續高僧傳 22.17

22.17

釋慧滿。姓梁氏。雍州長安人也。父粲曆仕隋唐為海疊諸州刺史。滿生年素潔履正標宗。慈濟含育殆非修學。世俗餚饍見便寒悚。僧儀道具覩即欣仰。年甫七歲即樂出家。二親素奉佛宗不違其志。父臨海州有勅聽度。便蒙剃髮。隨父還京住大興善。為仙法師弟子。仙名望京邑識悟有從。既道俗洽聞。故父親付囑。後携住仁壽宮之三善寺。及大業之始。又住大禪定焉。進戒奉業於智首律師。明慎威儀學門推揖。思擇理味以達曙為恒。而勤於政事樂行勸勉。每值立界施。則唱白科舉。身先眾侶諮考疑議。至於受戒緣集難遮多少。教授獨斷成不眇然。滿乃預令識相。提撕抵掌。致有臨機忘逸往往徵正。時共重其詳審敬其成進也。遊講四方不拘世累。貞觀三年。甞於鄜城魏兵曹家別院。講羯磨法。所居草室忽為火燒。風焰俱盛。將延西及。滿索水潠之。因即風迴火滅得無燒爇。斯戒德之威。頗難登繼。至七年。令造新寺。通選大德。以滿行績前聞。引之令住。其年奉勅令任弘濟寺上座。專弘律訓獎導僧徒。丞有成規旁流他寺。有集仙寺尼。素無慧解妄有師習。鑄老子真人等像私自供養。并廣召黃巾在堂慶度。滿與諸僧同預齋集。既屬此事。公呵止之。連告大德顯行擯罰。又追取道像入太原寺改成佛相。用誡餘習。昔周趙王治蜀。有道士造老君像而以菩薩俠侍。僧以事聞。王乃判曰。菩薩已成不可壞。天尊宜進一階官乃迎于寺中。改同佛相。例相似也。又尼慧尚者。僥倖一時宮禁還往。會高祖昇遐離宮京置。乃以尚之住寺擬設皇靈。尚即取僧寺為尼所住。事違正勅莫敢致詞。滿遂搆集京室三綱大德等二百餘人。行於擯黜云。自佛法流世。未有尼眾倚官勢力奪僧寺者。既是非法宜出眾外。不預四眾還往及諸法事。若有與尚眾言論者。亦同此罰。制令既行是非自顯。慧尚不勝其責。連訴東宮并諸朝宰。有令遣詹事杜正倫解其擯事。僧眾既集多從情議。滿曰。殿下住持正法。慧滿據法情理。今則違理附情。此則規模一亂。擯本治罪。罪仍未悛。據此而詳未敢聞旨。便捉坐具逡巡而退。時眾懼加威權。便同解擯。滿聞之嘆曰。余伴既少難可重治。且不同解。示知乖相耳。尚後謝過。滿終不顧。及駕巡東部。下勅李眾在前。滿集京僧二百人詣闕陳諫。各脫袈裟置於頂上。擬調達之行五法。舉朝目矚不敢通表。乃至關首重勅方迴。常安弘濟集徒講說。成匠晚秀有隣聲釆。又願生安養。浴僧為業。學安公之芳緒也焭焭惻惻兢兢自厲。以貞觀十六年四月二十日遘疾。知當後世。勅出什物並屬三寶。正坐繩床自加其膝。召諸寺眾人各執別。氣從下上漸至于心。言晤答對初無昏昧。煖氣至口奄爾而終。春秋五十有四。焚于終南龍池寺側。餘骸並化惟舌不灰。更足薪火經于累宿。色逾鮮赤。遂瘞于山隅。京師淨住寺惠昂。為之銘頌。見于別集。製四分律疏二十卷。講四十餘遍。

