續高僧傳 19.28

19.28

釋普明。本名法京。俗姓朱氏。會稽人。少小志操有異恒童。口常稱佛。聚砂以為福事。蒿艾以為殿塔。不俗談戲。惟志崇法。有僧乞食因即勸云。郎子既有善性。可向天台山出家。其中有四依菩薩在彼說法。遂以陳太建十四年。踰山越㵎來入天台。正值智者處坐說法。下講竟。頂禮歸依願盡此生以為弟子。智者笑云。宿誓願力今得相遇。曉夕左右伏膺無懈。專求禪法兼行方等般舟觀音懺悔。誦法華經一部。至禎明元年。陳主勅迎智者出都。從往金陵居光宅寺。專以禪思為業。同堂坐者奉命檢校。俄而陳國云亡。智者即上江州廬山東林寺。明於陶侃瑞像閣內。行觀音懺法。冬十一月身不衣絮苦節行道。見一僧云。所名法京未為嘉稱。可改為普明。此名曉朗照了三世。懺訖啟智者述之。便云。此冥中所示。宜即改舊從新。又隨智者往荊州玉泉寺。每於泉側練若專思。智者反路台峯令造大鍾。天台供養。江陵道俗競為經營。當欲鑄時。盲人來看。明懸鑒機知相不吉。果爾開模鍾破缺。仍即倍工修造。約語眾中。支不具者勿來看鑄。遂得了亮錚鑅聲七十里。鍾今見在佛隴上寺。後還國清所住之房。去水懸遠。房頭空地純是礓石。乃懷念曰。若令此石出水。豈不快乎。言竟數日。石中泉溜周給東西。國清精舍隨高置立。明以講堂狹小欲毀廣之。共頂禪師商量。頂勸勿改。有括州都督周孝節。遙聞此事即施杉柱泛海送來。頂向赤城。感見明身長一十餘丈。高出松林之上。翼從數十許人。語頂曰。兄勿苦諫。事願剋成。頂知神異。合掌對云。不敢更諫。一依仁者。竪堂之日感動山王。晨朝隱軫狀若雷震。摧樹傾枝闊百步許。自佛壟下直到於寺。至乎日沒還返舊蹤。砰砰磕磕勢若初至。又願共道俗造當殿金銅盧舍那像坐身丈六。時有一人稱從槽溪村來。施金十一兩用入像身。問其姓名終不肯說。禮拜辭退。周訪彼村無人識者。又比房侍者恒聞房內共人語話。陰伺察視不見別形。所聽言音唯勸修善。既而化緣就畢。大漸時至。清旦呼諸弟子。夫人壽命不可常保。汝等宜知。便自脫新淨之衣。著故破者。換衣纔竟奄然就滅。春秋八十有六。經二宿左手仍內屈三指。當於其時有房內弟子榮泰難提二人。剃頭沐浴見如此事。即報寺主慧網。合眾驚集倍慟于懷。然其為性不畜私財。浙南諸州男女黑白歸向者數不可紀。所得布施隨緣喜捨。每參隋帝悉蒙命坐。賜絹一百二十段。用充六物。不留寸尺。悉造經像。有勅施僧基業。見於寺錄。造金銅尊像小大十軀。悉人中已上十迴作僧施。讀藏經二遍。其外書寫經論。彫畫殿堂。修諸寺宇。傍為利益。及諸靈驗。功德費用。運心應念即自送來充其支度。不可具載。

