[Pramāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/) › [Indian literature](https://indike.org/pramana/in) › [Buddhist Literature](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha) › [Taishō Tripiṭaka (Chinese Buddhist canon)](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho) › [宋高僧傳](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.2061) › 12.36 # 宋高僧傳 12.36 宋高僧傳 12.36 - **Language:** Classical Chinese ### [12.36](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.2061.12.36) 釋恒通，俗姓李，邢州平恩人也。家傳士族，幼而知學。蘇秦顯達，猶懷二頃之田；元亮孤高，不羨五斗之祿。縱越掞天擲地，拖紫腰金，瞬息浮華，豈裨來業？父母終禮，年甫十三，潛入鵲山訪道依師。既罷丘墳，唯披釋典，精虔懺誦，懇侍巾瓶，不弭初終，蒙恩剃度。年二十，於本州開元寺具戒。後往京兆薦福寺聽習經律。七八年間，尋窮藏教，乃曰：「摩騰入漢，譯著斯文。聖胄來梁，復明何事？」因辭北闕，逕詣南方，遇招賢岑大師。大師問曰：「何處人也？」曰：「邢州人也。」招賢曰：「我道不從彼來。」通曰：「和尚還住此無？」於是有滯皆伸，無疑不決。後指洞山、石霜，皆往參焉。招賢示滅，通以弟子禮事之。咸通末，遊宣城，尚書崔璵素奉禪門，攀迎莊肅，覩通儀表拔俗，問答往還，崔甚悅服。於謝仙山奏置禪院，號瑞聖，請以居之。四方毳衲之徒，不邀自聚。博陵方議奏薦師號，堅讓遂寢。中和末，文德初，群寇兢起。通領徒至四明。大順二年，郡牧黃君晟請留居雪竇焉，蔚然盛化。天祐二年七月示疾，越九日躬入浴室，却坐繩床，集眾焚香，勤勤付囑，合掌而逝。春秋七十二，夏臘五十二。以其年八月七日遷石塔于院之西南二百餘步。或曰：「通臨終言：『我龐勛也』。」此非也。高僧無作為《行錄》而無此說。若觀年臘，龐勛豈正弱冠來逃難邪？ > Shi Hengtong, whose secular surname was Li, was a native of Ping'en in Xingzhou. His family had been literati for generations, and from childhood he was devoted to learning. \[He reflected:\] 'Su Qin achieved eminence, yet still yearned for his two qing of land; Yuanliang remained aloof and noble, never coveting the emoluments of five dou of grain. Even if one's talents soar beyond heaven and strike the earth, and one wears purple robes with a golden belt, such fleeting splendour of a moment—how could it benefit future karma?' When the funeral rites for his parents were concluded, he was barely thirteen. He secretly entered Mount Que to seek the Way and rely on a master. Having abandoned the secular classics, he perused only Buddhist scriptures, reverently repenting and reciting, and earnestly serving with towel and pitcher. Never wavering from beginning to end, he received the grace of tonsure. At age twenty, he received the full precepts at Kaiyuan Temple in his native prefecture. Later, he went to Jianfu Temple in the capital to hear and study the sūtras and vinaya. Over seven or eight years, he exhaustively investigated the teachings of the canon, and then said: 'Mātaṅga entered the Han and translated these writings. When the holy descendant \[Bodhidharma\] came to the Liang, what further matter did he clarify?' Thereupon, he took leave of the Northern Court and went straight to the South, where he met Grand Master Cen of Zhaoxian. The Grand Master asked, 'Where are you from?' He replied, 'A native of Xingzhou.' Zhaoxian said, 'My Way does not come from there.' Tong said, 'Does the Upādhyāya still dwell here or not?' Thereupon, all that had been obstructed was unraveled, and no doubt remained unresolved. Later, he was directed to Dongshan and Shishuang, and went to visit them both. When Zhaoxian showed his passing, Tong served him with the rites of a disciple. At the end of the Xiantong era, he traveled to Xuancheng. Minister Cui Yu had long revered the Chan gate; he welcomed him with solemn reverence, and seeing that Tong's deportment surpassed the mundane, they exchanged questions and answers, and Cui was deeply pleased and convinced. He memorialized the throne to establish a Chan cloister on Mount Xiexian named Ruisheng and invited him to dwell there. Robe-clad mendicants from the four directions gathered without being summoned. Just as Boling was debating memorializing for a master's title for him, Tong firmly declined, and the matter was dropped. At the end of the Zhonghe era and the beginning of the Wende era, numerous bandits rose up in competition. Tong led his disciples to Siming. In the second year of Dashun, the prefect Huang Junsheng invited him to remain and reside at Xuedou, where his teaching flourished magnificently. In the seventh month of the second year of Tianyou, he showed illness. Nine days later, he went in person into the bathhouse, returned to sit on a rope chair, assembled the assembly, burned incense, earnestly gave his final instructions, joined his palms, and passed away. His spring and autumn were seventy-two; his summer retreats were fifty-two. On the seventh day of the eighth month of that year, his stone stūpa was relocated to more than two hundred paces southwest of the cloister. Some say, 'On the verge of death, Tong said: "I am Pang Xun."' This is incorrect. There is no such account in the Eminent Monks' Recorded Activities. If one examines his years and retreats, how could Pang Xun have fled disaster just when he had barely reached manhood? > — English (machine translation) (machine translation) - [Previous: 12.35](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.2061.12.35) - [Next: 12.37](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.2061.12.37) - [Up: 12](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.2061.12) ## Translations (1) - [English (machine translation)](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.2061~en-mt.12.36) — English, machine translation --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.2061.12.36](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.2061.12.36) · Pramāṇa