝論十地戶牖由開勅請造塔於秦州岱岳寺。初停公館。舍利金瓶自然開現放光流外。道俗咸覩。送至寺塔將入石凾。又放光明晃耀人目。岳表白氣三道下流直向塔基。良久乃歇。又岳神廟戶由來封閉。舍利止至三度自開。識者以神來敬禮故耳。後不委其終。

Śramaṇa Sengtan, whose secular surname was Zhang, lived in Mingzhou. He left home in his youth and mastered various sūtras and treatises. Lamenting that the Buddha-Dharma was not yet complete, he aroused his determination to seek it. At the end of the Northern Qi, he banded together with companions to travel west. Reaching the Pamir Mountains (Congling), they met with various obstructions, and the roads being impassable, he returned to the capital. He thoroughly understood both the Sanskrit phonetics, scripts, and glossaries. In the tenth year of the Kaihuang era, an imperial decree summoned him to translate, the details of which are as recorded in his separate biography. He resided at Daxingshan [Monastery]. Later, an imperial decree sent him to deliver relics to Qiyan Monastery in Puzhou, which is the ancient Yunju Monastery. The mountain is called Zhongchao, and it faces the bank of the Yellow River to the west; throughout the world, it was praised as having a scenic advantage second to none. When they first arrived at the prefectural seat, the sound of bells and drums resonated through the entire monastery from inside the Buddha hall of Qiyan; when people approached to inspect it, nothing was to be seen. When the miraculous palanquin arrived at the monastery, that night a great radiant light was emitted from the pagoda, shining into the hall clearly and without obstruction. In this way, miraculous light was repeatedly emitted before and after: sometimes resembling an incense burner rising into the air, sometimes flying up in purple flames like flowers and leaves, now scattering and now gathering; or appearing like an image of the Buddha with light and pedestal fully complete; or like a rainbow encircling the pagoda curtains. Day and night for consecutive periods, the dazzling light was hard to measure. Furthermore, the monks of Renshou Monastery in the prefectural seat, looking toward Qiyan by night, saw the light like towers and pavilions illuminating the mountain valley. Eighty li away from the mountain monastery, residents saw the light like fire and all thought a wildfire was burning the monastery; when they came to investigate, they realized it was a miraculous sign. Such were the responsive portents elicited. Toward the end of the Renshou era, an imperial decree again ordered the erection of a pagoda at Zhidu Monastery in Yinzhou. When they first reached the prefectural seat, an image of the Buddha was seen seated upright with hands lowered inside the vase, remaining unchanged until it was placed into the casket. Moreover, silken patterns grew upon the ground, and blue lotuses and images of bodhisattvas were seen on the roofs, witnessed together by the great assembly. They also saw shapes of coiled dragons and curved snakes, footprints of a great man, and tracks of oxen, horses, birds, and beasts. Furthermore, at the site where the pagoda was to be erected, there were two small snakes that stayed and would not leave. A foundation was thereupon dug, and four feet into the earth, a rushing spring surged upward; those with severe diseases down to impairments of the six sense faculties were all harmed if they drank it. Encountering these conditions, they moved the site to the north to avoid the spring; thus the lingering of the two snakes had had profound cause. Tan, carrying on his enterprise with the excellence of his translation work, ended his days at the monastery, which was in the early years of the Daye era. At that time, there was the śramaṇa Huizhong, whose secular surname was Guo, a native of Yongzhou. Practicing the Way from his youth, he surveyed both inner and outer learning; his determination was upright and unyielding, fearing neither power nor insult. The portals to the *Mahāyānasaṃgraha* and the *Daśabhūmika* were opened through him. By imperial decree, he was requested to build a pagoda at Daiyue Monastery in Qinzhou. When he first paused at the official lodging, the golden vase of the relics opened naturally of itself, emitting light that flowed outward, witnessed by both monastics and laity. When delivered to the monastery's pagoda and about to be placed into the stone casket, it again emitted bright light that dazzled human eyes. Three streams of white vapor flowed down from the face of the mountain, heading straight toward the foundation of the pagoda, and only ceased after a long time. Furthermore, the doors of the shrine to the mountain deity had always been locked, but upon the relics' arrival, they opened on their own three times; those who understood recognized that this was because the deity came to pay reverence. His end is not known.