續高僧傳 7.17

7.17

Śramaṇa Jingshao, surnamed Yan, was a native of Shangyu in Kuaiji. He entered the Way when he was of school age, serving his uncle, Sengguang, as his model teacher. Guang's practice of the vinaya was chaste and strict, and he was a leader of his time. When Shao first traveled to the capital to listen to lectures, he was already able to engage in pure debate. Upon reaching the age of adulthood, he returned to his home region to receive the precepts, upholding and revering them faithfully as if carrying a bowl of oil. There was a śramaṇa, Daolin, who asked him to remain in his homeland. [Daolin] then dreamt that Shao's tongue-mark was broad and long, but on the verge of being severed. Waking up, he reflected deeply that longing and lingering would cause this fall and loss; feeling ashamed and regretting his former request, he encouraged [Shao] to set out for the capital. Thereupon, [Shao] extensively propagated the transformation of the Dharma, the transmission of the lamp never failing; he was indeed an inheritor of the mantle of the Venerable Min of Zhuangyan [Monastery]. Next, he received instruction from Sengchuo of Longguang [Monastery], who was an offshoot of [Bao]qiong of Kaishan [Monastery]. He also investigated and practiced the Tripiṭaka, extensively integrating the various traditions. At the age of twenty-three, he lectured on the Pañcaviṃśatisāhasrikā-prajñāpāramitā Sūtra; his contemporaries relished the Dharma, crowding shoulder to shoulder until they overflowed the streets. Later, he returned to such monasteries as Jianyuan and Jinling to expound the sūtras and treatises, his understanding surpassing that of all schools. Shao then vowed that at the age of forty he would take up lecturing permanently, and his fellow students looked to one another, unable to contain their admiration. At the age of thirty-nine, the lecture master of Jianyuan Monastery left a deathbed bequest for the transmission of the Dharma; Shao, honoring his lingering legacy, immediately ascended the seat and expounded it. The guests who received his instruction regarded him as greater than their teachers and mentors. Emperor Jianwen of the Liang, the Prince of Shaoling, the Prince of Yueyang, and others held him in great esteem, taking refuge in him and receiving his admonitions. After the perils and upheavals, as the world changed and minds became unsettled, he went to Yuzhang intending to open a path for the Dharma's affairs. At that time, he met Huang, Minister of Works of Yuzhou, and others, who, out of long-standing reverence, invited him to be their preceptor. By chance, he met the foreign Tripiṭaka Master Paramārtha, whose understanding encompassed both the Mahāyāna and the Hīnayāna, and whose practice gathered in both self and others. Upon meeting once, they rejoiced and conversed together. Paramārtha sighed and said, “I have traveled to many lands, but rarely encountered such a man.” He then remained in the capital of Yu[zhang] to translate the newly [brought] Suvarṇaprabhāsa-sūtra, along with the Vijñaptimātratāsiddhi-śāstra, the Centum Phrases on Nirvāṇa, the Great Liberation, the Fourteen Phonemes, and so forth. In the morning [Paramārtha] would confer them, and in the evening [Shao] would transmit them; at night [Shao] would hear them, and at dawn [Shao] would expound them. As the worldly proverb goes, it was truly “a refilling of the poured pitcher” and “knowing ten things reborn.” When the Liang King of Leyang ascended the throne in Jing[zhou], he dispatched messengers from afar to welcome him to propagate the Dharma in the capital of Chu. Shao considered the heavy obligation of repaying the land, so the imperial decree was disregarded. When Emperor Wu and Emperor Wen of the Chen succeeded each other in imperial rule, both promoted and valued the correct Way, issuing decrees inviting him to return to the capital; their reverence for his precept-standards and their exceptional courtesies became all the greater. In the fourth year of the Tianjia era, more than two hundred people, including Huizao of Kuaiji and Daolun of Tongtai [Monastery], signed a joint petition inviting Shao to give long lectures at Baima Monastery. For over ten years, he broadly propagated and transmitted the transformation. Having reached the age of sixty, he ordered Huizao to continue the lecturing, while he himself went in person to Waguan [Monastery] to sit in calm contemplation for a short time. The Dharma-gates were profound and wondrous. At that time, the śramaṇa Zhiyi possessed samādhi and prajñā that were hard to surpass, and both humans and spirits could scarcely measure him. In quiet admiration of [Shao's] incisive penetration, which seemed as if achieved long ago, [Zhiyi] and the former students repeatedly invited him to lecture again. Having focused his mind for a prolonged period, [Shao] declined on grounds of illness. Furthermore, when His Highness the Prince of Xin'an, Huang the Minister of Works, and others joined the monks in thrice entreating him, he could not avoid their earnest entreaties, and briefly expounded the Vimalakīrti-nirdeśa at the Prince's palace. At Longguang Monastery, he broadly expounded the Tattvasiddhi-śāstra; this continued for several years, completing the schools of learning. Not declining on account of decrepit old age, his heart yearned to return to the mountain forests. He then entered a secluded crag to find peace within himself for over ten years. On the eleventh day of the tenth month in the first year of the Zhide era, at midday, lying on his right side with his mental faculties serene, he passed away at Kaishan Monastery at the age of seventy-six. On the sixteenth day of that month, he was buried at Dulong Mountain on the Zhong Ridge. He had lectured on the Tattvasiddhi-śāstra more than fifty times, the Mahāparinirvāṇa-sūtra thirty times, the Pañcaviṃśatisāhasrikā-prajñāpāramitā forty times, the new Suvarṇaprabhāsa more than thirty times; the number of times he lectured on sūtras such as the Vimalakīrti, Devarāja, and Kāruṇikarāja were so numerous and disordered that they are not recorded in detail.