續高僧傳 12.21

12.21

釋道判。姓郭氏。曹州承氏人也。三歲喪親十五遊學。般涉史籍略綜儒道。十九發心出家。投于外兄而剃落焉。具戒已後歷求善友。深厭俗累絕心再往。每閱像教東傳。慨面不睹靈跡。委根歸葉未之或聞。遂勇心佛境誓尚瞻敬。以齊乾明元年。結伴二十一人。發趾鄴都將經周塞。關邏嚴設又照月光。踟蹰迴互義無踰越。忽值雲奔月隱。乘暗度棧。遇逢遊兵。特蒙釋放。以周保定二年達于京邑。武帝賞接崇重。仍令於大乘寺厚供享之。經逾兩載。上表乞循先志。又蒙開許。勅給國書并資行調。西度砂磧千五百里。四顧茫然絕無水草。乘飢急行。止經七夕便至高昌國。是小蕃附庸突厥。又請國書。至西面可汗所（此云天子治也）彼土不識眾僧。將欲加害。增人防衛不給糧食。又不許出拾掇薪菜。但令餓死。有周國使人諫云。此佛弟子也。本國天子大臣敬重供養。所行之處能令羊馬孳多。可汗歡喜。日給羊四口以充恒食。判等放之而自煮菜進噉。既見不殺眾生不食酒肉所行既殊。不令西過。乃給其馬乘遣人送還。達于長安住乾宗寺。判以先在窮險無人造食。遂捨具戒今返京室。後乃更受之停止五年。逢靜藹法師。諮詢道務。慧業冲邃淹歷五周朝夕聞問。方登階漸。會武帝滅法。與藹西奔于太白山。同侶二十六人。逃難巖居不忘講授。中百四論日夜研尋恂恂奉誨。雖有國誅靡顧其死。東引尋山岠于華岳。凡所遊遁者望日參焉。遂離考山室二十餘所。依承藹德。為入室之元宗。始末一十五年。隨逐不捨。後藹捨身窮谷用陳護法。判含酸茹毒奉接遺骸。建塔樹銘勒于巖壁。天元嗣曆尋改邪風。創立百二十人為菩薩僧。判當其數。初住陟岵寺。大隋受命廣開佛法。改為大興善焉。判道穆僧徒歷總綱任。部攝彛倫有光先範。開皇之肇。於終南山交谷東嶺。池號野猪。逈出雲端俯臨原陸。躬自案行可為栖心之場也。結草為庵集眾說法。開皇七年。勅遣度支侍郎李世師。將天竺監工。就造院舍常擬供奉。知判道業修曠。給額為龍池寺焉。大將軍雲定興。以為檀越。四事供給無爽二時。侍郎獨孤機。餐奉音猷於宅後園別立齋宇。請來栖息。終日將事稟其法戒。薛國公及夫人鄭氏。夙奉清訓年別至此。諮承戒誥決通疑議。以大業十一年五月四日平旦卒於山寺。春秋八十有四。初判釋蒙啟法性狎林泉。少欲無競樂居儉攝。行慈濟乏偏所留心。履苦登危彌其本意。故每至粟麥二熟。行乞貯之至厚。雪彌山則遺諸飛走。所以山侶遊僧。蒙其獎濟者殷矣。又食不擇味生無患苦。僧事鞅掌身先令之。而弘道終朝虔虔無怠。雖暫遊世恒歸山室。斯亦巖岫之學觀矣。

