續高僧傳 13.32

13.32

釋神照。姓淳于。汴州中牟人。年九歲。隋亂眷屬凋亡。惟母及身。萍流無託。未幾母崩。投造無詣。朝求木實夕宿屍所。行往見之莫不下泣。年十二。投尉氏明智律師而出家焉。于時載揚律藏。學徒雲集。宇內初定糇粒未充。照巡村邑負糧周給。年經六祀勞而無倦。供眾之暇。夜講法華勝鬘經。雖久人無知者。受其聽律每發奇思。前學之流驚其逈悟。又往鄴下休法師聽攝大乘論。一遍無遺。講散辭還。休送出寺。學門怪異。休顧曰。斯是河南一遍照也。後生領袖。爾其知之。又往許州空法師所聽雜心論。纔始八卷。為師疾而返。後因遂講之。初後通冠。時人語曰。河南一遍照。英聲不徒召。爾後涅槃華嚴成實雜心。隨機便講曾不辭退。又造像數百鋪。寫經數千卷。任緣便給不為藏蓄。新譯能斷金剛般若初至。披讀尋括。詞義似少一行。遂以情測注。及後其本果與符同。時咸訝其思力也。貞觀中遘疾逾久。而戒行無玷。卒於安業本寺。春秋五十有九。初平素日。一狗將養所住恒隨。及隣大漸長號哀厲。通宵向本出家寺。往返二百餘里。遶寺號呼以告。彼眾素不知也。凶問後至方委狗徵。及曙還返安業。𭡢坎之後長眠流淚不食而殂。

Śramaṇa Shenzhao, whose secular surname was Chunyu, was a native of Zhongmu in Bianzhou. At the age of nine, amid the turmoil of the Sui dynasty, his relatives died off until only he and his mother remained, drifting like duckweed with nothing to rely on. Before long his mother passed away, leaving him with nowhere to turn. In the morning he sought tree fruits, and at night he slept beside the corpse; passers-by who saw this never failed to weep. At twelve, he turned to Vinayadhara Mingzhi of Weishi and left home. At that time, the Vinayapiṭaka was being broadly expounded and disciples gathered like clouds. The realm was just being pacified and food was insufficient; Zhao went around villages carrying grain on his back to supply everyone, laboring without weariness through six years. In the intervals of serving the assembly, he lectured at night on the Lotus and Śrīmālādevī sūtras, though for a long time no one knew of it. Whenever he listened to the Vinaya, he produced extraordinary insights, astonishing the senior scholars with his distant comprehension. He also went to Yexia to listen to Dharmabhāṇaka Xiu on the Mahāyānasaṃgraha; he mastered it completely in a single hearing without missing a thing. When the lecture ended and he took his leave to return, Xiu saw him out of the temple. The school of disciples found this strange, but Xiu looked back and said: "This is 'Single-Hearing Zhao of Henan,' a leader among the younger generation. You should take note of him." He further went to Dharmabhāṇaka Kong in Xuzhou to hear the Saṃyuktābhidharmahṛdaya. After merely eight fascicles, he returned because the master fell ill. Later he lectured on it; from beginning to end, his mastery was overarching. People of the time had a saying: "Single-Hearing Zhao of Henan—his heroic fame is not summoned in vain." Thereafter, whenever occasion arose, he lectured on the Nirvāṇa, Avataṃsaka, Harivarman's Tattvasiddhi, and Saṃyuktābhidharmahṛdaya without ever declining. He also had several hundred tableaux of images made and several thousand fascicles of sūtras copied; he distributed them as conditions arose, never hoarding them. When the newly translated Vajracchedikā-prajñāpāramitā first arrived, he opened and read it to search out its meaning; the phraseology seemed to be missing a line, so he conjectured and annotated it according to context. Later, an [independent] manuscript proved to tally with his emendation. Everyone at the time was amazed by his intellectual power. During the Zhenguan era, he fell ill for a protracted period, yet his monastic conduct was flawless. He died at his home temple of Anye at the age of fifty-nine. Earlier, in ordinary times, he had reared a dog that constantly accompanied him wherever he stayed. When the final illness approached, the dog wailed long and mournfully, and through the entire night headed to Zhao's original temple of ordination, making a round trip of more than two hundred li. Circling the temple, it barked and howled to announce it, though that assembly was entirely unaware. Only after news of the demise arrived did they realise the dog's omen. At dawn the dog returned to Anye. After the pit was dug and filled, it lay down, wept tears, refused food, and died.