Śramaṇa Huiman had the secular surname Liang. He was a native of Chang'an in Yongzhou. His father, Can, served successively under the Sui and Tang dynasties as regional inspector of Haizhou, Diezhou, and other prefectures. From his birth, Man was inherently pure; practicing righteousness, he made it his guiding principle. His saving of living beings was almost innate, not the product of cultivated study. The sight of worldly meats and delicacies immediately chilled and terrified him; but at the sight of monastic deportment and ritual implements, he rejoiced and looked up to them. When he was barely seven years old, he already wished to leave household life (pravrajyā). His parents, having long venerated the Buddhist tradition, did not thwart his aspiration. When his father governed Haizhou, an imperial decree permitted ordinations, and [Man] was granted the tonsure. Accompanying his father back to the capital, he stayed at Daxingshan Temple and became a disciple of Master Xian. Xian had a high reputation in the capital and an inspiring understanding; because he was widely renowned among both monastics and laity, the father personally entrusted his son to him. Later [Xian] brought him to live at Sanshan Temple in the Renshou Palace, and at the start of the Daye era, he dwelt at Dazhanding Temple. He advanced to full ordination and served the Vinaya Master Zhishou, thoroughly observing the deportment, and was venerated by his fellow students. It was his regular habit to deliberate on the meaning of principles until daybreak; he was diligent in monastic duties and delighted in exhorting others. Whenever an ordination boundary (sīmā) or almsgiving was established, he would recite the karmavācanā and proclaim the rules, stepping ahead of the congregation to investigate doubtful points. As for the causes and conditions for receiving the precepts, and the number of impediments and obstacles, his single-handed judgment in guiding was never careless. Man would instruct them beforehand to recognize the marks [of the precepts], cautioning them face to face, so that when they faced the ritual, slips and lapses were frequently rectified. At that time, everyone valued his precision and respected his accomplishments. He traveled and lectured in all directions, unfettered by worldly burdens. In the third year of the Zhenguan reign, while lecturing on the karmavācanā rituals in a separate courtyard of the household of the Administrative Assistant of the Military Bureau Wei in Fucheng, the thatched room in which he was dwelling was suddenly caught in a fire. Both the wind and the flames grew fierce, about to spread westward. Man asked for water and spat it out toward the flames; thereupon the wind shifted, the fire was extinguished, and nothing was burnt. The power of his preceptual virtue was indeed difficult to equal. In the seventh year, when an order was given to build a new monastery and bhadantas were widely selected, Man was brought in to dwell there because his deeds and conduct were previously renowned. That year, he was appointed by imperial decree as the senior elder (sthavira) of Hongji Temple, to specialize in promoting the Vinaya teachings and guiding the monastic assembly. Whenever he established models, they spread broadly to other temples. A nun from Jixian Temple, devoid of wisdom-insight and falsely holding heterodox practices, cast statues of Laozi, Zhenren, and others for private worship, and summoned yellow-turban Daoists into the hall to celebrate and offer sacrifices. Man attended the vegetarian gathering along with other monks; encountering this matter, he publicly rebuked and stopped it, successively notifying the bhadantas and openly applying expulsion and punishment. Furthermore, he seized the Daoist statues, brought them into Taiyuan Temple, and altered them into the appearance of Buddhas, in order to admonish lingering heterodox habits. In ancient times, when King Zhao of Zhou governed Shu, a Daoist made a statue of Lord Lao flanked by bodhisattvas; the monks reported this, and the king adjudicated: 'The bodhisattvas are already accomplished and cannot be destroyed; the Heavenly Worthy should advance by one rank.' He thereupon had it received into the monastery and altered to resemble a Buddha. This case was similar. Furthermore, there was a nun named Huishang who, by opportunistic fortune, had frequent access to the imperial palace. When Emperor Gaozu passed away, his detached palace was converted into an imperial residence; Shang's dwelling temple was designated to install the imperial soul. Shang then seized a monks' monastery for the nuns to live in; although this violated the imperial decree, no one dared to speak out. Man thereupon assembled over two hundred monastic directors (trīṇi sāmagrīṇi) and bhadantas of the capital to carry out her expulsion, stating: 'Since the Buddha's Dharma spread through the world, no assembly of nuns has ever relied on official authority to seize a monks' monastery. Since this is non-Dharma, she ought to be expelled from the saṅgha, barred from interacting with the fourfold assembly, and excluded from all Dharma affairs. If anyone speaks with Shang's group, they shall face the same penalty.' Once the decree was carried out, right and wrong became self-evident. Unable to bear this reprimand, Huishang repeatedly petitioned the Crown Prince and various court ministers. An order was issued sending the Chief Supervisor of the Household Du Zhenglun to resolve her expulsion. When the monastic assembly gathered, most yielded to emotional accommodation. Man said: 'Your Highness upholds the True Dharma, and Huiman stands on the Dharma's reason and principles. Now you abandon reason to favor personal sentiment; this will disrupt all standards. Expulsion is fundamentally to punish wrongdoing, and her wrongdoing has not yet been repented. Considering this carefully, I dare not comply with the order.' He then took up his sitting mat (niṣīdana) and hesitated, then withdrew. The assembly at that time feared the imperial authority and agreed to lift the expulsion. Hearing this, Man sighed: 'My companions are few, so it is difficult to maintain the punishment; yet I will not join in lifting it, to show that I recognize this divergence.' Later, Shang apologized, but Man never looked back. When the imperial carriage toured the eastern regions, an edict decreed that the Daoists (the Li followers) should take precedence. Man gathered two hundred monks from the capital to approach the palace and submit an admonition, each taking off their kaṣāyas and placing them upon their heads, imitating the practice of Devadatta's five rules. The entire court looked on, not daring to pass the memorial, until at the entry to the pass another edict reversed the decision. Always settled at Hongji Temple, he gathered disciples to lecture, training late-blooming talents who rivaled his own renown. He also vowed to be reborn in the Land of Peace and Sustenance (Sukhāvatī), taking the bathing of monks as his devotional task, continuing the fragrant legacy of Master Dao'an. Solitary, compassionate, and vigilant, he urged himself on. On the twentieth day of the fourth month of the sixteenth year of Zhenguan, he fell ill and knew that his future existence was at hand. He ordered all his personal possessions to be turned over to the Three Jewels (triratna). Sitting erect on a rope bed, he crossed his knees by himself and summoned the monastics of the various temples, parting with each individually. His vital breath rose from below, gradually reaching his heart; his speech and answers were entirely unclouded. When the warmth reached his mouth, he suddenly passed away at the age of fifty-four. He was cremated beside Longchi Temple on Mount Zhongnan. All the remaining bones dissolved, yet only his tongue did not burn to ash. Even when more firewood was added over several nights, its color became even more brightly red. It was subsequently interred in a corner of the mountain. Hui'ang of Jingzhu Temple in the capital composed an inscription and eulogy for him, which appears in a separate collection. He authored a twenty-fascicle Commentary on the Dharmaguptaka Vinaya and lectured on it more than forty times.