續高僧傳 22.45

22.45

Shi Mingdao, surnamed Yao, was originally from Wuxing. Because his family served as officials in Shezhou, he settled there. From his youth, he was in accord with refined deportment, standing out from the crowd. Amid the chaos and downfall at the end of the Sui, both of his parents passed away. He resolved to enter the monastic life (pravrajyā), with the intention of defending the Dharma (dharmaprakāśa). Wherever he went, he sought out the disciplinary examinations of Maitreya. At the beginning of the Zhenguan era, his travels brought him to Chenzhou, where he encountered an imperial decree screening the saṅgha to retain only the worldly renowned. Because Dao had long been clothed in a reputation for virtue, he complied with this selection. Although he received the honor of renown, his intention was to leave it behind. He sighed, saying, "The monastic life is for grand deliverance, where one must preserve dedication to the Way. How could one be restrained and confined to a single locality by registers of names?" He then decisively set out on a distant journey, abandoning the monasteries. Coming to the seats of the two masters Shuo and Li, he imbibed the profound and abstruse teachings. Before the heat and cold of a single year had passed, his renown was preeminent. When ordered to rehearse the teachings, he was unhindered and fully versed, omitting nothing; among the doctrinal companions of his study-hall, none failed to yield to him in reverence. Whenever lawsuits arising from grievances between monasteries or tangled disputes between monastics and laypeople remained unresolved, they all asked him to arbitrate. When Dao went in person and spoke, they were all pleased and submitted; all marveled at his fine mastery of the expedient means of non-dispute, which was the power of Dao's inconceivable mastery. In the second year of the Longshuo era, his practice along the path had long been manifest, and by imperial decree he took up residence at Tiangong Monastery in the Eastern Capital. In the first year of the Linde era, the reigning emperor ordered an image of Laozi to be fashioned and decreed that it be escorted to Mount Mang, furthermore commanding that the cultural trappings of Luoyang be fully arrayed. At that time, Chief Administrator (Changshi) Han Xiaowei falsely invoked the imperial majesty, and, swayed by the Yellow Turbans, secretly instructed the monks and nuns, ordering them all to join in escorting it. Wei then compelled the twenty-two counties under the prefecture's command to assemble the five assemblies throughout Luozhou, each providing banners and pennants to set out together on an appointed day. Dao stepped forward from the assembly and countered, "The two gates of the Buddha and the Dao have always been as far apart as heaven; the stations of the heterodox and the orthodox differ, fundamentally disparate from the start. How can they be confused and homogenized, and led forth in such a manner? Since there is no specific imperial decree, I dare not obey your command!" Wei was furious, saying, "What sort of man of the Way are you, to dare resist the state's command!" He then had men strip off Dao's kāṣāya and prepared to imprison and indict him. Dao said, "The kāṣāya is worn through imperial ordination; without an imperial decree, it cannot be arbitrarily removed. Since there is no decree commanding monks to escort Daoists, I am not disobeying the state's command!" Wei angrily said, "If any man of the Way will not escort the Heavenly Venerable, step forward!" Dao immediately straightened his body and stood alone. All the participating monks and nuns went at once to Dao's side. Wei said in anger, "You men of the Way wish to rebel!" Dao responded to his voice, addressing the officials of the Six Departments: "The senior official broadly summoned the monks and nuns and shouted that they were rebelling; in truth, it is the senior official himself who is rebelling—the monks are not rebelling! We must report this to the Censorate!" Dao and the others rushed out all at once. Wei became exceedingly panicked and frightened; descending the steps, he humbled himself, apologized with shame, and halted the affair. In resisting oppression in this manner, few in these latter days could match him. On the occasion of a grand assembly of monks for screening and ordination, the offering of food by Tiangong Monastery did not arrive until past noon. Among the monks were those who did not gauge the solar time, taking the food and eating it. Dao said, "You Bhadantas are the ones to whom the Buddhadharma has been entrusted, paradigms for all under Heaven! To eat food out of time in the presence of laypeople openly violates the Dharma and Vinaya, and makes manifest the conditions for the destruction of the Dharma! How can you brazenly blind both the sagely and the ordinary to such an extent?" The assembly were all ashamed. He then asked for water to rinse his mouth, and did not eat for over a month, sorrowfully lamenting the imminent decay and ruin of the True Dharma. Only after both monastics and laypeople bitterly pleaded with him did he finally eat a cake. Judging by this, we know that there have indeed been men of our age who defended the Dharma without regard for their physical lives. Now over sixty years of age, when the preeminent talents of the East gathered together at that time, Dao enjoyed a lofty reputation among the pure assembly.