宋高僧傳 14.10

14.10

釋文綱，姓孔氏，會稽人也。曾祖範，陳都官尚書；祖祀，祠部侍郎；考頂生逃海避隋，擇木歸舜，貞觀始拜尚乘直長；咸光復儒業，旁通釋教。是故綱也植宿根，從習氣。慈母懷孕，雜食棄捐。有婆羅門僧頭陀語其母曰：「若此男，終紹三寶。」自爾每聞空中多異香、雜仙樂。及誕育之日，白鶴翔集，若臨視焉。比襁褓中，午後不受乳哺，猶堅持齋者。童齓，隨師訪道。十二出家，冠年受具。精慮苦行，專念息心，藜羹糗糧，麻衣草薦。操有彝檢，口無溢言。尋詣京兆沙門道成律師，稟毘尼藏。二十五講律，三十登壇。每勤修深思，凝視反聽，淨如止水，嶷若斷山。或風雨宴居，或晝夜獨得。故能吉祥在手，不捨其瓶；威德迎風，不絕於氣。出籠瘠雁，坐致虛空，起屋下層，自然成就。唯甘露之渧口，喻利劍之傷人，慎之，重之！廣矣，至矣！由是八方來學，《四分》永流，請益者舉袂雲臨，讚歎者發聲雷駭。久視中，天作淫雨，人有憂色。綱愍之，乃端坐思惟，却倚屋壁。奄至中夕，欻爾半傾，唯餘背間，嶷然山立，識者以為得神通，因定力故。日月靈跡，幽明潛感，兆於集事，應乎遣言。左右怪之，綱曰：「夫真實無相，塵色本空。正覺圓常，大悲湛定，不可取也。」是以一時法主，四朝帝師，同迦葉之入城，遇匿王之說戒，竹園門外別有沙彌，畢樹枝間廣聞鵽鳥。所以受潤者博，入見者深。萬病已痊，獲歡喜之藥；一心不染，解煩惱之繩。又恭承絲綸，京都翻譯，追論惠用，遠契如因，翹誠滿朝，檀施敵國，但依布薩，盡用莊嚴。累歷伽藍二十餘所，凡是塔廟，各已華豐。猶且刺血書經，向六百卷；登壇受具，僅數千人。至苦至勤，納無我之海；不寢不食，種無生之田。長安四年，奉勅往岐州無憂王寺迎舍利。景龍二載，中宗孝和皇帝延入內道場行道，送真身舍利往無憂王寺入塔。其年於乾陵宮為內尼受戒。復於宮中坐夏，為二聖內尼講《四分律》一遍。中宗嘉尚，為度弟子，賜什物、綵帛三千匹。因奏道場靈感之事，六月七日，御札題牓為靈感寺是也，諸寺辟碩德以隷焉。夫其左籞宿，右上林，南臺終山，北池渭水。千門宮闕，化出雲霄，萬乘旌旗，天迴原隰。先天載睿宗聖真皇帝，又於別殿請為菩薩戒師，妃主環階，侍從羅拜。兜率天上，親聽法言；王舍城中，普聞淨戒。恩旨賜絹三千餘匹，綱悉付常住，隨事修營。或金地繚垣，用增上價；或寶坊飛閣，克壯全模；或講堂經樓，舍利淨土；或軒廊器物，厨庫園林，皆信施法財，周給僧寶。方將示迷津，引覺路，濯熱火宅，拯溺毒流，而乃奄忽神遷，斯須薪盡，雖有應化，何其速歟！以開元十五年八月十五日怡然長往，時春秋九十有二。其年九月四日，塔於寺側焉。聞哀奔喪，執紼會葬，香華幢蓋，緇素華夷，填城塞川，篲雲翳景，蓋數萬人。有若法侶，京兆懷素、滿意、承禮、襄陽崇拔、扶風鳳林、江陵恒景、淄川名恪等百餘人，咸曰：「智河舟遷，法宇棟橈而已哉！」有若弟子，淮南道岸、蜀川神積、岐隴慧顗、京兆神慧、思義、紹覺、律藏、恒暹、崇業等五十餘人，並目以慈眼入於度門，金棺不追，灰骨罔答。乃請滑臺太守李邕為碑。邕象彼馬遷，法其班氏，以二人而同傳，必百行以齊肩。不忝懷素前，不慚宣師後，李北海題品，不其韙乎！有淄州名恪律師者，精執律範，切勤求解，嘗廁宣師法筵，躬問《鈔序》義。宣師親錄，隨喜靈感壇，班名於經末，又附麗文綱之門也。

Śramaṇa Wengang, surnamed Kong, was a native of Kuaiji. His great-grandfather Fan was Minister of the Bureau of Officers under the Chen dynasty; his grandfather Si was Vice Minister of the Ministry of Rites; and his father Dingsheng fled across the sea to evade the Sui, choosing a worthy ruler and submitting to Emperor Taizong, being first appointed Aide of the Directorate of Imperial Stables in the Zhenguan era. All brought glory to their Confucian heritage while broadly mastering the teachings of Śākya. For this reason, Wengang planted roots from past lives and followed their ingrained inclinations. When his loving mother was pregnant, she cast aside all mixed foods. An Indian ascetic monk said to his mother: "If this child is a boy, he will ultimately carry on the Three Jewels." From then on, wondrous fragrances and assorted celestial music were often heard in the air. On the day he was born, white cranes soared and gathered, as if watching over him. While still in swaddling clothes, he refused milk or food after noon, as if strictly maintaining the purification fast. In childhood, he followed masters to seek the Way. At twelve he went forth from the household, and upon reaching capped adulthood he received full ordination. With focused contemplation in ascetic practice, he devoted his mind to quieting mental agitation, eating wild-greens broth and parched grains, and wearing hemp robes and sleeping on grass mats. His conduct adhered to standard norms, and from his mouth came no extravagant speech. Soon he went to Vinaya Master Daocheng, a śramaṇa of the capital, and received the Vinaya Piṭaka. At twenty-five he lectured on the Vinaya, and at thirty he mounted the ordination platform. Always diligently cultivating and deeply contemplating, gazing steadily and turning his hearing inward, he was as clear as still water and as towering as an isolated peak. Whether dwelling peacefully in wind and rain, or gaining realization alone day and night, good fortune was ever in his hands without letting go of his water jar; his majestic virtue met the wind without exhausting his breath. Like lean wild geese released from a cage that effortlessly reach the empty sky, or the raising of the lower story of a house that is