[Pramāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/) › [Indian literature](https://indike.org/pramana/in) › [Buddhist Literature](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha) › [Taishō Tripiṭaka (Chinese Buddhist canon)](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho) › [續高僧傳](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.2060) › 23.9 # 續高僧傳 23.9 續高僧傳 23.9 - **Language:** Classical Chinese ### [23.9](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.2060.23.9) 釋曇無最。姓董氏。武安人也。靈悟洞微飡寢玄祕。少稟道化名垂朝野。為三寶之良將。即像法之金湯。諷誦經論堅持律部。偏愛禪那心虛靜謐。時行汲引咸所推宗。兼博貫玄儒尤明論道。故使七眾望塵奄有繁鬧。最厭世情重將捐四部。行施獎誨多以戒禁為先。亟動物機信用雲布。曾於邯鄲崇尊寺說戒。徒眾千餘。並是常隨門學。至四月三十日布薩行籌依位授受。常計之外乃長六十。最居坐端深怪其異。既無外眾通夕懷疑。明旦重推。有人見從邯鄲城西而來者。竝異倫大德。衣服正帖翔步閑雅。亦有見從鼓山東面而來。或於中路逢者皆云。往赴崇尊聽僧說戒。如是數般節級勘其年齒相扶人數多少恰滿六十焉。故知道會聖心。是幽靈遐降。竹林群隱明非妄承。最德洽釋宗屢當時望。後勅住洛都融覺寺。寺即清河文獻懌所立。廊宇充溢周于三里。最善弘敷導。妙達涅槃華嚴。僧徒千人常業無怠。天竺沙門菩提留支見而禮之。號為東土菩薩。嘗讀最之所撰大乘義章。每彈指唱善。飜為梵字。寄傳大夏。彼方讀者皆東向禮之為聖人矣。然其常以弘法為任。元魏正光元年。明帝加朝服大赦。請釋李兩宗上殿。齋訖侍中劉騰宣勅。請諸法師等。與道士論義。時清道館道士姜斌。與最對論。帝問。佛與老子同時不。姜斌曰。老子西入化胡。佛時以為侍者。文出老子開天經。據此明是同時。最問曰。老子周何王而生。何年西入。斌曰。當周定王三年。在楚國陳郡苦縣厲鄉曲人里。九月十四日夜生。簡王四年為守藏吏。敬王元年年八十五。見周德陵遲。遂與散關令尹喜。西入化胡。約斯明矣。最曰。佛當周昭王二十四年四月八日生。穆王五十二年二月十五日滅度。計入涅槃經三百四十五年始到定王三年。老子方生。生已年八十五。至敬王元年凡經四百三十年。乃與尹喜西遁。此乃年載懸殊。無乃謬乎。斌曰。若如來言出何文紀。最曰。周書異記漢法本內傳。並有明文。斌曰。孔子制法聖人。當時於佛逈無文志何耶。最曰。孔氏三備卜經。佛之文言出在中備。仁者識同管窺覽不弘遠。何能自達。帝遣尚書令元又宣勅。道士姜斌論無宗旨。宜令下席。又議。開天經是誰所說。中書侍郎魏收。尚書郎祖瑩。就觀取經。大尉蕭綜太傅李寔。衛尉許伯桃。吏部尚書邢欒。散騎常侍溫子昇等。一百七十人。讀訖奏云。老子止著五千文。餘無言說。臣等所議。姜斌罪當惑眾。帝時加斌極刑。西國三藏法師菩提留支苦諫。乃止配徙馬邑。最學優程舉繼乎魏史。藉甚騰聲移肆通國。遂使達儒朝士降階設敬接足歸依。佛法中興惟其開務。後不測其終。 > Śramaṇa Tanwuzui had the secular surname Dong and was a native of Wu'an. His spiritual comprehension plumbed the abstruse; in waking and sleeping he took the dark mysteries as his nourishment. From an early age he received the teachings of the Way, and his fame resounded through court and country. He was an able general of the Triratna, a veritable bronze wall and iron moat for the Semblance Dharma. He chanted the sūtras and treatises and strictly maintained the Vinayapiṭaka. He especially loved dhyāna, his mind empty and serene. When he offered guidance to the times, all looked up to him as their exemplar. Furthermore, he was thoroughly versed in the Daoist and Confucian classics, and was particularly illuminating when discussing principles. As a result, the seven assemblies looked toward his dust, crowding around him. Tanwuzui grew weary of worldly sentiments and intended to leave the fourfold assembly behind. In bestowing encouragement and instruction, he mostly gave precedence to the precepts and prohibitions. He repeatedly stirred the spiritual faculties of beings, and confidence in him spread like clouds. Once, he recited the precepts at Chongzun Monastery in Handan. His disciples numbered more than a thousand, all being regular followers of his school. On the thirtieth day of the fourth month, during the poṣadha, when casting tallies to distribute them according to rank, there were sixty more than the usual count. Tanwuzui sat at the head of the assembly, greatly marvelling at this anomaly. Since there were no outside visitors, he harboured doubt through the whole night. The next morning, he investigated again. Someone had seen people coming from the west of Handan city, all of whom were venerable masters of extraordinary caliber; their garments were neat and decorous, and their stride leisurely and graceful. Others had seen people coming from the east of Gushan, or those who met them on the road, all of whom said: 'We are going to Chongzun Monastery to hear the saṅgha recite the precepts.' In this manner, when checking their various cohorts and matching their ages and companions, the number of persons was precisely sixty. Thus it was known that his realization accorded with the sage mind, and spiritual beings had descended from afar; the recluse multitude of the Bamboo Grove clearly had not accepted the tallies in vain. Tanwuzui's virtue suffused the Buddhist tradition, and he frequently commanded the respect of the times. Later, by imperial decree, he took up residence at Rongjue Monastery in the capital of Luoyang. The monastery was founded by Prince Wenxian of Qinghe, \[Yuan\] Yi; its halls and cloisters were abundant, spanning a circumference of three li. Tanwuzui was skilled at expounding and guiding, wonderfully penetrating the Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra and the Avataṃsaka Sūtra. A thousand monks gathered around him, pursuing their regular vocation without remiss. The Indian śramaṇa Bodhiruci saw him, bowed to him in veneration, and called him the 'Bodhisattva of the Eastern Land.' Bodhiruci once read Tanwuzui's Dasheng yizhang (Essays on the Meaning of the Mahāyāna); he would snap his fingers in praise at every turn, translated it into Indic script, and sent it to Daxia (Bactria). Those in that land who read it all faced east and bowed to him as a holy sage. Yet he always took the propagation of the Dharma as his duty. In