[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) › 17.16.5 # 續高僧傳 17.16.5 續高僧傳 17.16.5 - **Language:** Classical Chinese ### [17.16.5](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.2060.17.16.5) 說十如四不生十法界三觀四教四無量六度等。 有問其位者。 答曰汝等嬾種善根。 問他功德如盲問乳蹶者訪路云云。 吾不領眾必淨六根。 為他損己。 只是五品內位耳。 吾諸師友從觀音勢至皆來迎我。 波羅提木叉是汝宗仰。 四種三昧是汝明導。 又勅維那。 人命將終。 聞鍾磬聲增其正念。 唯長唯久氣盡為期。 云何身冷方復響磬。 世間哭泣著服皆不應作。 且各默然。 吾將去矣。 言已端坐如定而卒於天台山大石像前。 春秋六十有七。 即開皇十七年十一月二十二日也。 滅後依有遺教而殮焉。 至仁壽末年已前。 忽振錫披衣猶如平昔。 凡經七現重降山寺一還佛壟。 語弟子曰。 案行故業。 各安隱耶。 舉眾皆見悲敬言問。 良久而隱。 自顗降靈龍象育神江漢。 憑積善而託生。 資德本而化世。 身過七尺目佩異光。 解統釋門行開僧位。 往還山世不染俗塵。 屢感幽祥殆非可測。 初帝於蕃日。 遣信入山迎之。 因散什物標域寺院。 殿堂厨宇以為圖樣。 告弟子曰。 此非小緣所能締構。 當有皇太子為吾造寺。 可依此作。 汝等見之。 後果如言。 事見別傳。 往居臨海。 民以滬魚為業。 𦌘網相連四百餘里。 江滬溪梁六十餘所。 顗惻隱觀心彼此相害。 勸捨罪業教化福緣。 所得金帛乃成山聚。 即以買斯海曲。 為放生之池。 又遣沙門慧拔。 表聞于上。 陳宣下勅。 嚴禁此池不得採捕。 國為立碑。 詔國子祭酒徐孝克為文樹于海濱。 詞甚悲楚。 覽者不覺墮淚。 時還佛壟如常習定。 忽有黃雀滿空翱翔相慶。 鳴呼山寺三日乃散。 顗曰。 此乃魚來報吾恩也。 至今貞觀猶無敢犯。 下勅禁之猶同陳世。 此慈濟博大仁惠難加。 又居山有蕈觸樹皆垂。 隨採隨出供僧常調。 顗若他涉蕈即不生。 因斯以談。 誠道感矣。 所著法華疏止觀門修禪法等。 各數十卷。 又著淨名疏至佛道品。 有三十七卷。 皆出口成章。 侍人抄略。 而自不畜一字。 自餘隨事流卷不可殫言。 皆幽指爽徹摛思開天。 煬帝奉以周旋。 重猶符命。 及臨大寶便藏諸麟閣。 所以聲光溢于宇宙。 威相被于當今矣。 而枯骸特立端坐如生。 瘞以石門關以金鑰。 所有事由一關別勅。 每年諱日帝必廢朝。 預遣中使就山設供。 尚書令楊素。 性度虛簡事必臨信。 乃陳其意。 云何枯骨特坐如生。 勅授以戶鑰令自尋視。 既如前告得信而歸。 顗東西垂範化通萬里。 所造大寺三十五所。 手度僧眾四千餘人。 寫經一十五藏。 金檀畫像十萬許軀。 五十餘州道俗受菩薩戒者。 不可稱紀。 傳業學士三十二人。 習禪學士散流江漢。 莫限其數。 沙門灌頂侍奉多年。 歷其景行可二十餘紙。 又終南山龍田寺沙門法琳。 夙預宗門親傳戒法。 以德音遽遠拱木俄森。 為之行傳廣流於世。 隋煬末歲巡幸江都。 夢感智者言及遺寄。 帝自製碑。 文極宏麗。 未及鐫勒。 值亂便失。 > \[Zhiyi\] expounded the ten suchnesses, the four unproduced \[dhammas\], the ten dharma realms, the three contemplations, the four teachings, the four immeasurables, the six perfections, and so forth. When someone asked about his spiritual level, he replied: 'You are lazy in planting good roots. To ask about another’s merit is like a blind man asking about milk or a lame man asking the way, and so on. If I had not led the assembly, I would certainly have purified the six senses. Having damaged myself for the sake of others, I am only at the stage of the five grades \[of disciples\]. All my teachers and companions, following Avalokiteśvara and Mahāsthāmaprāpta, have all come to welcome me. The Prātimokṣa is what you should venerate; the four kinds of samādhi are your clear guides.' He also instructed the karmadāna: 'When a person’s life is about to end, hearing the sound of bells and sounding stones increases their right mindfulness. It should only be prolonged and sustained, ending only when the breath is completely extinguished. Why wait until the body is cold to strike the sounding stone again? Worldly weeping and wearing mourning garments must not be done. Let everyone be silent; I am about to depart.' Having spoken, he sat upright as if in dhyāna and passed away in front of the great stone image on Tiantai Mountain. His age was sixty-seven, on the twenty-second day of the eleventh month of the seventeenth year of Kaihuang (597 CE). After his passing, he was encoffined in accordance with his bequeathed instructions. Prior to the final years of Renshou, he suddenly shook his staff and wore his robes just as in former days: he appeared in total seven times, descending again to the mountain monastery, and returning once to the Buddha Mound (Folong). He said to his disciples: 'I am inspecting my former work. Are you all in peace and comfort?' The entire assembly saw him, wept with veneration, and asked after him; after a good while, he vanished. From when Zhiyi’s spiritual presence of a dragon-elephant was born and nurtured in the Jiang-Han region, he relied on accumulated good deeds to take birth and drew upon fundamental virtue to transform the world. His body was over seven spans tall, and his eyes held an extraordinary radiance. In understanding he unified the Śākya gate, and in conduct he opened up the stages of the saṅgha. Going and returning between the mountains and the secular world, he remained unstained by worldly dust. He repeatedly elicited subtle auspicious portents, which were scarcely measurable. At first, when the Emperor \[Yang of Sui\] was still in his feudal principality, he dispatched messengers into the mountains to welcome him. Thereupon \[Zhiyi\] distributed his utensils, staked out the precincts of a monastery, and drew plans for the halls and kitchens. He told his disciples: 'This is not something that can be constructed through minor causes. An imperial crown prince will build a monastery for me. You can build it according to this; you shall see.' Later it indeed turned out as he had said; the matter appears in his separate biography. Formerly, when he resided in Linhai, the people made their living by fishing weirs; their nets stretched continuously for more than four hundred li, with more than sixty river-weirs and stream-dams. Zhiyi, feeling deep compassion, contemplated the mind regarding how beings harmed one another, and exhorted them to abandon sinful deeds and taught them the causes of merit. The gold and silk obtained gathered like a mountain, with which he then purchased this coastal bend to make it a pond for releasing life. He also dispatched the śramaṇa Huiba