completed naturally, he considered the dripping of sweet dew into one's mouth comparable to a sharp sword injuring a person—cautious of it, serious about it! How vast and how consummate! Because of this, students came from all eight directions, the Four-Part Vinaya flowed forever, those seeking instruction raised their sleeves like gathering clouds, and those offering praise raised their voices like startling thunder. During the Jiushi reign era, heaven sent persistent heavy rains, and people looked anxious. Wengang took pity on them, so he sat upright in contemplation, leaning against the wall of the house. In the middle of the night, half of the wall suddenly collapsed, leaving only the area behind his back standing aloft like a mountain. Those with understanding took this to be an attainment of spiritual power due to the force of his samādhi. Miraculous signs like the sun and moon, and silent resonances between the hidden and the manifest, showed portents when assemblies gathered and found response in his spoken words. Those around him were astonished, but Wengang said: "Reality is signless, and form in the dust realm is fundamentally empty. Perfect enlightenment is complete and eternal, and great compassion is serene and still; neither can be grasped." Thus, as a master of the Dharma for his era and imperial preceptor to four courts, he was like Mahākāśyapa entering the city or meeting King Prasenajit to expound the precepts. Outside the gate of the Bamboo Grove there was another novice, and among the branches of the banyan tree the diverse calls of quails were widely heard. Thus those who received his moisture were vast, and those who gained insight were profound. When the myriad illnesses had all healed, they obtained the medicine of joy; when the one mind was undefiled, they untied the cords of affliction. Furthermore, respectfully receiving imperial edicts for the translation bureau in the capital, he traced debates and applied wisdom, profoundly matching the causes of suchness. Sincere devotion filled the court, and donor offerings rivaled whole states, yet relying only on the upoṣadha, he used it all for ornamentation. Over time, he visited more than twenty monasteries; wherever there were pagodas and temples, each became magnificent and abundant. Moreover, he pricked his blood to write out scriptures, totaling nearly six hundred rolls; and those who mounted the platform to receive the full precepts numbered several thousand. Enduring extreme hardship and extreme diligence, he entered the sea of non-self; without sleeping or eating, he planted the field of the unconditioned. In the fourth year of the Chang'an era, he received an imperial decree to go to King Aśoka Temple in Qizhou to welcome the relic. In the second year of the Jinglong era, Emperor Xiaohu (Zhongzong) invited him into the inner precinct to practice the Way and escort the true-body relic to King Aśoka Temple to be enshrined in the pagoda. That year, he conferred the precepts upon the palace nuns at the Qianling Mausoleum Palace. He again spent the summer retreat within the palace, lecturing once on the Four-Part Vinaya for the Two Sages and the palace nuns. Zhongzong commended him, ordained disciples on his behalf, and bestowed utensils and three thousand bolts of colored silk. An account of the miraculous resonances in the precinct having been presented to the throne, on the seventh day of the sixth month an imperial inscription designated it as Linggan Temple, and eminent scholars were recruited from various monasteries to be attached to it. It