續高僧傳 7.17

7.17

釋警韶。姓顏氏。會稽上虞人。學年入道。事叔僧廣以為師範。廣律行貞嚴。當時領袖。初韶遊都聽講。便能清論。年登冠肇還鄉受戒。護持奉信如擎油鉢。有沙門道林。請留鄉土。乃夢韶舌相廣長。而欲將斷。既寤深惟。留戀斯成墜失。愧悔前請便勸出都。於即大弘法化傳燈不絕。即莊嚴旻公之遺緒也。次稟龍光僧綽。乃是開善瓊支末。又探習三藏廣綜眾家。年二十三講大品經。味法當時磨肩溢道。後還建元晉陵等寺敷演經論。解冠群宗。韶乃願年四十長就講說。而學侶相顧不勝欽尚。時年三十有九。為建元寺講主。臨終遺令傳法。韶遵崇餘烈即坐演之。受業之賓有逾師保。梁簡文邵陵及岳陽等。大相欽重歸承訓誨。從危難後世改情浮。乃往豫章將通道務。時逢豫州黃司空等。素情所仰請為戒師。會外國三藏真諦法師。解該大小行攝自他。一遇欣然與共談論。諦嘆曰。吾遊國多矣。罕值斯人。仍停豫都為翻新金光明并唯識論及涅槃中百句長解脫十四音等。朝授晚傳。夜聞晨說。世諺。瀉瓶重出。知十再生者也。梁樂陽王於荊立位。遣信遠迎。楚都弘法。韶念報地之重。來勅遂乖。陳武定天文皇嗣業。並弘尚正道勅請還都。戒範承仰優禮彌隆。天嘉四年有會稽慧藻同泰道倫等二百餘人。連署請韶。長講於白馬寺。廣弘傳化十有餘年。既登耳順。便令慧藻續講。躬往瓦官宴坐少時。法門深妙。時沙門智顗。定慧難踰人神頗測。靜嘆精利事等夙成。共諸前學頻請重講。留意綿久以疾辭之。又為新安殿下黃司空等共僧三請不免勤注又於王府略說維摩。龍光寺中廣敷成實。亦得數年成諸學肆。未辭朽老歸志山林。乃入幽巖自靖十有餘載。至德元年十月十一日中時。右脇而臥神慮澄然終於開善寺春秋七十有六。其月十六日窆於鍾嶺獨龍之山。所講成實論五十餘遍。涅槃三十遍。大品四十遍。新金光明三十餘遍。維摩天王仁王等經遍數。繁亂不紀廣敘。

