續高僧傳 21.19

21.19

釋道禪。交阯人。早出世網。立性方嚴。修身守戒。氷霜例德。鄉族道俗咸貴其剋己。而重其篤行。仙洲。山寺舊多虎害。禪往居之此災遂遠。聞齊竟陵王大開禪律盛張講肆。千里引駕同造金陵。皆是四海標領。人雄道傑。禪傳芳藉甚通夜不寐。思參勝集簉奉真詮。乃以永明之初。遊歷京室。住鍾山雲居下寺。聽掇眾部。偏以十誦知名。經略道化僧尼信奉。故有稜威振發以見聲名恬愉誘悟議于風采。都邑受其戒範者數越千人。常聽之徒眾不盈百。兼樂滅覺觀。亟留幽谷。動踰宵景方尋顧步。加復蔬食弊衣華無布口。有濟芳美者。便隨給貧病。知足之富豈得過焉。末居于寺舍。屏迹山林。不交榮世。安苦立行。人以為憂。而禪不改其樂也。以大通元年卒于山寺。春秋七十矣。

Shi Daochan was a native of Jiaozhi. He escaped the worldly net early; his character was upright and austere, and he cultivated himself and upheld the precepts, his virtue comparable to ice and frost. The monastics and laity of his native village all prized his self-restraint and respected his earnest practice. At Xianzhou, the mountain monasteries had long suffered from the menace of tigers; after Chan went to live there, this calamity receded into the distance. Hearing that the Prince of Jingling of the Qi dynasty was broadly opening halls of dhyāna and Vinaya and flourishingly establishing lecture seats, so that monks travelled a thousand li by carriage to gather at Jinling—all of them leading figures from across the realm, heroes of men and paragons of the Way—Chan’s fragrant renown spread widely. Unable to sleep all night, he longed to join this sublime gathering and pay homage to the true exposition. Thus in the early Yongming era, he journeyed to the capital and resided at the Lower Yunju Monastery on Mount Zhong. He studied and gathered the various divisions, but was particularly famous for the Sarvāstivāda-vinaya (Shisong lü). As he propagated the spiritual transformation, monks and nuns had faith in and revered him. Thus, his imposing dignity was revealed in his renown, and his tranquil joy in guiding people to awakening was reflected in his demeanor. Those in the capital who received his disciplinary standards numbered over a thousand, while his regular audience of students did not exceed a hundred. In addition, he took pleasure in extinguishing conceptual thought and mental examination (vitarka and vicāra); he frequently lingered in secluded valleys, and would begin pacing about only after the night was far gone. Furthermore, he ate vegetarian food, wore ragged robes, and never let luxurious flavors touch his mouth. Whenever he received sweet and savory offerings, he gave them immediately to the poor and the sick; how could the wealth of being content with little be surpassed? In his later years he resided in a monastery hermitage, secluded in the mountain forests, having no contact with the worldly pursuit of glory. He was content in hardship and steadfast in practice; others considered it distressing, but Chan did not alter his joy. In the first year of the Datong era (527 CE), he died at the mountain monastery at the age of seventy.