宋高僧傳 12.40

12.40

釋慧恭，俗姓羅氏，福州閩人也。家傳儒素，不交非類。母妊之初，夢所居湧出浮圖，上參于天。迨恭誕生，嶷然聰悟。年十七，舉進士，名隨計車。將到京闕，因遊終南山奉日寺，目祖師遺像，釋然世網，遂求出家。操執僧事，備歷艱辛。二十有二，適值新創安國寺受具足戒。尋乃遊方，緣嶮涉荒，而無難色。嘗遇黑蛇傷指，不求醫而毒螫自銷。見魑魅占山，諭罪福而妖物遄息。至武陵德山，詣宣鑒禪師，領會風飛，由茲道合。因挂錫，施門人禮。鑒公順世後，遊玉山。至信州，刺史營西禪院而禮之，其徒數百人。居歲餘，以郛郭喧繁，復入福州長溪馬冠山。自馬冠抵泉州富陽山，所至之所，檀施臻集，徒侶解鉢，禪坊立就，其為士庶嚮奉如此。景福三年，與門人遊天台，州牧京兆杜雄留之而止。杜因創瑞龍院於紫凝山，祈恭興揚法席，以悟淪迷。緇俗雲馳，香花山積。天復三年癸亥十二月午時，命眾聲鐘，顧瞻左右，促言云去。加趺瞑目，儼然而化，春秋八十四，僧夏六十二。闡圓頓之宗，居道德之最，歿無易名，塔無題榜，足見浮名為桎梏耳。門人上足師遂植松負土，力崇塔廟，所謂法空不壞因緣矣。因緣有之，孝行曷傷于道云。

Shi Huigong, whose secular surname was Luo, was a native of Min in Fuzhou. His family had passed down Confucian simplicity for generations and did not associate with improper persons. When his mother was first pregnant with him, she dreamed that a stūpa welled up from their residence, reaching high into the heavens. When Gong was born, he was remarkably intelligent. At age seventeen, he was recommended for the jinshi examination, his name listed on the tribute carriage. When he was about to reach the capital, he toured Fengri Temple on Mount Zhongnan, beheld the portrait of the ancestral master, and was released from the nets of the world; thereupon he sought to leave the household. Taking up monastic duties, he endured every hardship. At twenty-two, it happened that the newly founded Anguo Temple allowed him to receive the full precepts. Soon after, he traveled about, braving peril and traversing desolate regions without showing any hardship. Once he was bitten on the finger by a black snake, but without seeking medical aid, the virulent venom dissipated on its own. Seeing mountain demons occupying a mountain, he instructed them on sin and blessing, and the monstrosities quickly ceased. Reaching Deshan in Wuling, he visited Chan Master Xuanjian; his comprehension took wing like the wind, and from this their paths coalesced. Thereupon he hung up his staff and performed the rites of a disciple. After Master Jian passed away, he traveled to Mount Yu. Reaching Xinzhou, the prefect built the Western Chan Cloister and treated him with reverence, where his disciples numbered several hundred. After dwelling there for over a year, because the city was noisy and crowded, he re-entered Mount Maguan in Changxi, Fuzhou. From Maguan he reached Mount Fuyang in Quanzhou; wherever he arrived, donors flocked to assemble, companions unpacked their bowls, and Chan cloisters were immediately completed—such was the devotion he received from gentry and commoners. In the third year of Jingfu, he toured Tiantai with his disciples, and Du Xiong, the prefect from Jingzhao, detained him to stay. Du then founded Ruilong Cloister on Mount Zining, entreating Gong to promote the Dharma seat to awaken those lost in delusion. Monastics and laypeople rushed like clouds, and incense and flowers piled up like mountains. At noon on the day of the guihai month of the twelfth month in the third year of Tianfu, he ordered the assembly to sound the bell, looked around at those to his left and right, and urged them with his final words that he was departing. Crossing his legs and closing his eyes, he solemnly passed away. His spring and autumn were eighty-four; his monastic summers were sixty-two. He expounded the doctrine of the perfect and sudden, and dwelt at the pinnacle of virtue; in death he had no posthumous name, and his stūpa had no inscribed plaque, showing that fleeting fame was merely a shackle to him. His senior disciple Shisui planted pines and carried earth, striving to construct the stūpa and shrine—this was what is called 'the emptiness of dharmas does not destroy conditions.' Since conditions exist, how could filial conduct harm the Way?