Śramaṇa Jingshao, surnamed Yan, was a native of Shangyu in Kuaiji. He entered the Way when he was of school age, serving his uncle, Sengguang, as his model teacher. Guang's practice of the vinaya was chaste and strict, and he was a leader of his time. When Shao first traveled to the capital to listen to lectures, he was already able to engage in pure debate. Upon reaching the age of adulthood, he returned to his home region to receive the precepts, upholding and revering them faithfully as if carrying a bowl of oil. There was a śramaṇa, Daolin, who asked him to remain in his homeland. [Daolin] then dreamt that Shao's tongue-mark was broad and long, but on the verge of being severed. Waking up, he reflected deeply that longing and lingering would cause this fall and loss; feeling ashamed and regretting his former request, he encouraged [Shao] to set out for the capital. Thereupon, [Shao] extensively propagated the transformation of the Dharma, the transmission of the lamp never failing; he was indeed an inheritor of the mantle of the Venerable Min of Zhuangyan [Monastery]. Next, he received instruction from Sengchuo of Longguang [Monastery], who was an offshoot of [Bao]qiong of Kaishan [Monastery]. He also investigated and practiced the Tripiṭaka, extensively integrating the various traditions. At the age of twenty-three, he lectured on the Pañcaviṃśatisāhasrikā-prajñāpāramitā Sūtra; his contemporaries relished the Dharma, crowding shoulder to shoulder until they overflowed the streets. Later, he returned to such monasteries as Jianyuan and Jinling to expound the sūtras and treatises, his understanding surpassing that of all schools. Shao then vowed that at the age of forty he would take up lecturing permanently, and his fellow students looked to one another, unable to contain their admiration. At the age of thirty-nine, the lecture master of Jianyuan Monastery left a deathbed bequest for the transmission of the Dharma; Shao, honoring his lingering legacy, immediately ascended the seat and expounded it. The guests who received his instruction regarded him as greater than their teachers and mentors. Emperor Jianwen of the Liang, the Prince of Shaoling, the Prince of Yueyang, and others held him in great esteem, taking refuge in him and receiving his admonitions. After the perils and upheavals, as the world changed and minds became unsettled, he went to Yuzhang intending to open a path for the Dharma's affairs. At that time, he met Huang, Minister of Works of Yuzhou, and others, who, out of long-standing reverence, invited him to be their preceptor. By chance, he met the foreign Tripiṭaka Master Paramārtha, whose understanding encompassed both the Mahāyāna and the Hīnayāna, and whose practice gathered in both self and others. Upon meeting once, they rejoiced and conversed together. Paramārtha sighed and said, “I have traveled to many lands, but rarely encountered such a man.” He then remained in the capital of Yu[zhang] to translate the newly [brought] Suvarṇaprabhāsa-sūtra, along with the Vijñaptimātratāsiddhi-śāstra, the Centum Phrases on Nirvāṇa, the Great Liberation, the Fourteen Phonemes, and so forth. In the morning [Paramārtha] would confer them, and in the evening [Shao] would transmit them; at night [Shao] would hear them, and at dawn [Shao] would expound them. As the worldly proverb goes, it was truly “a refilling of the poured pitcher” and “knowing ten things reborn.” When the Liang King of Leyang ascended the throne in Jing[zhou], he dispatched messengers from afar to welcome him to propagate the Dharma in the capital of Chu. Shao considered the heavy obligation of repaying the land, so the imperial decree was disregarded. When Emperor Wu and Emperor Wen of the Chen succeeded each other in imperial rule, both promoted and valued the correct Way, issuing decrees inviting him to return to the capital; their reverence for his precept-standards and their exceptional courtesies became all the greater. In the fourth year of the Tianjia era, more than two hundred people, including Huizao of Kuaiji and Daolun of Tongtai [Monastery], signed a joint petition inviting Shao to give long lectures at Baima Monastery. For over ten years, he broadly propagated and transmitted the transformation. Having reached the age of sixty, he ordered Huizao to continue the lecturing, while he himself went in person to Waguan [Monastery] to sit in calm contemplation for a short time. The Dharma-gates were profound and wondrous. At that time, the śramaṇa Zhiyi possessed samādhi and prajñā that were hard to surpass, and both humans and spirits could scarcely measure him. In quiet admiration of [Shao's] incisive penetration, which seemed as if achieved long ago, [Zhiyi] and the former students repeatedly invited him to lecture again. Having focused his mind for a prolonged period, [Shao] declined on grounds of illness. Furthermore, when His Highness the Prince of Xin'an, Huang the Minister of Works, and others joined the monks in thrice entreating him, he could not avoid their earnest entreaties, and briefly expounded the Vimalakīrti-nirdeśa at the Prince's palace. At Longguang Monastery, he broadly expounded the Tattvasiddhi-śāstra; this continued for several years, completing the schools of learning. Not declining on account of decrepit old age, his heart yearned to return to the mountain forests. He then entered a secluded crag to find peace within himself for over ten years. On the eleventh day of the tenth month in the first year of the Zhide era, at midday, lying on his right side with his mental faculties serene, he passed away at Kaishan Monastery at the age of seventy-six. On the sixteenth day of that month, he was buried at Dulong Mountain on the Zhong Ridge. He had lectured on the Tattvasiddhi-śāstra more than fifty times, the Mahāparinirvāṇa-sūtra thirty times, the Pañcaviṃśatisāhasrikā-prajñāpāramitā forty times, the new Suvarṇaprabhāsa more than thirty times; the number of times he lectured on sūtras such as the Vimalakīrti, Devarāja, and Kāruṇikarāja were so numerous and disordered that they are not recorded in detail.