宋高僧傳 12.16

12.16

釋從諫，姓張氏，本南陽人也，徙居廣陵，生于淮甸焉。為性倜儻，器宇崇峙，於閭里間，為時畏服。遇相工曰：「子身長八尺，眉目秀朗，他日必荷榮寄。」諫曰：「心不願仕，於榮寄何有？」相工曰：「所寄荷不可測也。」越壯室之年，忽深信佛理，遂捨妻孥，求僧披剃焉。甫登戒地，頗護心珠，因悟禪那，頓了玄理。方數十載，同好之者自遠而來請問。諫一一指訂，俾其開覺。尋遊洛下廣愛寺挂錫。時禪客鱗集，如孝子之事父母焉。洛中有請諫設食，必排位對賓頭盧尊者，其為人之欽奉皆此類矣。屬會昌五年詔廢佛塔廟，令沙門復桑梓，亦例澄汰。乃烏帽麻衣，潛于皇甫氏之溫泉別業。後岡上喬木駢欝，巨石砥平，諫於夏中常就此入定，或補毳事。忽遇頹雲駛雨，霆電擊石，烈風兼至，凡在此者驚奔恐懾。諫唯欣然加趺而坐，若無所聞者。或問諫，曰：「惡畜生何爾！」大中初，宣皇詔興釋氏，諫還歸洛邑舊居。其子一日自廣陵來覲，適與諫遇於院門，威貌嚴莊，不復可識。乃問曰：「從諫大德所居？」諫指之東南可尋。其子既去，遂闔門不出，其割裂愛網又若此也。咸通七年丙戌歲夏五月，忽出詣檀越家辭別曰：「善建福業，貧道秋初當遠行，故相聞耳。」至秋七月朔旦，旦盥手焚香，念慈氏如來已，右脇而臥，呼門人玄章，誡之曰：「人身難得而易失，急急，於物無心，無為流轉，無生滅法，一切現存。今乃生也有涯，暫與爾別。」是日無疾而化，行年八十餘矣。玄章等奉遺旨，送屍于建春門外尸陀林中，施諸鳥獸。三日復視之，肌貌如生，一無近者。遂以餅餌覆之，經宿有狐狼迹，唯啖所覆，身且儼如。乃議用外國法焚之，收合餘燼，起白塔于道傍。人尤歸信，香火不絕焉。次有杭州徑山院釋鑒宗，湖州長城人也。姓錢氏，即禮部侍郎徽之孫。父晟有疾，宗割股肉饋啖之，紿云「他畜之肉」。未幾病間，孝譽聞于親里，乃求出家。時州開元寺有上都臨壇十望大德內供奉高閑，閑善草、隷，嘗對懿宗御前書，甚高華望，宗誓禮為師。後出學，涉通《淨名》、《思益經》，遂常講習。閑公亦示其筆法，漸得鳳毛焉。倏往謁鹽官悟空大師，隨眾參請，頓徹心源。却復故鄉，勸人營福。咸通三年辛巳，巡歷名山，遂止天目東峯徑山焉。道俗歸心，恢揚法教。出弟子尤者天童山咸啟、勅賜紫衣背山行真、大慈山行滿，皆分枝化物，至七年丙戌閏三月五日示滅。遷塔于大寂巖下。梁乾化五年，吳越國王尚父錢氏表請追諡大師曰無上，祖門傳號為徑山第二祖。時吳興沈修者自號白牙先生，述德為讚記焉。