to present a memorial to the throne. Emperor Xuan of Chen issued an edict strictly forbidding fishing and hunting in this pond. The state erected a stele for it, commanding Xu Xiaoke, Chancellor of the National University, to compose a text and set it up by the seashore. Its wording was exceptionally poignant; those who read it unwittingly shed tears. At that time, when he returned to the Buddha Mound to practice dhyāna as usual, suddenly yellow sparrows filled the sky, soaring and congratulating one another, crying out above the mountain monastery for three days before dispersing. Zhiyi said: 'These are the fish coming to repay my kindness.' Even up to the present Zhenguan era, no one dares violate it; the edict strictly forbidding it remains just as in the Chen era. This vast and great compassionate deliverance of benevolent kindness could hardly be surpassed. Moreover, while he resided on the mountain, there were mushrooms that hung down from every tree touched; as quickly as they were gathered they sprang forth, providing regular sustenance for the saṅgha. If Zhiyi traveled elsewhere, the mushrooms would not grow. Talking on this basis, it was truly evoked by his realization of the Way! The works he authored, such as the \*Lotus Commentary\*, the \*Gates to Cessation and Contemplation\*, and the \*Methods of Cultivating Dhyāna\*, each comprise several tens of fascicles. He also authored the \*Vimalakīrti Commentary\* up to the Chapter on the Buddha Path, consisting of thirty-seven fascicles. All came from his mouth in complete literary composition, and attendants transcribed summaries, while he himself did not keep a single written character. As for other works produced according to occasions, they cannot be fully recounted. All were profound in intent and thoroughly lucid, setting forth ideas that opened heaven. Emperor Yang revered and relied upon them, esteeming them like imperial mandates. When he ascended to the imperial throne, he deposited them in the Unicorn Gallery (Lin’ge). Thus his fame and radiance overflowed the universe, and his majestic demeanor covers the present day. His dried skeleton remained standing distinctly, sitting upright as if alive. It was interred behind a stone gate and locked with a golden key; all matters concerning it were subject to special imperial decrees. Every year on the anniversary of his passing, the Emperor would suspend court audience and dispatch palace envoys in advance to the mountain to prepare offerings. Yang Su, Vice Director of the Department of State Affairs, was by nature open-minded and plain, but required firsthand verification in all matters. He expressed his thoughts: 'How could dry bones sit distinctly as if alive?' An edict granted him the key to the door, ordering him to go and inspect for himself. When it proved just as had been reported before, he returned with faith. Zhiyi established models east and west, his transformative teaching reaching across ten thousand li. He constructed thirty-five great monasteries, ordained more than four thousand monks with his own hands, copied fifteen editions of the Tripiṭaka, and produced about one hundred thousand gilded, sandalwood, and painted images. In more than fifty prefectures, the monastics and laity who received the bodhisattva precepts from him were beyond counting. There were thirty-two scholars who transmitted his heritage, while scholars practicing dhyāna dispersed throughout the Jiang-Han region without limit to their numbers. The śramaṇa Guanding, who served him for many years, chronicled his admirable conduct in about twenty-odd sheets of paper. Furthermore, the śramaṇa Falin of Longtian Monastery on Zhongnan Mountain, having early entered his lineage and personally received the precept teaching from him, because his virtuous voice had suddenly receded and the trees at his grave had quickly grown dense, composed a biography of him which was widely circulated in the world. In the final years of Emperor Yang of Sui, when the Emperor made an imperial tour to Jiangdu, he had a dream in which he felt Zhiyi speaking of what had been entrusted to him. The Emperor personally composed a stele inscription whose prose was exceedingly grand and ornate, but before it could be engraved, it was lost in the chaos of the times. > — English (machine translation) (machine translation) - [Previous: 17.16.4](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.2060.17.16.4) - [Next: 17.17](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.2060.17.17) - [Up: 17.16](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.2060.17.16) ## Translations (1) - [English (machine translation)](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.2060~en-mt.17.16.5) — English, machine translation ## Linked texts (1) - [弘贊法華傳](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.2067.4.5) — Classical Chinese --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.2060.17.16.5](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.2060.17.16.5) · Pramāṇa