續高僧傳 12.31

12.31

釋智琚。新安壽昌人。俗姓李氏。原其世系出自高陽未胄。任為理官。仍以為姓。時代音變。遂以理為李。因而氏焉。其本冀州趙郡典午。東遷徙居江左。父禕仕梁員外散騎侍郎。琚年十九。便自出塵聽坦師釋論。未淹灰管頻聞精義。坦即隋齊王暕之門師也。次聽雅公般若論。又聽譽公三論。此三法匠名價尤重。琚欲潔操秉心。偏窮法性。諸高座主多無兼術。古人有言。學無常師。斯言有旨。廣尋遠討曲盡幽求。年二十七即就敷講。無礙辯才眾所知識。說經待問亟動恒倫。及坦將逝。以五部大經一時付屬。既蒙遺累即而演之。聲價載隆。玄素攸仰。然其口不言人。眼無受色。牢醍弗嘗葷辛無犯。入室弟子明衍。受業由來便事之為和上。亡前謂曰。吾以華嚴大品涅槃釋論。此之文言吾常吐納。今以四部義疏付屬於汝。乃三握手。忽然而終。[歹*(〦/(坐-土+十))]於常州之建安寺。即武德二年六月十日也。窆於毘壇之南寺之舊垗。衍姓丘氏。晉陵名族。容止可觀精采卓異。敬崇芳績樹此高碑于寺之門前。陳西陽王記室譙國曹憲為文。

Śramaṇa Zhiju was a native of Shouchang in Xin'an. His secular surname was Li. Tracing his lineage, it originated from the late descendants of Gaoyang [Emperor Zhuanxu]. An ancestor served as an officer of justice (li), and hence they took it as their surname; with the phonetic shifts over the ages, li [justice] came to be Li [plum], which they adopted as their clan name. Originally from Zhao Commandery in Jizhou during the Jin dynasty, they moved south to the east of the Yangtze River during the eastern migration. His father, Li Yi, served the Liang as an extra cavalier attendant-gentleman. At the age of nineteen, Ju left the dust of the world and listened to Master Tan's expositions of the treatises. Before the ashes in the pipes had settled [before the seasons turned], he frequently heard the refined doctrines. Tan was the preceptor of Prince Jian of Qi under the Sui. Next, he listened to Venerable Ya on the Prajñā treatises, and Venerable Yu on the Three Treatises. The reputations of these three Dharma masters were especially esteemed. Ju wished to purify his conduct and fix his mind, dedicating himself solely to plumbing the dharmatā. Most masters of the high seat did not possess multiple arts. The ancients said: "Learning has no constant teacher." These words indeed hold deep meaning. He searched broadly and investigated afar, fully plumbing the obscure and subtle. At the age of twenty-seven he immediately took up lecturing; his unimpeded eloquence was renowned among the community. When he expounded the sūtras and awaited questions, he frequently startled ordinary men. When Tan was about to pass away, he entrusted the five great divisions of scriptures to him all at once. Having received this posthumous charge, Ju straightaway expounded them, and his reputation grew ever higher, looked up to by monastics and laypeople alike. Yet his mouth spoke no gossip of others, and his eyes did not succumb to sight; he never tasted solid dairy products, nor did he ever touch pungent roots. His chamber-entering disciple Mingyan had received his instruction from early on and served him as his upādhyāya. Before his death, Ju said to him: "The Avataṃsaka, the Pañcaviṃśatisāhasrikā Prajñāpāramitā, the Nirvāṇa, and the Mahāprajñāpāramitopadeśa—the words and texts of these are what I have always breathed in and out. Now I entrust the doctrinal commentaries on these four collections to you." He then clasped his hands three times and suddenly passed away. He died at Jian'an Monastery in Changzhou on the tenth day of the sixth month in the second year of Wude. He was interred in the old burial ground of the monastery, south of the Pitan. Yan's surname was Qiu, belonging to a celebrated family of Jinling. His deportment was dignified, and his spiritual vigor was exceptional. Revering his master's fragrant achievements, he erected this lofty stele before the monastery gate, with the text composed by Cao Xian of Qiao Commandery, former editorial director to King Xiyang of the Chen.