Shi Congjian, whose surname was Zhang, was originally a native of Nanyang; he moved his residence to Guangling, and was born in the Huaidian region. By nature untrammeled, his bearing was lofty and towering; among the village neighborhoods, he was feared and respected in his time. He met a physiognomist who said: 'You stand eight feet tall, with refined brows and bright eyes; on another day you will surely bear an honorable charge.' Jian said: 'My mind does not wish to serve in office; what use have I for an honorable charge?' The physiognomist said: 'The charge you will bear cannot be measured.' Beyond the age of establishing a household, he suddenly developed deep faith in Buddhist principles; thereupon he abandoned his wife and children, sought a monk, and shaved his head. No sooner had he mounted the platform of precepts than he guarded the mind-jewel with great care; through awakening to dhyāna, he suddenly comprehended the profound principle. Over several decades, those of like mind came from afar to ask questions. Jian pointed them out and corrected them one by one, enabling them to awaken. Soon after, he traveled to the Western Capital of Luoyang to hang his staff at Guang'ai Temple. At that time, Chan practitioners gathered like fish scales, serving him as filial sons serve their parents. When anyone in Luoyang invited Jian to offer food, they would always arrange a seat facing the Venerable Piṇḍola; his veneration by people was all of this kind. During the fifth year of Huichang, an edict ordered the abolition of Buddhist pagodas and shrines and commanded śramaṇas to return to their native places, so he was also caught up in the purge. Thereupon, in black cap and hemp clothes, he hid at the hot spring villa of the Huangfu family. On the ridge behind, tall trees stood dense and crowded, and a giant boulder was flat as a whetstone; in summer, Jian often went there to enter samādhi or mend his patchwork robes. Suddenly a storm of collapsing clouds and driving rain struck, with thunder and lightning striking the rock and fierce winds arriving together; all who were present fled in terror. Jian alone joyfully sat in full lotus posture, as if hearing nothing. When someone asked Jian about it, he said: 'Why make such a fuss over wicked beasts?' At the beginning of Dazhong, Emperor Xuanzong issued an edict to revive the Buddhist religion, and Jian returned to his old residence in the city of Luoyang. One day his son came from Guangling to visit him and happened to encounter Jian at the cloister gate; his dignified and awe-inspiring appearance was such that the son could no longer recognize him. The son then asked: 'Where does the Worthy of Great Virtue Congjian live?' Jian pointed to the southeast, saying he could be sought there. Once his son had gone, he shut his door and did not come out; his severing of the net of affection was like this. In the summer, the fifth month of the bingxu year, the seventh year of Xiantong, he suddenly went to the home of a patron to take leave, saying: 'Strive to establish merit; this poor monk will take a distant journey at the beginning of autumn, so I have come to inform you.' On the morning of the first day of the seventh month in autumn, having washed his hands and burned incense, he recollected Maitreya Tathāgata and then lay down on his right side. Calling his disciple Xuanzhang, he admonished him, saying: 'A human body is difficult to obtain and easy to lose; be quick! Have no mind regarding things; do not revolve in saṃsāra. The unproduced and unceasing Dharma is all present right now. Now my life has reached its limit; I take temporary leave of you.' That day he passed away without illness, at an age over eighty. Xuanzhang and others carried out his posthumous will, sending his corpse to the śītavana outside Jianchun Gate to offer to birds and beasts. After three days they inspected it again: his flesh and appearance were as in life, and nothing had approached it. They then covered it with pastries and cakes; overnight there were tracks of foxes and wolves, but they had only eaten what covered it, while his body remained dignified as before. They then deliberated to cremate him using the foreign method, collected the remaining ashes, and erected a white pagoda by the roadside. People placed even greater faith in him, and incense and lamps did not cease. Next, there was Shi Jianzong of Jingshan Cloister in Hangzhou, a native of Changcheng in Huzhou. His surname was Qian, and he was the grandson of Qian Hui, Vice Minister of the Ministry of Rites. When his father Sheng was ill, Zong cut flesh from his own thigh to feed him, lying to him that it was 'the meat of another animal.' Soon after, the illness abated; his filial reputation was heard throughout his relatives and neighborhood, and he thereupon sought to leave the household. At that time, at Kaiyuan Temple in the prefecture, there was the Worthy of Great Virtue of the Capital's Precept Platform and Palace Chaplain Gaoxian; Xian was skilled in cursive and clerical script, and had once written in the imperial presence of Emperor Yizong, enjoying a very high and splendid reputation; Zong vowed to pay homage to him as his master. Later he went out to study, gaining a thorough understanding of the Vimalakīrti-nirdeśa and the Viśeṣacintā-brahma-paripṛcchā-sūtra, and subsequently lectured on and studied them regularly. The venerable Xian also demonstrated his brush technique to him, so that he gradually attained his master's mantle. Suddenly he went to pay respects to Great Master Wukong of Yanguan; following the assembly in consultation, he penetrated directly to the mind-source. He then returned to his native place and encouraged people to cultivate merit. In the third year of Xiantong, the xinji year, he made a tour of famous mountains and thereupon settled at Mount Jing on the eastern peak of Tianmu. Clergy and laity turned their hearts to him, and he broadly propagated the Dharma teachings. Among his disciples, the most prominent were Xianqi of Mount Tiantong, Xingzhen of Mount Beishan who was imperially bestowed a purple robe, and Xingman of Mount Daci, all of whom branched out to transform living beings. On the fifth day of the intercalary third month in the bingxu year, the seventh year, he manifested extinction. His pagoda was moved below the Daji Rock. In the fifth year of Qianhua of the Liang, the King of Wuyue, Grand Father Qian, submitted a memorial requesting the posthumous title Great Master Wushang, and the ancestral lineage handed down his title as the Second Patriarch of Jingshan. At that time, Shen Xiu of Wuxing, who called himself Master Baiya, recorded his virtues in a eulogistic account.