續高僧傳 13.31

13.31

釋功逈。姓邊。汴州浚儀人。年六歲便思出家。慈親口授觀音經。累月而度。自此專訓經法。九歲而送在寺。年十六捨俗服志願山居。因入泰岳苦心忘倦。年二十五。便事弘法師。私自惟曰。拱默山林。乃是一途獨善。至於道達蒙瞽維持餘寄。非化誘不弘。住汴州惠福寺。昔在山中。十地勝鬘已曾講解。及遊城邑人有知者勸而說之。遂因闡揚。諸經論等亦備敷說。晚以法華特為時要。便撰疏五卷。鎮常弘演。前後五十餘遍。每至藥草品天必降雨。故其幽誠徵感為若此也。其佛地般若制疏并講。津濟後學。聲滿東川。又撰無性攝論疏。厥功始成。奄然長往本寺。年六十六。余聞之行人。曰。其人少欲自節。衣布坐茅。所獲利祿隨時散盡。房無櫃篋四壁廓然。未終之前。異香靈光至所住室二夜四至。自覩嘉相。門人同美。逈曰。願乘此瑞往生樂土。因不食二十日而終。所飲井水終旦泉竭。殯經數日水方復舊。道俗悲涼。通感若此。

Śramaṇa Gongjiong, whose secular surname was Bian, was a native of Junyi in Bianzhou. At the age of six he already wished to leave home. His loving mother taught him the Guanyin Sūtra by word of mouth, and within several months he mastered it. From then on he was devoted exclusively to scriptural instruction. At the age of nine he was sent to live in a temple. At sixteen he cast off secular garb and set his aspirations on living in the mountains. He then went to Mount Tai, where he toiled earnestly without fatigue. At twenty-five, he entered the service of Dharmabhāṇaka Hong, reflecting to himself: "Living taciturn in the mountain forests is merely a single path of selfish cultivation. When it comes to guiding the ignorant and blind, and sustaining what has been entrusted to us, it cannot be expanded without transforming and guiding them." He resided at Huifu Temple in Bianzhou. Formerly, while in the mountains, he had already expounded the Daśabhūmika and the Śrīmālādevī. When he travelled to the cities, people who knew of this urged him to preach them. Thus taking the opportunity to proclaim the teachings, he fully unfolded various sūtras and treatises as well. In his later years, regarding the Lotus Sūtra as particularly essential for the times, he composed a commentary in five fascicles and constantly propagated it, giving more than fifty lectures in all. Whenever he reached the "Medicinal Herbs" chapter, rain invariably fell from the sky; such was the manifest response to his hidden sincerity. He composed a commentary on the Buddhabhūmi-prajñā and lectured on it, ferrying junior scholars across so that his fame filled Dongchuan. He also composed a commentary on [Asvabhāva's] Mahāyānasaṃgraha-bhāṣya. When this task was newly accomplished, he suddenly passed away at his home temple, at the age of sixty-six. I heard this from travellers, who said: "The man had few desires and disciplined himself, wearing cloth robes and sitting on coarse grass. What offerings and emoluments he received were dispensed at the time, leaving his room without chests or boxes, bare to its four walls." Before his demise, an extraordinary fragrance and miraculous light visited his dwelling-room four times across two nights. Seeing this auspicious sign himself, his disciples rejoiced together. Jiong said: "May I mount this omen to be reborn in the Land of Bliss." He then ceased eating for twenty days and passed away. The well water he drank went dry at dawn on his passing; several days after the encoffining, the water returned to normal. Monks and laypeople felt deep sorrow; his spiritual resonance was like this.