Śramaṇa Daopan, surnamed Guo, was a native of Chengshi in Caozhou. He lost his parents at the age of three, and at fifteen he travelled for study, wading broadly through historical records and surveying Confucianism and Daoism. At nineteen, he gave rise to the aspiration to leave household life, turning to his maternal cousin for tonsure. After receiving the full precepts, he went about seeking good spiritual friends. Deeply loathing worldly entanglements, he resolved never to return to them. Whenever he read of the eastern transmission of the image teaching, he lamented that he could not view the sacred traces in person, and he had never heard of abandoning the roots to pursue the leaves. Consequently, with a brave resolve toward the realm of the Buddha, he vowed to pay homage to them. In the first year of the Qianming era of the Qi dynasty, forming a party with twenty-one others, he set out from the capital of Ye, intending to traverse the border passes of the Zhou. Border patrols were strictly deployed and the moonlight shone bright; they hesitated and wavered, with no reasonable way to cross. Suddenly clouds raced across and hid the moon; taking advantage of the dark, they crossed the plank pathways. Encountering roving soldiers, they were exceptionally granted release. In the second year of the Baoding era of the Zhou dynasty, they reached the capital city. Emperor Wu received him with esteem and honour, and ordered that he be generously provided for at Dacheng Temple. After more than two years had passed, he submitted a memorial requesting permission to pursue his original aspiration, which was again granted. By imperial edict he was provided with official credentials and travel provisions. Journeying west, they crossed one thousand five hundred li of desert sands; looking in all directions, there was only vast desolation without water or grass. Enduring hunger, they pressed on rapidly, taking only seven nights to reach the kingdom of Gaochang. This was a minor barbarian state subordinate to the Tujue. He requested credentials again and reached the seat of the Western Qaghan (which here means the ruling seat of the Son of Heaven). In that land they did not recognize the assembly of monks and wished to do them harm. Increasing the guard upon them, they provided no provisions, nor did they permit them to go out to gather firewood or vegetables, intending simply to let them starve to death. An envoy from the Zhou state remonstrated, saying: "These are disciples of the Buddha. The Son of Heaven and great ministers of our own state revere and provide for them. Wherever they go, they cause the sheep and horses to multiply." The Qaghan was delighted and daily provided four sheep as their regular food. Daopan and his companions released the sheep and boiled vegetables to eat. Having seen that they did not kill living beings nor consume wine or meat, and that their practice was exceptional, the Qaghan would not let them proceed westward. He then provided them with horses and dispatched men to escort them back. Arriving in Chang'an, he resided at Qianzong Temple. Because Daopan had previously been in dire and perilous straits with no one to prepare food, he had renounced the full precepts. Now having returned to the capital, he received them anew, remaining there for five years. He met Master Jing'ai, with whom he consulted on matters of the Path. Jing'ai's wisdom was profound; Daopan spent five full years with him, inquiring morning and evening, before he gradually ascended the stages. It happened that Emperor Wu abolished the Dharma; together with Jing'ai, he fled west to Taibai Mountain. Twenty-six companions fled the crisis and dwelt among the cliffs, not forgetting to teach and lecture. Day and night they investigated the Four Treatises, including the Madhyamaka and Śata Treatises, deferentially receiving instructions. Even though facing execution by the state, they gave no regard to their deaths. Moving eastward along the mountains to reach Mount Hua, those wandering in reclusion looked to them on full-moon days to pay respects. They established more than twenty mountain retreats. Relying on Jing'ai's virtue, he became his foremost indoor disciple. From beginning to end, for fifteen years, he followed him without parting. Later, when Jing'ai abandoned his body in a remote ravine to display his defense of the Dharma, Daopan endured sorrow and bitterness to gather his remains, erecting a stupa and setting up an inscription carved into the cliff face. When Tianyuan inherited the reign, he soon changed the perverse ways, establishing one hundred and twenty people as "Bodhisattva Monks," and Daopan was among that number. He first resided at Zhihu Temple. When the Great Sui received the mandate, it broadly opened the Buddha-Dharma, renaming the temple Da Xingshan. Daopan's practice was reverently respected by the monastic assembly, and he sequentially held leading monastic offices; he ordered and disciplined the assembly, bringing glory to the models of the past. At the beginning of the Kaihuang era, on the eastern ridge of the Jiaogu Valley of the Zhongnan Mountains, there was a pond called Yezhu. Towering out of the clouds and overlooking the plains, he personally surveyed it and saw it could serve as a place to settle the mind. Binding grass into a hermitage, he gathered the assembly to expound the Dharma. In the seventh year of Kaihuang, by imperial order, Li Shishi, Vice Director of the Bureau of Public Revenue, was sent with an Indian overseer to construct cloisters there, intended for regular offerings. Knowing that Daopan's cultivation of the Path was expansive, the emperor granted the nameplate of Longchi Temple. Grand General Yun Dingxing served as his dānapati, providing the four necessities without failing morning or evening. Vice Director Dugu Ji, deeply admiring his teachings, built a separate retreat in the garden behind his residence and invited him to come and dwell, serving him all day and receiving his Dharma and precepts. Duke of Xue and his wife, Lady Zheng, having long honored his pure instructions, came each year to consult and receive precepts and instructions, resolving doubtful discussions. On the fourth day of the fifth month in the eleventh year of the Daye era, at dawn, he passed away at the mountain temple, at the age of eighty-four. When Daopan first cast off worldly ignorance and opened to the Dharma, he was naturally fond of forests and springs, having few desires and no contention, delighting in living in frugal restraint. Practicing compassion to relieve the destitute was his special concern; undergoing hardships and scaling perils fulfilled his original resolve. Therefore, whenever the two crops of millet and wheat ripened, he went begging to store up a great abundance; when snow covered the mountains, he scattered it to the birds and beasts. Thus, among the mountain companions and itinerant monks, those who received his encouragement and aid were very numerous. Furthermore, in food he chose no flavors, and in life he felt no anxieties or hardships. When monastic affairs were pressing, he personally took the lead; yet he propagated the Path throughout the morning, devoted and indefatigable. Although he occasionally ventured into the world, he always returned to his mountain retreat. This was truly an exemplary sight among the students of the cliffs and caves.