續高僧傳 19.29

19.29

釋智藏。姓魏氏。華州鄭縣人也。十三出家事藹法師。當西魏之世。住長安陟岵寺。值周滅法權處俗中。為諸信心之所藏隱。雖王禁剋切不懼刑憲。剃髮法服曾無變俗。迄至隋初乃經六載。晦迹人間不虧道禁。自有同塵莫敢聯類矣。移都龍首住大興善。開皇三年。乃卜終南豐谷之東阜。以為終世之所也。即昔隱淪之故地矣。山水交映邑野相望。接敘皂素日隆化範。後文帝勅左衛大將軍晉王廣。就山引見。藏曰。山世乃異。適道不殊。貧道居山日積意未移想。陛下國主之體。不奪物情為宗。王具聞帝。帝歎訝久之。乃遣內史舍人虞世基。宣勅慰問。并施香油熏爐及三衣什物等。仍詔所住為豐德寺焉。每至三長之月。藏盛開道化。以智論為言先。凡所登踐者皆理事齊稟。京邑士女傳響相趨。雲結山阿就聞法要。逮武德初歲爰置僧官。眾以積善所歸乃處員內。道開物悟深有望焉。雖預僧僚而身非世檢。時復臨敘終安豐德。以武德八年四月十五日遘疾。少時終於所住。春秋八十五。然藏青襟入道自檢形神。不資奢靡不欣榮泰。時居興善官供頻繁。願存乞食盡形全德。縱任居僧務。夏雨冬氷而此志不移。終不妄噉僧食。晚居西郊柏林墓所。頭陀自靜。文帝出遊遇而結歎。與諸官人等。各捨所著之衣百有餘聚。藏令村人車運用充寺宇。故使福殿輪奐逈拔林端。靈塔架峯迢然雲表。致有京郊立望得傳遙敬矣。又爰初受具以布大衣重補。厚重可齊四斗。六十五夏初無一離。受日說欲由來未傳。常坐一食終乎大漸。而狀形超挺唐量八尺二分。質貌魁梧。峙然峯崿之相。常居寺之南岫四十餘年。面臨深谷目極天際。俓途四里幽梗盤岨不易登昇。而藏手執澡瓶足躡木履。每至食時乘崖而至。午後還上。初無顛墮。因斯以談。亦雄隱之高明者故。圖寫象供。于茲存焉。京師慈門寺沙門小曇。欽藏素業。為建碑于寺門之右。穎川沙門法琳製文。

Śramaṇa Zhizang had the lay surname Wei and was a native of Zheng County in Huazhou. At thirteen he received pravrajyā and served Master Ai. During the Western Wei, he resided at Zhihu Monastery in Chang'an. Encountering the suppression of the Dharma under the Zhou, he temporarily lived among the laity, harbored by people of faith. Although the royal prohibition was strict and severe, he feared neither punishment nor statute; his shaved head and Dharma robes were never altered to conform to worldly ways. Up until the beginning of the Sui, this had lasted six years. Obscuring his traces among ordinary people, he did not breach the Dharma's prohibitions; while mingling with the secular, none dared to match him. When the capital was moved to Longshou, he resided at Daxingshan Monastery. In the third year of Kaihuang, he divined a dwelling on the eastern knoll of Fenggu in the Zhongnan Mountains, making it his abode for the rest of his life; this was an old hermitage of former recluses. Mountains and streams reflected one another, and hamlets and fields gazed upon each other. He received both monastics and laity, his transforming model growing ever more prominent. Later, Emperor Wen decreed that Prince Guang of Jin, General-in-Chief of the Left Guard, go to the mountain to invite him for an audience. Zang said, 'The mountain and the world are indeed different, yet their accord with the Way is not distinct. My stay in the mountains has accumulated over many days, and my mind has no thought of moving. It is the nature of Your Majesty, ruler of the realm, to take not thwarting the sentiments of creatures as his principle.' The Prince reported this fully to the Emperor, who sighed in wonder for a long time. He then dispatched the Gentleman of the Palace Secretariat Yu Seji to proclaim an imperial decree consoling him, and made donations of incense, lamp oil, censer, the three robes, and various utensils. He also decreed that his dwelling place be named Fengde Monastery. Whenever the three long months came, Zang broadly expounded the transformation of the Way, taking the Great Treatise on Wisdom (Mahāprajñāpāramitopadeśa) as the primary text. All who ascended [the hall] received both principle and practice in equal measure. Men and women of the capital hastened there upon hearing the renown, gathering like clouds at the mountain crags to hear the essentials of the Dharma. At the beginning of the Wude era, when monastic officers were appointed, the community selected him to fill the post because he was the refuge of accumulated virtue. He was deeply expected to open the Way and awaken living beings. Although enlisted among the monastic bureaucracy, his person was not restrained by worldly bounds; he only visited and administered occasionally, always resting at Fengde. On the fifteenth day of the fourth month of the eighth year of Wude, he fell ill and passed away shortly after at his dwelling at the age of eighty-five. Ever since his youth upon entering the Way, Zang disciplined his body and mind, neither relying on luxury nor delighting in glory and comfort. When residing at Daxingshan, official offerings were abundant, yet he wished to adhere to begging for food throughout his life to preserve complete virtue. Even when tasked with monastic administrative duties, his resolve never wavered in summer rain or winter ice; he never improperly partook of the monastic community's provisions. In his later years, he lived at the Bo forest cemetery in the western suburbs, practicing dhūta in solitude and stillness. Emperor Wen, encountering him while traveling outside, was filled with admiration; along with the officials, they each renounced the clothes they wore, amassing over a hundred bundles. Zang had villagers transport them by cart to furnish the monastery, thereby making the halls of merit magnificent and towering high above the woods, and causing the numinous stupa to bridge the peaks and stand lofty beyond the clouds, such that people in the capital's suburbs could gaze upon them and transmit distant reverence. When he first received full ordination, he mended a large cloth robe with patches until it was thick and heavy, weighing as much as four bushels; throughout his sixty-five summer retreats, he never parted from it even once. Consenting to proxy transmission of desires had never been heard of from him. He always sat and ate one meal a day until his final passing. His physical stature was extraordinary, measuring eight spans and two-tenths by the Tang standard, with a stalwart and majestic physique standing firm like a mountain peak. He lived on the southern crag of the monastery for more than forty years, facing a deep valley with his gaze reaching the horizon. The path was four li long, secluded, blocked, winding, and rugged, difficult to ascend; yet holding a water flask in hand and wearing wooden clogs on his feet, whenever mealtime arrived, Zang mounted the cliff to descend, and returned up after noon, never stumbling or falling. From this it may be said that he was an eminent figure among the heroic hermits; hence his painted portrait is preserved here for offerings. Śramaṇa Xiaotan of Cimen Monastery in the capital, admiring Zang's lifelong practice, erected a stele to the right of the monastery gate, with the text composed by Śramaṇa Falin of Yingchuan.