續高僧傳 23.9

23.9

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.