the first year of the Zhengguang era of the Yuan Wei (520 CE), Emperor Ming donned court robes, issued a general amnesty, and invited both the Buddhist and Daoist traditions to ascend the palace hall. When the vegetarian feast concluded, the Palace Attendant Liu Teng proclaimed the imperial decree, asking the masters of the Dharma to debate the principles with the Daoists. At that time, the Daoist Jiang Bin of the Qingdao Abbey debated with Tanwuzui. The Emperor asked: 'Were the Buddha and Laozi contemporaneous or not?' Jiang Bin said: 'Laozi traveled west to convert the Hu, and the Buddha served as his attendant at that time. The text appears in the Laozi kaitian jing (Laozi's Scripture on the Opening of Heaven). Relying on this, it is clear that they were contemporaries.' Tanwuzui asked: 'Under which king of the Zhou was Laozi born? In what year did he journey to the west?' Bin said: 'It was in the third year of King Ding of Zhou, in Quren Hamlet, Li Village, Ku County, Chen Commandery of the State of Chu. He was born on the night of the fourteenth day of the ninth month. In the fourth year of King Jian, he served as the Keeper of the Archives. In the first year of King Jing, when he was eighty-five years old, seeing that the virtue of the Zhou had declined, he thereupon accompanied Yin Xi, the magistrate of the San Pass, westward to convert the Hu. Drawing upon this, it is manifest.' Tanwuzui said: 'The Buddha was born on the eighth day of the fourth month in the twenty-fourth year of King Zhao of the Zhou, and entered extinction on the fifteenth day of the second month in the fifty-second year of King Mu. Calculating to the third year of King Ding is three hundred and forty-five years after his entering nirvāṇa, at which time Laozi was just born. After he was born and reached eighty-five years of age, down to the first year of King Jing, a total of four hundred and thirty years elapsed before he fled west with Yin Xi. These years are so utterly disparate—is this not an absurdity?' Bin said: 'If so, from what textual record do your words concerning the Tathāgata derive?' Tanwuzui said: 'The Zhoushu yiji (Strange Records of the Book of Zhou) and the Han faben neichuan (Inner Chronicle of the Origin of the Dharma in the Han) both contain explicit texts.' Bin said: 'Confucius was the sage who instituted models; why is there completely no textual record of the Buddha from his time?' Tanwuzui said: 'In the three parts of Confucius's divination classics, the words concerning the Buddha appear in the Zhongbei (Middle Preparation). Benevolent sir, your understanding is like peering through a tube, and your reading is not broad or far-reaching; how could you realize this for yourself?' The Emperor dispatched the Director of the Department of State Affairs, Yuan Cha, to proclaim an imperial decree: 'The Daoist Jiang Bin's debate is devoid of core principles; let him step down from his seat.' There was also deliberation over who had spoken the Kaitian jing. The Vice Director of the Secretariat Wei Shou and the Secretarial Court Gentleman Zu Ying went to the Daoist abbey to fetch the scripture. Grand Commandant Xiao Zong, Grand Tutor Li Shi, Commandant of the Palace Guard Xu Botao, Minister of Personnel Xing Luan, and Cavalier Attendant-in-Ordinary Wen Zisheng, together with one hundred and seventy others, read it and memorialized: 'Laozi composed only the five thousand characters; he left no other discourse. We ministers deliberate that Jiang Bin's crime warrants punishment for misleading the masses.' At that time, the Emperor was about to inflict capital punishment upon Bin, but the Western Tripiṭaka Master Bodhiruci bitterly remonstrated, so it was stopped, and he was only exiled to Mayi. Tanwuzui's learning excelled over the standard requirements, and his record was carried over into the History of Wei. His resonant fame spread widely, shifting the marketplace talk throughout the entire country. Consequently, accomplished Confucians and court gentlemen descended from their dais to offer veneration and prostrated at his feet to take refuge. The revival of the Buddha-Dharma was indeed due to his pioneering efforts. His end was subsequently unknown. > — English (machine translation) (machine translation) - [Previous: 23.8](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.2060.23.8) - [Next: 23.10](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.2060.23.10) - [Up: 23](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.2060.23) ## Translations (1) - [English (machine translation)](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.2060~en-mt.23.9) — English, machine translation ## Linked texts (1) - [集古今佛道論衡](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.2104.1.30) — Classical Chinese --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.2060.23.9](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.2060.23.9) · Pramāṇa