續高僧傳 25.151

25.151

Śramaṇa Fachong, courtesy name Xiaodun, was surnamed Li and was a native of Chengji in Longxi. Because his father and grandfather had successively served the Wei and Qi dynasties, he was born in the Yan region. In his youth, Chong was exceptionally gifted and held worldly conventions in contempt. At the age of twenty, he became close friends with Vice Director Fang Xuanling. They said to each other, 'If a gentleman does not reach the fifth rank by maturity, we will together decline office and live as recluses.' When Chong was twenty-four, he indeed became a Langjiang of the Soaring Falcon. Encountering the death of his mother, he read the Nirvāṇa Sūtra; upon coming across the passage describing household life as cramped and oppressive, he resolved to leave home. He listened to lectures on the Nirvāṇa Sūtra more than thirty times. He then went to Dharmabhāṇaka Gao in Anzhou, studying the Large Prajñāpāramitā, the Three Treatises, and the Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra. He then entered Mount Wudu to cultivate his practice. At the age of thirty, he traveled to Jizhou. In the early years of the Zhenguan era, an imperial edict decreed the death penalty for anyone who privately ordained monks. Chong vowed to sacrifice his life and immediately shaved his head. At that time, many monks had fled to Mount Yiyang to escape trouble, and their provisions were exhausted. Chong went directly to the prefectural magistrate and said, 'If there is a death sentence, I will bear it personally. If you will only donate spiritual provisions, you will ultimately attain blessings and protection.' The magistrates and officials, admiring his fierce integrity, suspended the enforcement of the laws and provided relief. They divided the monks into two locations, establishing in each a granary of about ten hu of rice. At one site, more than forty disciples purely studied the Mahāyāna and cultivated meditation; after a year, their rice remained unchanged, not depleted at all. At the other site, fifty or sixty people exhausted their rice in merely two days, because they did not cultivate meditation and engaged in non-Buddhist studies. Chong said to them, 'This is nothing to be surprised at. Those who practice the Way receive the grace of the white curl [of the Buddha]. Material benefits are evoked by the Way, and thus return to sustain the assembly of the Way. When practice deviates from the work of the Way, it is natural that provisions frequently run out.' At that time, as refugees became ever more numerous and heavy rains set in, they had nowhere to lodge. There was a large crag on the mountain inhabited by wild beasts. Chong went to the cave beneath the crag and said, 'Now that destitute guests have come to turn to you, can you make room for us?' The tigers then led one another away, and the assembly came to rely on the crag. Chong continued to listen to lectures on the Avataṃsaka Sūtra and other texts, as well as their difficult interpretations. He went to Anzhou again. There was a Daoist named Cai Zihuang, who was well-versed in both internal and external learning and on close terms with the monastic community. When clergy and laity gathered in great numbers at a monastery, they invited Huang to lecture on a Buddhist scripture. Chong said, 'Your appearance is that of an outsider, and your mind is entangled in heterodoxy. If you arbitrarily lecture on Buddhist scriptures, it will ultimately be for fame and profit. Among our monastics and laity, regardless of rank, the essential point is to be a son of the Śākya clan. Since I am here, this must strictly not take place. You should recognize the moment early on, so as not to regret it later.' Hearing this, Huang fell silent and hesitantly withdrew. At that time, the great assembly sighed in admiration, saying, 'This is truly a Dharma-protecting Bodhisattva!' Chong, noting that the profound scripture of the Laṅkāvatāra had long been neglected, sought it out everywhere without dreading hardship or peril. Encountering the successors of Master [Hui]ke who widely practiced this scripture, he relied on the master to study it; repeatedly striking upon its grand principles, the master yielded his disciples to Chong and entrusted him with the teaching. Chong then gave over thirty consecutive lectures on it. Later, he met direct disciples of Master [Hui]ke and lectured on it according to the One Vehicle school of South India, giving another hundred lectures. The scripture was originally translated by the Tripiṭaka Master Guṇabhadra during the Song dynasty, with Dharmabhāṇaka Huiguan serving as the scribe. Hence, its text and principles are harmonious, and its practice and substance are fully unified; it focuses entirely on mindfulness and wisdom, rather than on words and debate. Later, Dhyāna Master Bodhidharma transmitted it across north and south, taking the abandonment of speech, the abandonment of thought, and non-attainment through right contemplation as the core宗旨. Later, when it circulated in the Central Plains, Dhyāna Master Huike was the first to grasp its essential guidelines. The literati of the Wei realm largely disdained it, but those who grasped its core and realized its intent were periodically awakened by it. Now, as the human generations have grown ever more distant, later students have fallen into confusion. Master [Hui]ke's separate biography sets this out in brief detail. Here, the lineage of masters is recounted as the succession, showing that the teachings studied have clear authority: