續高僧傳 28.28

28.28

Shi Kongzang, whose secular surname was Wang, had ancestors from Jinyang and now resided in Xinfeng in Yongzhou. When his mother first conceived him, she naturally refrained from alcohol, meat, and the five pungent roots. Because of his resemblance to Śāriputra while yet amid the dust of the world, people secretly marveled at him. After he was born and raised, his spiritual insight showed itself daily, and his aspirations were lofty and far-reaching. He read and chanted scriptures and treatises, his mind set on delivering beings. When he reached the age of nineteen, he wished to leave home as the Buddha did. Considering that he was an only son and that his parents would obstruct him, he stretched his body out on the ground before his father for seven days without rising. Fearing he would die, his father finally yielded to his wish. He immediately took leave and went into Mount Fu'er in Lantian to shave his head in secret. At first, he took six pecks of flour intended as provisions for a month, eating two pints a day, yet it was not exhausted in three years. Repeatedly he moved divine cauldrons to arrive naturally. Because of this, he intensified his meditation and recitation, unceasing day and night. Later, he relied on Dharma Master Pan and lived at Longchi Monastery. Reverently cherishing the scriptures and treatises, he recited ten thousand words daily, totaling more than three hundred fascicles over time. He thoroughly investigated the three treatises and the Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra to their depths. At the beginning of the Daye era, because Kongzang’s fame had spread far and was heard of by monastics and laity, an imperial decree was issued summoning him to enter and reside at Chanding Monastery. When the Tang dynasty arose and repaired and promoted Dharma temples, an imperial decree established Huichang Monastery in Jincheng Ward, inviting ten bhadantas and ordaining fifty monks to dwell and uphold it permanently. Because Kongzang’s practice and virtue had long been evident, they also invited him to reside there. The provisions and offerings were ever more abundant, and his glory was continually splendid. Yet by nature he delighted in mountains and rivers, his aspiration set on pure spaciousness. Every mid-spring, he roamed the forests and hills. Traveling to Yuquan, he conceived the desire to spend his remaining years there. He dwelt there for a decade; the multitudes gathered like a mountain. He guided and instructed without weariness, opening minds ever more broadly. Later, due to a severe drought, the mountain spring dried up over time, and all the monks of the monastery sighed in alarm. Kongzang then prayed with utmost sincerity, and the spring immediately restored its flow. Monastics and laity far and near were moved with joy. Moreover, his broad conduct was as steadfast as a mountain, and his capacity was as calm as deep waters. He was untroubled by worldly glory or profit and took no heed of favor or disgrace; in delivering sentient beings, he did not neglect an inch of time. He then extracted essential Mahāyāna sentences from various scriptures to make scroll manuscripts: on individual sheets he copied five scriptures or three scriptures, and in rolls of twenty or fifty, totaling ten fascicles. Every time he lectured and opened discussions, it greatly advanced their learning; when he heard the teachings, he grasped both the letter and the meaning, with nothing confused or forgotten. During the summer, he regularly practiced the vaipulya repentance method, and bowed once daily to the thousand Buddhas of the Bhadrakalpa. He constantly sat without lying down for nearly thirty years. His zealous devotion and focused concentration were difficult for others to emulate. On the twelfth day of the fifth month in the sixteenth year of the Zhenguan era, he passed away at Huichang Monastery at the age of seventy-four. His body was abandoned by the side of Longchi Monastery, where his bones were collected and a stupa was erected. Looking at the wealth of his reading and recitation, few could equal it throughout antiquity. When examining his skull, both ear canals were clear and open, there were double holes at the crown, and the eye sockets contained apertures, three in each. His disciples, remembering his eternal departure, erected a stele in Huichang Monastery, with an inscription written by Yu Zhining, Grand Master for Golden and Purple Radiance and Minister of the Guards.