續高僧傳 16.47

16.47

Shi Xinxing, whose secular surname was Wang, was a native of Wei commandery. His mother had been without a child for a long time, so she prayed with utmost sincerity before the Buddha. She dreamt of a spirit holding a boy, who told her: 'I now bring this to give to you.' Upon waking, she felt different from ordinary days, and thereupon became pregnant. When Xing was born, his nature was distinct from ordinary standards. At the age of four, seeing on the road an ox-cart submerged in mud being pulled, he wept incessantly and would only leave after it had turned free. Sometimes, when encountering calves separated from their mothers or incidents of bullying and cheating, by innate knowledge he mediated impartially, taking no pleasure in partial love or hatred. When he reached eight years old, his manner was pure and perceptive, his cleverness and wisdom extraordinary. A scholar once asked him, saying: 'What is your surname now, and what is your maternal family's surname?' He answered: 'Here it is Wang, there it is Sun.' The scholar then teased him, saying: 'Why not take the surname Fan (rice/food) instead of the surname Sun (grandson)?' Xing replied immediately: 'Fan can relieve hunger but cannot relieve thirst; Sun can relieve both hunger and thirst. Therefore it is the surname Sun and not Fan.' His witty responses in accordance with circumstances were all of this kind. When he came to practice the Way with vast profundity, his understanding and awakening reached penetrating accord. He widely investigated sūtras and treatises, his sense and principle soaring far. Assessing the teachings according to the times and verifying people through their sicknesses, he harboured the discernment of independent vision and manifested traces of lofty conduct. While past elders had different reversals and interpretations of doctrines, without wholly following the śrāvakas, he also promoted the bodhisattvas, and applying himself to the scriptural teachings, took actual practice as meritorious work. For instance, based on the Buddha's cardinal principle, respect should not lack practice. Arising from views there emerge arrogance and negligence, which then foster aversion, becoming the cause for [rebirth in] borderlands and lowliness. Now, although one hears the true admonitions, if in one's mind there is no reverent respect, knowing that one's medicine is slight and the sickness is severe, one should in principle redouble one's diligence and exhaust one's strength to cure it. Therefore, wherever near or far, wherever there were shadows and stūpas, he would everywhere circumambulate, prostrating, encircling, and gazing upward with longing, making this the practice of revering the Buddha for future lives. By this single practice he generalized through the rest of his karma. His scrupulous verification and detailed grounds were generally like this. Later, at Fazang Monastery in Xiangzhou, he renounced the full precepts and personally undertook menial labor. Providing for both the fields of compassion and respect, his rites extended equally to both monastics and laity. With a single robe and restrained food, he stood out remarkably among his peers of the time. What he set for winter and summer far exceeded standard practices. Therefore, the prominent and accomplished from the four directions all came to his door to interrogate him. Xing directly explained according to the matters without any evasiveness. Among those who heard and had faith, none failed to receive his words atop their heads. They universally abandoned treatises and commentaries to follow his transformation, adopting toward him the rites due to a father and teacher. Before being bound by the years of the monastic code, in the beginning of the Kaihuang era he was summoned into the capital. The Left Vice-Director of the Department of State Affairs, Gao Jiong, invited him to reside at Zhenji Monastery, establishing a separate courtyard to house him. He then composed the Duigen qixing sanjie jilu (Collected Records of the Three Levels of Arising Practice in Accordance with Capacities) and the regulations for various community affairs promulgated in Shandong, totalling over forty fascicles. Citing textual authorities, their classification and narration were distinctly clear. Before and after, people admired his fame and gathered in swarms. Furthermore, five monasteries were established in the capital: namely, Huadu, Guangming, Cimen, Huiri, Hongshan, and the like. From then on, other monasteries also praised and adopted his regulations. None among them did not take the six intervals of circumambulatory veneration and begging for food as their vocation, their pious longing and pure sincerity being as though they could never attain it. In his final illness, which was severe, he exerted his strength to go to the Buddha hall daily to contemplate the images. As his breath gradually weakened, he requested an image to be brought into his room, and watched it lying down until he passed away. His age was fifty-four; it was the fourth day of the first month of the fourteenth year [of Kaihuang]. On the seventh day of that month, from Huadu Monastery, his corpse was conveyed to Chiming Mound in the Zhongnan Mountains. Monastics and laity wailed and wept, the sound shaking the capital. Having abandoned his body, when his bones were gathered, his two ears were pierced through. A stūpa was erected and a stele was set up at the foot of the mountain. There was a retired gentleman and upāsaka from Hedong, Pei Xuanzheng, who composed the text. Zheng had originally gone forth and resided at Huadu. When Xinxing arrived, Zheng firmly took him as a teacher. Whatever Xing authored was entrusted to Zheng's brush. Later, Zheng followed secular dress, yet still cut off arrogance and extravagance. He formed his own fellowship of disciples and further established disciplinary rules. Monastics who returned to the Way joined together in praising him. In life, he personally composed a stele detailing his own virtues; only upon death was it carved and erected at the site of the stūpa. This is one of the three steles standing abreast in front of the northern cliff of Zhixiang Monastery. At first, when Xinxing abruptly arose with unusual practices, he occasionally drew criticism. What general discussions detail need not be distinguished here; yet his observance was harsh and steep, partial and shallow, and out of balance. As for the Buddha's cardinal principle, it was merely one path among ten thousand avenues. What he wrote in his compilations all cited canonical texts; yet their titles and assigned names lacked fixed standards. Although termed 'arising practice in accordance with capacities', their subtle aims and substance, as well as the events referred to by their banners and labels, remained obscure and sunken. If future sages examine them in detail, may they know there were authorities. In the final years of the Kaihuang era, an imperial decree proscribed them from circulation, probably in the same vein of admonition and encouragement. A separate original biography circulates in the world, which can be seen in Fei Changfang's Sanbao lu.