續高僧傳 20.78

20.78

釋法嚮。姓李。揚州海陵葛岡人。形長八尺。儀貌魁傑眉目秀異。立性威嚴言不妄發。足下有黑子圓淨分明。相者曰。長為軍將。仍有重名於天下也。年十六辭親出家。即事精苦與人卓異。尼嫗參禮未嘗與言。戒行清淨誦法華通。攝山栖霞寺恭禪師。住法後賢眾所歸仰。承名延致於寺側立法華堂。行智者法華懺。嚮依法行。三七專注大獲瑞應。知而不言。恭既入京嚮還江北。海陵寧海二縣。各延供養。隋末海陵大寧寺僧智喜。開房延入。於中靜坐。晝臥驚起曰。火發。喜四出顧視了無。嚮曰。吾患耳妄聞耶。明日晝驚。如此三度遂東還寧海。去後李子通賊破縣燒寺。如所告焉。大蟲傷害日數十人。乃設禳災大齋。忽有一虎入堂。搏一人將去。嚮逐後喚住何造次。今為檀越設齋。可放此人。依言即放。諸虎大集。以杖扣頭為說法。於是相隨遠去。又欲往天台尋智者古迹。謂弟子曰。吾雖欲至天台而不達在江南一山中。西北望見一城。及過江至江陰縣。道俗留連於縣東南山起寺。號曰定山。便經年稔。後天下漸安。又還海陵鹽亭。百姓留之。有小孤山出地百仞。四面無草木。於前立寺名為正見。處之。貞觀四年冬初。謂門人曰。吾與汝別。近夢惡將不起矣。遂臥二十日。忽起索湯。盥浴剃髮自辰至酉。面西而終。年七十八。將終謂弟子曰。吾願以身施諸鳥獸。此無林木。食若不盡穢人眼目。可埋山西南。及依往埋。掘便值石。盤薄無由。又更試掘遂得一處。凹陷石上恰得容身。因厝中置塔其上。嚮生常日投陀林野馴伏猛獸。觀想西方口唱南無佛。不多說法。隨緣一兩句。有災祥者令避。託以夢想所見。貞觀二年。有常洲人。往幽洲見一女人。問海陵嚮禪師健不。又問識耶。答不識。女人以烏絲布頭巾用寄嚮師。此人遇患經年不至。嚮預知之。每歎息那不至耶。人至江陰附頭巾。與海陵人將至其處。乃令弟子逆之。恰至門首。相值以巾付還。嚮得巾執玩。咨嗟裂破付弟子。人得一片。有不得者。貞觀三年。天下大括義寧私度。不出者斬。聞此咸畏。得頭巾者並依還俗。其不得者現今出家。其年大雪深數尺。告弟子曰。吾須新菜。弟子曰。雪深叵得。曰上山求之可有。如言上山數里至一樹下皆是青菜。取之而返。預知皆如此也。

