續高僧傳 28.23

28.23

Śramaṇa Daoji was a man of Shu. He resided at Fucheng Monastery in Yizhou. Chanting and mastering the Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra was his constant daily practice. Whenever he expounded it, he would invariably wash away all bodily impurities, put on clean robes, ascend the Dharma seat, and only then open the text. He was by nature profound, circumspect, benevolent, and compassionate, taking charge of general duties. Whenever there were people with ulcerous illnesses whose flesh was rotting, their stench was thick and stifling; all the others covered their noses, yet Daoji served them without any hesitation in body or mind. He would share food bowls with them or mend and wash their clothes. When someone questioned him, Daoji said: 'Clean and foul are merely the mind's likes and dislikes. How could I let my thoughts be swayed by them? I merely use this to temper and train myself.' All admired his conduct, but lamented their own inability to match it. In the fifth month of the first year of the Zhenguan era [627 CE], he passed away at the monastery where he resided, at the age of over seventy. Though it was midsummer, his body did not decay or emit foul odor. After a period of a hundred days, he remained seated in the full lotus posture as at first. None failed to sigh in admiration. They thereupon coated him with lacquer and cloth and raised reverence toward him. In Ba, Shu, and the capital, the monks who received and chanted the Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra were not few. There were also the śramaṇas Hongyuan and Seng'en, both of whom chanted the Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra, and monks and laity turned to them. Hongyuan's aspirations were earnest and sincere, his feelings having cast aside fame and profit; summoned to Huichang [Monastery], he was provided for with abundant respect. Seng'en's mind of the Way was pure and solemn, his integrity moving others; he was revered for his virtue at both Hongfu and Chanding [monasteries], yet he maintained himself in humble modesty, rarely known to the ignorant world. At that time, at Hongfu Monastery, there was a śramaṇa named Zhiye, whose ancestral lineage was from Jiangbiao. Summoned to court during the Sui dynasty, he took deep joy in the Saddharmapuṇḍarīka Sūtra and constantly transcribed it. Whatever external donations he received he used to hire scribes; he produced over two thousand copies from first to last. He constantly exhorted himself to copy five sheets daily. Though his years entered their autumn, he never slackened in this work. Now, in general charge of monastic affairs, he is even more diligent in his constant practice, being over seventy years of age.