[Pramāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/) › [Indian literature](https://indike.org/pramana/in) › [Buddhist Literature](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha) › [Taishō Tripiṭaka (Chinese Buddhist canon)](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho) › [續高僧傳](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.2060) › 13.35 # 續高僧傳 13.35 續高僧傳 13.35 - **Language:** Classical Chinese ### [13.35](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.2060.13.35) 釋法護。姓趙。本趙郡人。祖康為濟陰大守。子孫遂家焉。隋初有趙恒者。與清河崔汪以秀才擢第。時號四聰。即其父也。家門清儉禮素自居。護時冲幼。戲則圍坐登講。採花列供。其父知為法器。十二遭父憂。未幾又丁母艱。哀慟氣絕者數四。服闋造河北衛部欲學儒術。忽逢勝緣提誘。誨以三界牢獄。不以四大毒蛇。如不早悟輪迴未已。便依而落髮。時年十五也。留誦淨名七日便度。自是廣訊經誥訪無遠近。遂往志念所聽毘曇。法彥所聽成實。縱橫累稔參預前蹤。又聽律部薄閑持犯。又往彭城嵩論師所。以是攝論命家海內標仰。伏膺請益無所辭焉。指授幽明曲盡玄致。大業三年。度僧化遠。護應此詔。名霑安陸。俄而有勅遠召藝能。住內道場。時年三十有二。既居慧日。高彥成群。常講中觀涅槃攝論。偽鄭既降太宗初入。別請名德五人。護居其列。自此校角攝論。去取兩端。或者多以新本确削未足依任。而護獨得於心。及唐論新出。奄然符會。以為默識之有人焉。貞觀十二年。勅召入龍潛宅天宮寺。仍知寺任。勉人以得眾穆如也。十七年七月二十一日。曛時不預。因卒于房。春秋六十有八。護善外書好道術。約己薄食解衣贍寒。結帶終歲不飾容貌。而貴勝所重通才咸萃。先服石散大發數日悶亂。門人之見欺當自責取。然陷師於非道是何理耶。遂不與言。其礭固例如此也。然好施忘倦。房無圭勺之儲。但一床一蹬而已。撰攝論指歸等二十餘篇。初亡嵩山沙門智大者。年九十餘。傲然恬素。不出三十餘年。聞哀杖策而至盡哀曰。經論之士精苦之倫。代有人矣。至於純直自然識量通雅者。斯人歿後因絕蹤矣。中書杜正倫來吊而銘。略之曰。伊昔承恩誨深提耳。及茲展覲慟興床几。頹泣可援沈差靡已。庶在遐齡永陪高軌。 > Śramaṇa Fahu, surnamed Zhao, was originally a man from Zhaojun. His grandfather Kang served as the Grand Protector of Jiyin, and his descendants subsequently settled there. At the beginning of the Sui dynasty, there was a Zhao Heng who, along with Cui Wang of Qinghe, was selected as an Outstanding Talent (xiucai); at the time, they were called the 'Four Intelligences.' Heng was Fahu's father. The family was pure, frugal, and conducted themselves according to propriety. When Fahu was very young, during play he would assemble people in a circle to mount a lecturer's high seat, or pick flowers to arrange as offerings. His father recognized him as a vessel of the Dharma. At twelve, he suffered the loss of his father, and soon after, he met with the tragedy of his mother's death. He wept so bitterly that he lost consciousness several times. After completing his mourning period, he went to the Wei region in Hebei intending to study the Confucian arts. Suddenly encountering an auspicious condition that guided him, he was taught that the three realms are like a prison and the four great elements like venomous serpents, and that if one does not awaken early, transmigration will never end. He thereupon submitted to these words and shaved his head, being fifteen years old at the time. After staying to recite the Vimalakīrtinirdeśa for seven days, he had mastered it. From then on, he broadly sought out sūtras and treatises, making inquiries near and far. He then went to Zhinian's place to study the Abhidharma, and to Fayan's to study the Satyasiddhi-śāstra. Over many successive years, he followed the footsteps of previous masters. He also listened to lectures on the Vinaya, becoming slightly versed in rules and transgressions. Furthermore, he went to Treatise Master Song in Pengcheng, who was renowned across the realm as an authority on the Mahāyānasaṃgraha and admired nationwide. Fahu dedicated his mind to asking questions, shrinking from no difficulty. Song gave him guidance on subtle and profound points, completely exhausting the treatise's abstruse tenets. In the third year of the Daye era, an ordination of monks took place and transformed distant regions; Fahu responded to this edict, and his name was registered at Anlu. Soon after, an imperial edict summoned talented scholars from afar to reside in the Palace Chapel, at which time he was thirty-two years of age. Once settled at Huiri Monastery, where eminent scholars gathered in crowds, he constantly lectured on the Madhyamaka, Nirvāṇa Sūtra, and Mahāyānasaṃgraha. When the illegitimate Zheng regime was pacified and Emperor Taizong first entered \[the capital\], five renowned and virtuous monks were specially invited, and Fahu was among them. From this time on, he compared and evaluated the versions of the Mahāyānasaṃgraha, deciding what to reject and retain. Many considered the new version to be overly excised and condensed, not sufficient to rely upon, but Fahu alone grasped it intuitively in his mind. When the new Tang translations of the treatises appeared, they completely agreed with his interpretations; people considered that there was indeed one who possessed tacit understanding. In the twelfth year of the Zhenguan era, an imperial edict summoned him to enter Tiangong Monastery, the former residence where the Emperor had dwelled in obscurity before ascending the throne, where he was appointed to oversee the monastery's affairs. He encouraged others so that the assembly lived in gentle harmony. On the twenty-first day of the seventh month in the seventeenth year, he felt unwell at dusk, and consequently passed away in his room at the age of sixty-eight. Fahu was well-versed in secular texts and fond of Daoist arts. He restrained himself with meager meals, gave away his clothes to aid the freezing, kept his robes simply tied throughout the year, and never adorned his outward appearance. Yet aristocrats and nobles respected him, and versatile talents all gathered about him. Once, having taken a mineral powder, he suffered several days of dizziness and confusion. When his disciples deceived him, he would blame himself, thinking, 'Yet what reason is there to entrap the master in unrighteous ways?' He then refused to speak with them; such was his firmness and determination. Nevertheless, he delighted in giving without tire. In his room there was not a grain or spoon of stored provisions, but only a bed and a stool. He composed more than twenty treatises, including the Pointer to the Meaning of the Mahāyānasaṃgraha. When he first passed away, the śramaṇa Zhida of Mount Song, who was over ninety years old, aloof and pure, and had not left his mountain for more than thirty years, heard the lamentations, leaned on his staff, arrived, and expressed deep sorrow, saying: 'Men of sūtras and treatises, peers of disciplined asceticism, have existed in every generation. But as for one who is purely straightforward, natural, and endowed with broad and elegant capacity of mind—after this man's death, such traces have ceased.' Du Zhenglun, Secretariat Drafter, came to pay condolences and inscribed a memorial, which roughly said: 'In the past, I received your gracious instructions, which deeply guided me by the ear. Now, coming to pay my respects, grief wells up beside your bed and stool. Falling tears may be wiped away, but deep sorrow is endless. I had hoped you would reach a ripe old age, so I might long accompany your lofty footsteps.' > — English (machine translation) (machine translation) - [Previous: 13.34](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.2060.13.34) - [Next: 13.36](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.2060.13.36) - [Up: 13](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.2060.13) ## Translations (1) - [English (machine translation)](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.2060~en-mt.13.35) — English, machine translation --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.2060.13.35](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.2060.13.35) · Pramāṇa