續高僧傳 25.147

25.147

Śramaṇa Mingyin studied dhyāna in his youth, sequentially contemplating the ten totalities (daśa-kṛtsnāyatanāni). He stayed at Muguagu Temple north of the Central Terrace for thirty years, absorbed only in the practice of samādhi without any other concerns. He also went to Foguangshan Temple for seven years, and resided at Dafu Temple for nine years. Those aspiring to the Path followed him unceasingly, and the offerings of monastics and laypeople filled the mountain forests. In the second year of the Yonghui era, the Area Commander of Daizhou, requiring a leader for the monastic assembly of Zhaoguo Temple, summoned him back to assume temple duties; he declined but could not escape it. In the tenth month of the first year of the Longshuo era, he passed away at this temple, sitting upright and serenely as if in prolonged samādhi. On Mount Wutai there was the ancient Dangchang Temple, where sweet springs and beautiful peaks made one forget to return. There was a monk who drank the water and attained immortality; his body was like gossamer gauze, and his internal organs and bone marrow were clearly visible. At the end of the Wude era he walked through the mountains and marshes; more than ten village elders who saw him with their own eyes speak of this today. Mount Wutai is indeed a resting place for the holy and divine. The Central Terrace is the highest, and all the mountains seen from it are below. On it is a great spring named Taihua, beside which are two stūpas; further back, small stone stūpas number hundreds or thousands. It is said they were erected by Emperor Xiaowen coming here from Heng'an in the north. Large footprints of men and horses on the stones remain intact as at the beginning. Thirty li southeast of the Central Terrace, one reaches the Dafu Lingjiu Temple. To the south is a flower garden; those who encountered sages in former and later times were mostly at this place. There are east and west sanctuaries; between them is a valley, and going northwest about eight li, there is the Stūpa of the Prince's Burning of His Body. The temple was originally [founded by] the third son of the Qi Emperor; by nature he delighted in the Buddha's Dharma and longed to see Mañjuśrī, so he came to the mountain to search for him, and having fulfilled his wish, burned his body in offering, whereupon a stūpa was erected. The palace attendant he brought, Liu Qianzhi, practiced circumambulation in this temple for seven days, praying to Mañjuśrī. Having encountered the Holy One, his manhood was restored; he awakened to the meaning of the Avataṃsaka Sūtra and composed a sixty-fascicle treatise on the Avataṃsaka. Now, collected across the temples of Mount Wutai, there are still about three hundred fascicles. Recently, during the Longshuo era, the Emperor ordered the monk Huize of Huichang Temple to twice take items of merit there to repair the stūpas and venerated images; going together with the officials of Wutai County, they fully witnessed the holy traces, and extraordinary fragrances and bell sounds continued without interruption.