Śramaṇa Puming, originally named Fajing, was born to the Zhu family of Kuaiji. From his youth, his aspirations and conduct differed from ordinary boys. His mouth constantly recited the Buddha's name; he gathered sand to perform meritorious deeds, and used mugwort and wormwood to make halls and pagodas. He did not engage in vulgar talk or play, but aspired only to venerate the Dharma. A monk begging for food once encouraged him, saying, “Since you have a good disposition, young master, you should go to Tiantai Mountain to receive pravrajyā; a four reliances bodhisattva is preaching the Dharma there.” Consequently, in the fourteenth year of the Taijian era of the Chen (582), he crossed mountains and streams to enter Tiantai, just as Zhizhe was seated preaching the Dharma. When the lecture finished, he bowed with his head to the ground in refuge, wishing to be his disciple for the rest of his life. Zhizhe smiled and said, “By the power of a past vow, we are able to meet today.” Day and night at his side, he submitted his mind without laxity, dedicated to seeking the meditation method while also practicing the vaipulya, pratyutpanna, and Avalokiteśvara repentances, and reciting the Saddharmapuṇḍarīka Sūtra in its entirety. In the first year of the Zhending era (587), the Chen ruler issued an edict inviting Zhizhe to the capital. [Puming] followed him to Jinling and resided at Guangzhai Temple, taking dhyāna contemplation as his sole occupation; those who sat with him in the hall were supervised under his instructions. Before long, the Chen dynasty fell, and Zhizhe went up to Donglin Temple on Mount Lu in Jiangzhou. Inside the Pavilion of Tao Kan’s Auspicious Image, Ming practiced the Avalokiteśvara repentance method. In the eleventh month of winter, without wearing padded clothes, he practiced circumambulation with ascetic discipline. He saw a monk who said, “The name ‘Fajing’ is not a fine designation; you should change it to ‘Puming’ (Universal Brightness). This name shines brightly and illuminates the three periods of time.” After finishing the repentance, he reported this to Zhizhe, who said, “This is an indication from the unseen realm; you should immediately cast off the old and follow the new.” He further followed Zhizhe to Yuquan Temple in Jingzhou, constantly meditating single-mindedly in an araṇya beside the spring. Zhizhe, returning to the peaks of Tiantai, ordered a great bell to be cast as an offering for Tiantai, and the monastics and laity of Jiangling vied to provide for it. When it was about to be cast, a blind man came to watch. Ming possessed distant insight into causes and knew that the omen was inauspicious; as expected, when the mold was opened, the bell was broken and cracked. They immediately doubled the labor to remake it, and he cautioned the gathering: “Those with incomplete limbs must not come to watch the casting.” As a result, they obtained a clear and resonant sound that could be heard for seventy li. This bell is still present today at the upper temple of Folong. Later, he returned to Guoqing Temple, where his room was far from water and the empty ground outside the head of the room consisted entirely of coarse gravel. He thought to himself, “If water were made to flow from these stones, would that not be delightful?” A few days after he said this, a spring trickled from the stones, amply supplying the east and west. The Guoqing Hermitage had been built along the contours of the heights. Ming, considering the lecture hall too narrow, wanted to demolish and enlarge it. He discussed this with dhyāna master Ding, but Ding advised him not to alter it. Zhou Xiaojie, Commander-in-Chief of Kuozhou, heard of this from afar and sent cedar pillars shipped across the sea. When Ding looked toward Mount Chicheng, he was moved to see Ming’s body over one hundred feet tall, towering above the pine forest, accompanied by several tens of attendants. [Ming] said to Ding, “Elder brother, do not stubbornly dissuade me; the matter and the vow will be accomplished.” Knowing it to be a spiritual anomaly, Ding clasped his hands and replied, “I dare not dissuade you further; I shall abide entirely by your wish, good sir.” On the day the hall was erected, it moved the mountain god: at dawn there was a deep rumbling like thunder, snapping trees and toppling branches across a width of about a hundred paces, all the way from beneath Folong directly to the temple. By sunset, it returned back along the old track, with crashing sounds as fierce as when it first arrived. Furthermore, he vowed together with the monastics and laity to cast a seated gilt-bronze image of Rocana sixteen feet high for the main hall. At that time, a man claimed to come from Caoxi Village and offered eleven ounces of gold to be incorporated into the body of the image; when asked his name, he refused to tell, bowed, and took his leave. When inquiries were made all through that village, no one knew him. Moreover, an attendant in the neighboring room constantly heard him conversing with someone in his room, but secretly watching, he saw no other form; the sounds he heard only encouraged the cultivation of good deeds. When his conditions for transformation were completed, the time of his terminal illness arrived. In the clear dawn, he called his disciples: “The lifespan of man cannot be preserved forever; you should all know this.” He then personally took off his new, clean robes and put on old, torn ones. Just as he finished changing his clothes, he suddenly passed into extinction at the age of eighty-six. After two nights, three fingers of his left hand remained curled inward. At that time, Rongtai and Nandi, two disciples in his quarters, saw this while shaving his head and bathing him; they immediately reported it to the temple director Huiwang, and the entire assembly gathered in shock, their hearts doubly grieved. By nature, he did not accumulate private wealth. Countless men and women, monastics and laypeople in the various prefectures south of the Zhe River took refuge in him. Whatever donations he received, he joyfully gave away according to circumstances. Whenever he had an audience with the Sui Emperor, he was always granted a seat and presented with one hundred and twenty bolts of silk; using these for the six monastic requisites, he did not keep an inch or a foot, but used them all to make scriptures and images. The estates bestowed upon the sangha by imperial decree are recorded in the temple register. He cast ten large and small gilt-bronze statues of the Venerable One, all human-sized or larger; held offerings for the saṅgha ten times; and read through the canon twice. Beyond these, his copying of scriptures and treatises, painting of hall interiors, repairing of various temple compounds, secondary acts of benefiting others, spiritual resonances, and expenses for meritorious deeds were such that whenever he set his mind to a thought, provisions arrived of themselves to supply his expenses, too numerous to record in full.