續高僧傳 26.84

26.84

Śramaṇa Bianji was a native of Xuzhou. In his youth his reputation was spread abroad through his learning in wisdom; drifting on the waves of the human world, he took wandering and lecturing as his vocation. In his later years in the capital of the Northern Qi, he devoted himself to the Mahāprajñāpāramitopadeśa and the Abhidharmahṛdaya; before a year had elapsed, he had roughly attained a comprehensive understanding. Just then, in the final years of the Wuping era, the state fell and the Way perished; he travelled south to Jiangyin, where he studied again under masters of the Sanlun school, his mental vitality reflecting its new principles. At the beginning of the Kaihuang era, he returned to his old hometown; his native place remained, but his friends had passed away. He went west into the capital to seek out the ancient treatises in the style of Nāgārjuna. Later, because his fame extended far, during the Renshou era when stupas were established, an imperial decree summoned him to escort relics to Liugou Temple in his native prefecture. When he first arrived, an extraordinary light suddenly appeared at the site of the relic stupa, illuminating the northern ridge and southern hills of the temple, bright as the morning sun. Furthermore, they quarried stone within Shifo Mountain to make the casket; as soon as the polishing was finished, colourful patterns broke out between the grain, splendid and luminous; images of mountains, seas, birds, beasts, and immortals appeared complete within it, yet even if one tried to copy them in drawing, not one in ten could be captured. In his later years he integrated his former pursuits and propagated them in the capital, and the merit and profits combined were supplied to the monastic estate. The circumstances of his end are unknown.