bordered the imperial park on the left and the Shanglin Park on the right, faced Mount Zhongnan to the south, and looked over the Wei River to the north. Palaces with a thousand gates manifested among the clouds, and banners of the imperial retinue moved like the heavens across plains and marshes. In the Xiantian era, Emperor Shengzhen (Ruizong) again invited him to a separate hall to serve as Bodhisattva Precept Master, with consorts and princesses encircling the steps and attendants bowing in rows. As if on Tuṣita Heaven, they personally heard the Dharma words; as if in the city of Rājagṛha, they widely heard the pure precepts. By gracious decree, more than three thousand bolts of silk were bestowed, all of which Wengang entrusted to the permanent monastic property to be used for maintenance according to need. Whether it was the golden ground and surrounding walls whose value was augmented, the jeweled halls and soaring pavilions whose complete structures were fortified, the lecture halls and scripture towers, relics and pure lands, or the porticoes, utensils, kitchens, storehouses, and orchards, all were faithful offerings and Dharma wealth distributed to provide for the saṅgharatna. Just as he was about to show the way across the bewildering ford, guide people along the road of awakening, wash away the fires of the burning house, and rescue those drowning in the poisonous stream, his spirit suddenly departed and the fuel was consumed in an instant. Though he had manifestations according to conditions, how swift it was! On the fifteenth day of the eighth month of the fifteenth year of the Kaiyuan era, he departed contentedly forever, at the age of ninety-two. On the fourth day of the ninth month of that year, a pagoda was built beside the temple. Hearing the sorrowful news, people rushed to the mourning rites and held the catafalque cords to gather for his funeral; with banners, canopies of incense and flowers, monks and laity, Chinese and foreigners filled the city and blocked the river, their numbers like sweeping clouds obscuring the sun, reaching several tens of thousands. Among his Dharma companions were more than a hundred men, including Huaisu, Manyi, and Chengli of the capital, Chongba of Xiangyang, Fenglin of Fufeng, Hengjing of Jiangling, and Mingke of Zichuan, who all said: "The boat on the river of wisdom has departed, and the ridgepole of the Dharma house has bent!" Among his disciples were more than fifty men, including Dao'an of Huainan, Shenji of Sichuan, Huiyi of Qilong, Shenhui, Siyi, Shaojue, Lüzang, Hengxian, and Chongye of the capital, all of whom gazed with compassionate eyes as he entered the gate of salvation; the golden coffin could not be followed, and the ashen bones gave no response. Thereupon they requested Li Yong, Prefect of Huatai, to compose the stele inscription. Li Yong modeled himself on Sima Qian and followed the method of Ban Gu; to combine two people in a single biography, their hundred conducts had to be of equal stature. He did not fall short of Huaisu before him, nor was he ashamed before Master Daoxuan after him; was Li Beihai's critical appraisal not truly righteous? There was Vinaya Master Mingke of Zizhou, who strictly observed the Vinaya regulations and earnestly sought understanding. He once took part in Master Daoxuan's Dharma assembly and personally asked about the meaning of the "Preface to the Commentary." Master Daoxuan personally recorded it; Mingke rejoiced in the Linggan platform, had his name listed at the end of the text, and also attached himself to Wengang's school.