Shi Faxiang, surnamed Li, was a native of Gegang in Hailing, Yangzhou. He was eight chi tall, with an imposing and heroic bearing, and singularly handsome brows and eyes. By nature he was majestic and stern, never speaking lightly. Beneath his feet were round, clear, distinct black moles. A physiognomist said: 'When grown, he will be a military commander, and his great fame will spread throughout the realm.' At the age of sixteen, he took leave of his parents to leave secular life; he immediately applied himself to rigorous austerity, standing far above others. If nuns or old women came to pay respects, he never spoke to them. His vinaya conduct was pure, and he recited the Lotus Sūtra fluently. Dhyāna Master Gong of Qixia Temple on Mount She was a worthy successor in abiding by the Dharma, revered and relied upon by the multitude. Hearing of his reputation, [Faxiang] invited him to erect a Lotus Hall beside the temple to perform Master Zhizhe's Lotus Repentance. Faxiang practiced according to the teachings, focusing intently for three weeks (twenty-one days), and obtained great auspicious omens, yet he kept his knowledge to himself. After Gong entered the capital, Xiang returned north of the river. The two counties of Hailing and Ninghai each invited him to receive their offerings. At the end of the Sui, the monk Zhixi of Daning Temple in Hailing opened a room and invited him in; while sitting quietly within, Xiang suddenly leaped up from a daytime nap, crying: 'Fire!' Xi went out in all four directions to look, but there was nothing. Xiang said: 'Is it that my ears are troubled and hearing delusions?' The next day he was alarmed in the daytime in the same way; after this happened three times, he returned east to Ninghai. After his departure, the rebel Li Zitong breached the county and burned the temple, exactly as he had foretold. At that time, tigers harmed dozens of people every day, so a great vegetarian feast was held to avert calamity. Suddenly a tiger entered the hall, seized a man, and was dragging him off. Xiang chased after it, calling: 'Stop! Why this rashness? Today we have laid out a vegetarian feast for the dānapati; release this person!' It immediately released him as told. Many tigers gathered in large numbers; tapping their heads with his staff, he preached the Dharma to them, whereupon they followed one another far away. Later, wishing to go to Tiantai to seek the ancient traces of Zhizhe, he said to his disciples: 'Although I wish to reach Tiantai, I cannot attain it; I shall stay in a mountain south of the Yangtze, seeing a city when gazing to the northwest.' Crossing the river to Jiangyin County, he was detained by monastics and laypeople, who built a temple on the mountain southeast of the county, naming it Dingshan. Several years passed there. Later, as the realm gradually became peaceful, he returned to Yanting in Hailing, where the common folk detained him. There was a small isolated peak rising a hundred ren above the ground, devoid of vegetation on all four sides; in front of it, they erected a temple called Zhengjian, where he dwelt. In the early winter of the fourth year of Zhenguan, he said to his disciples: 'I must part with you. Recently I had an evil dream, and I will not rise again.' He lay in bed for twenty days, then suddenly arose and asked for hot water, bathed, and shaved his head; from the chen hour to the you hour (approx. 7 AM to 7 PM), he faced west and passed away, at the age of seventy-eight. When he was about to pass away, he said to his disciples: 'I wish to give my body as an offering to the birds and beasts. Here there are no forest trees; if they do not finish eating it, it will defile people's eyes. You may bury me southwest of the mountain.' When they went to bury him as instructed, digging struck solid rock; it was so extensive that there was no way through. Trying to dig again, they found a spot where a hollow in the stone happened to fit his body. They entombed him therein and erected a stūpa atop it. In his daily life, Xiang practiced dhūta in the wilderness, taming wild beasts, contemplating the Western Paradise, and chanting 'Namo Buddhāya' with his mouth. He did not speak much Dharma, giving only a sentence or two according to the occasion. If there were signs of disaster or good fortune, he urged people to avoid them, attributing his knowledge to dreams. In the second year of Zhenguan, a man from Changzhou went to Youzhou and met a woman, who asked: 'Is Dhyāna Master Xiang of Hailing well?' She then asked: 'Do you know him?' He replied: 'I do not.' The woman gave him a black silk kerchief to deliver to Master Xiang. This man fell ill and did not arrive for a full year. Xiang knew of it in advance, often sighing: 'Why has he not arrived?' When the man reached Jiangyin, he entrusted the kerchief to a person from Hailing to take it to the master's place. Xiang sent a disciple to meet him; just as the messenger arrived at the gate, they met, and he handed over the kerchief. Xiang received the kerchief, held and examined it, sighed, tore it to pieces, and gave them to his disciples, each person receiving a scrap; some did not receive any. In the third year of Zhenguan, the court launched a nationwide investigation into irregular ordinations from the Yining era; anyone who did not disrobe was to be executed. Hearing this, everyone was terrified. Those who had received a scrap of the kerchief all followed the order and returned to secular life; those who had not received any remain ordained to this day. In that year there was heavy snow several feet deep. He told his disciples: 'I need fresh vegetables.' The disciples said: 'The snow is deep; they cannot be obtained.' He said: 'Climb the mountain to look for them, and they can be found.' Following his words, they climbed the mountain for several li until they reached a tree, beneath which was covered in green vegetables; they gathered them and returned. His prescience was always like this.