續高僧傳 10.31

10.31

釋靈璨。懷州人。遠公之門人也。稟志淳直寬柔著稱。遊學相鄴研蘊正理。深明十地涅槃。備經講授。隨遠入關。十數之一也。住大興善。後為遠公去世。眾侶無依。開皇十七年。下勅補為眾主。於淨影寺傳揚故業。積經年稔。仁壽興塔。降勅令送舍利于懷州之長壽寺。初建塔將下。感一雄雉集於凾上。載飛載止。曾無驚懼。與受三歸。便近人馴擾似如聽受。迴頭鼓舞欣躍自娛。覆勘其形實非雉也。身具五采羽毛希世。以狀奏聞。勅勘瑞圖。云彩鸞也。璨令寺僧執之放于北山。飛鳥群迎鳴唳而去。又感異迹。三十餘步直來塔所。不見還蹤。及四月八日。將入石凾。又放光明。旋環隱沒。道俗崩踊無不發心。仁壽末年。又勅送於澤州古賢谷景淨寺起塔。即遠公之生地也。初至州治。半月之間。十八種相前後迭起。或如星光遶旋。或如丹氣碧雲紫霞白霧。羅布上空。照燭城郭。及映闤闠。數萬道俗同時一見。送至基所光如列宿。大小交錯數亦無量。更有諸相具如別傳。璨後住大禪定。如舊所傳。武德之初卒於本寺。春秋七十矣。

Śramaṇa Lingcan was a native of Huaizhou and a disciple of Master Huiyuan. Endowed with a pure, upright, gentle, and compliant nature, he was renowned for these qualities. He traveled to study in Xiangzhou and Ye, investigating and storing away the correct principles, and deeply comprehending the *Daśabhūmika* and the *Nirvāṇa [Sūtra]*, both of which he lectured upon. When he followed Master Yuan into the Pass, he was one among a dozen or so. He resided at Daxingshan [Monastery]. Later, because Master Yuan had passed away, the assembly of companions had no one to rely on. In the seventeenth year of the Kaihuang era, an imperial decree appointed him as Head of the Assembly to carry on and propagate the former master's enterprise at Jingying Monastery, which he did for many years. When pagodas were being erected in the Renshou era, an imperial decree ordered him to deliver relics to Changshou Monastery in Huaizhou. When the pagoda was first constructed and [the relics] were about to be lowered, a male pheasant was elicited, perching upon the casket, taking flight and alighting repeatedly without showing any fear. When they administered the three refuges to it, it drew near to the people and became tame, as if listening and receiving them, turning its head, fluttering, and leaping with joy to entertain itself. Upon a closer inspection of its appearance, it was truly not a pheasant: its body possessed five colors and its plumage was rare in the world. Reporting this circumstance to the throne, an imperial decree checked the illustrated omen charts, which declared it to be a polychrome luan-bird. Can ordered the monastery monks to take it and release it on the northern mountain, where flocks of birds came to welcome it, crying out as they departed. Another extraordinary track was also elicited, coming straight to the site of the pagoda for more than thirty paces, with no returning prints to be seen. On the eighth day of the fourth month, as [the relics] were about to be placed into the stone casket, radiant light was again emitted, circling around before fading away; the monastics and laity wept and leapt for joy, none failing to arouse the aspiration for enlightenment. Toward the end of the Renshou era, an imperial decree again sent him to erect a pagoda at Jingjing Monastery in the Guoxian Valley of Zezhou, which was the birthplace of Master Yuan. When they first reached the prefectural seat, over the course of half a month, eighteen kinds of auspicious signs arose successively: sometimes like starlight circling about, sometimes like cinnabar vapors, blue-green clouds, purple mist, and white fog spreading across the sky above, illuminating the city ramparts and shining upon the marketplaces, seen simultaneously by tens of thousands of monastics and laity. When delivered to the foundation site, the light was like arranged constellations, intersecting large and small in boundless numbers. There were still other signs, fully recorded in his separate biography. Can later resided at Da Chanding [Monastery], continuing his teaching as of old. At the beginning of the Wude era, he passed away at his own monastery at the age of seventy.