After Dhyāna Master Bodhidharma, there were two people: Huike and Huiyu. Master Yu received the mind-practice of the Way, but never spoke of it with his mouth. After Master Huike, there were Chan Master Can, Chan Master Hui, Chan Master Sheng, Elder Master Na, Chan Master Duan, Master Changzang, Dharmabhāṇaka Zhen, and Dharmabhāṇaka Yu (all of the above spoke of the profound principles orally without producing written records). After Master [Hui]ke, there were Master Shan (produced an abstract in 4 fascicles), Chan Master Feng (produced a commentary in 5 fascicles), Chan Master Ming (produced a commentary in 5 fascicles), and Master Huming (produced a commentary in 5 fascicles). Distantly inheriting after Master [Hui]ke were Master Dachong (produced a commentary in 5 fascicles), Master Daoyin (an abstract in 4 fascicles), Dharmabhāṇaka Chong (a commentary in 5 fascicles), Dharmabhāṇaka An (a commentary in 5 fascicles), Dharmabhāṇaka Chong (a commentary in 8 fascicles), and Master Daming (a commentary in 10 fascicles). Those who did not inherit from Master [Hui]ke but relied on the Mahāyānasaṃgraha were Chan Master Qian (produced a commentary in 4 fascicles) and Vinayadhara Shangde (produced a commentary on the Entry into the Laṅkā in 10 fascicles). After Elder Master Na, there were Chan Master Shi, Chan Master Hui, Dharmabhāṇaka Kuang, and Master Hongzhi (his name resided at Ximing Monastery in the capital; upon his death, his teaching became extinct). After Chan Master Ming, there were Dharmabhāṇaka Qie, Master Baoyu, Master Baoying, and Master Daoying (who successively transmitted the lamp down to the present, spreading the transformation). Master Chong himself, from the time he took up scriptural studies, specialized exclusively in making the Laṅkāvatāra his specialty. In all, he expounded it nearly two hundred times. Whenever a passage was required, he cited it directly without consulting the text. Adapting flexibly to circumstances, he used momentum to cultivate and guide others; his grasp of the principle was consistent, yet his words varied with the occasion. Students earnestly begged him to bring out an exegesis. He said to them, 'Principle means the underlying truth. Speech is already crude, let alone spreading it on paper, which is the crudest of the crude.' Having no alternative, he composed a commentary in five fascicles, titled 'Personal Notes', which is widely circulated today. Earlier, Chong traveled throughout the eastern river regions, not assuming an official monastic registration. When opportunities for ordination repeatedly occurred, he loftily declined them. When he was approaching fifty, an imperial decree was issued to ordain monks. The authorities of Yanzhou compelled him to be ordained, registering him at Fajis Temple in the prefecture. Although his name was entered in the official rolls, his mind remained set on dwelling among springs and rocks and ministering to recluses. When Duke Fang [Xuanling] held the position of prime minister, he wrote a letter summoning him to court. Upon receiving it, Chong wrote on the back: 'I have no need for anything in the three realms; your lordship has reached the pinnacle of rank among the three sophoras.' The Duke invited him again. Without adhering to ordinary conventions, Chong soared to the capital, where his propagation of the Great Dharma stirred and inspired the elite; officials gathered like rising clouds, praising it as unprecedented. Du Zhenglun, a Secretariat drafter, personally attended the Dharma seat to evaluate the profound principles. When Dharmabhāṇaka Run of Hongfu Monastery first met him, not knowing who he was, he asked, 'From where does this venerable bhadanta come?' Chong replied, 'Merely an old, humble monk of Yanzhou.' Run asked again, 'Why have you come from so far?' Chong replied, 'Hearing that the One Vehicle is scarce here, I wished to cast the net of the One Vehicle teaching to fish out the dragons and fish from the waters of faith, and therefore I came.' Run said, 'This is truly a great-minded bodhisattva!' Once, when walking to Daxingshan Monastery, the magistrate of Wannian, Zheng Qintai, was beating someone in the monastery. Chong stopped him, saying, 'Your Excellency must not beat people in the monastery.' Qintai said, 'I shall bear the sin of beating people myself.' Chong replied, 'Since the Way cannot bear it for you, could you send someone else to receive it? When the state establishes a monastery, it fundamentally intends to bring peace to the altars of the land and grain, through which only virtuous deeds should be performed. If your Excellency now beats people in a monastery, how can that be called praying for blessings for the state?' Qintai then bowed in apology. Furthermore, Tripiṭaka Master Xuanzang did not permit the lecturing on previously translated scriptures. Chong said, 'You left home in reliance on the old scriptures. If you do not permit the propagation of the old scriptures, you should return to the lay life and leave home again in reliance on the newly translated scriptures; only then could I grant your point.' Hearing this, Xuanzang desisted. Chong was thus an epochal champion of scripture and defender of the Dharma, impossible to match. Throughout his life, Chong took roaming the Way as his duty and never settled down. Vice Director Yu Zhining said, 'This Dharmabhāṇaka is a dhūta monk of the dharmadhātu; he cannot be bound by name or substance.' In the Xianqing era, he returned to the east; up to the current Linde era, he is seventy-nine years old.