宋高僧傳 14.27

14.27

釋玄儼，俗姓徐氏，晉室南遷，因官諸暨，遂為縣族。年始十二，辭親從師，事富春僧暉。證聖元年，恩制度人，始墮僧數，隸懸溜寺。儼幼而明敏，長則韶令，標格峻整，風儀凜然。迨於弱冠，乃從光州岸師諮受具戒。後乃遊詣上京，探賾律範，遇崇福意律師并融濟律師，皆名匠一方，南山上足，咸能昇堂睹奧，共所印可。由是道尊戒潔，名動京師。安國授記，並充大德。後還江左，偏行《四分》。因著《輔篇記》十卷、《羯磨述章》三篇，至今僧徒遠近傳寫。初，光州岸公甞因假寐，忽夢神僧謂曰：「玄儼當為法器，云何教以小乘？」後乃命宣般若。由是研精覃思，採摭舊學，撰《金剛義疏》七卷，古德所不解，先達所未詳。我則發揮光明，若指諸掌。誓以一生宣講百遍。越邑精舍，時稱法華，晉沙門曇翼曾結菴山巔，入是法三昧，感遍吉菩薩。徒觀其：塔類多寶，涌出以證經；宮如轉輪，飛行而聽法。雙烏所以示兆，今尚翔鳴；六象所以呈奇，時猶隱現。不可得而思議者，蓋斯之謂歟。信如來之福庭，是菩薩之隱岳。儼乃考盤是卜，束鉢深棲，建置戒壇，招集律行。若夫秦衡上士，燕代高僧，數若稻麻，算同竹葦，伏膺請益，躡屩擔簦。宴坐不出，幾三十載。開元二十四年，帝親注《金剛般若經》，詔頒天下，普令宣講。都督河南元彥沖躬請儼重光聖日，遂闡揚幽贊，允合天心，令盲者見日月之光，聾者聞雷霆之響。儼之演暢，蓋有力焉。夫樂小法者迷自我而為病，通大方者懵開空之法道。若夫會三歸一，觸理冥事，自優波離已下猶或病諸。而儼綱紀小乘，演暢大法，晤佛境之非有，識魔界之為空。故能使涅槃將生死一如，煩惱與菩提齊致，發心而登佛地，非我而誰？白黑歸依，當仁不讓。昔僧護法師常居石城，宴坐青壁，仰其中峯，如有佛像，願造十丈，以圖兜率。良願未諧，護公長逝。梁武皇帝詔僧祐律師馳傳經理，規模刻劃，意匠纔施。俄而山塚崒崩，全身坐現，合高百餘尺。雖金石絲竹，四天之供施常聞；功德莊嚴，十地之琱鐫尚闕。儼乃內傾衣鉢，外率檀那，布以黃金之色，鎔以白銀之相，銅錫鉛鍇，球琳琅玕，七寶由是渾成，八珍於焉具足。雖寶積獻蓋，界現三千；迦葉貢衣，金踰十萬；如須彌之現於大海，若杲日之出於高山，此又儼之功德不可思議者也。故洛州刺史徐嶠、工部尚書徐安貞，咸以宗室設道友之禮；國子司業康希銑、太子賓客賀知章、朝散大夫杭州臨安縣令朱元眘，亦以鄉曲具法朋之契。開元二十六載，恩制度人，採訪使潤州刺史齊澣、越州都督景誠、採訪盧見義、泗州刺史王弼，無不停旟淨境，稟承法訓。齊公乃方舟結乘，奉迎儼於丹陽、餘杭、吳興諸郡，令新度釋子躬授具戒。自廣陵迄於信安，地方千里，道俗受法者殆出萬人。凡禮《佛名經》一百遍，設無遮大會十筵，而入境住持，舉無與比。夫秉法傳授，從佛口生，有門人法華曇俊、崇默、龍興崇一、開元智符、稱心崇義、香嚴懷節、寶林洪霈、覺引、灌頂，皆不傾油鉢，無漏浮囊。經不云乎？如旃檀林，旃檀圍遶；如師子王，師子圍遶。信儼之威神有在，而法主之功德不刊。將知三界無安，百靈共盡，此生已適於後息，他世應見於前心。以天寶元載歲次壬午，緣化已畢。十一月三日，現疾於繩床，七日午時，坐終於戒壇院，春秋六十有八。粵其月二十五日，窆於寺南秦山之下。高樹雙塔，光明踰於白雲；列植千松，秀色羅於明月。經始則神邕、崇曉，住持則唯湛、道昭，並躬護聖場，親傳智印。其餘三千門人，五百弟子，承般若之深法，受毘尼之密行，盡號顓門，無待彌勒。天寶十五載歲次景申，萬齊融述《頌德碑》焉。

Śramaṇa Xuan'yan, whose secular surname was Xu, was from a notable family of Zhuji county, their ancestors having settled there due to an official posting when the Jin royal house migrated south. At the age of twelve, he took leave of his parents to follow a master, serving Seng hui of Fuchun. In the first year of the Zhengsheng reign era (695), by imperial favor ordaining people, he was first included in the register of the saṅgha and attached to Xuanliu Temple. Xuan'yan was bright and perceptive from his youth, and upon coming of age was elegant and refined, with severe and well-ordered standards and an awe-inspiring deportment. When he reached the age of capping (twenty), he followed Master An of Guangzhou to seek and receive the upasampadā. Later he traveled to the Upper Capital to investigate the subtleties of the vinaya standards, encountering Vinaya Master Yi of Chongfu Temple and Vinaya Master Rongji, both of whom were celebrated masters of a region and superior disciples of Nanshan. All were able to enter the hall and see the profound mysteries, and they jointly approved him. Because of this, his teaching was esteemed and his moral discipline pure, and his fame moved the capital. At Anguo Temple, he was conferred predictions and numbered among the Bhadantas. Later he returned to Jiangzuo, devoting himself exclusively to circulating the Dharmaguptaka Vinaya (Sifen lü). He thereupon authored the Fupian ji in ten rolls and the Jiemo shu zhang in three fascicles, which have been copied and circulated near and far by members of the saṅgha down to the present day. Earlier, Master An of Guangzhou had once dozed off and suddenly dreamed of a spirit monk who said to him: 'Xuan'yan is bound to be a vessel of the Dharma; why instruct him in the Hīnayāna?' Later he bade him propagate the Prajñāpāramitā. Thereupon Xuan'yan engaged in deep contemplation and rigorous study, gleaning from earlier scholarship to compose the Jingang yishu in seven rolls, elucidating what former worthies had not understood and what earlier masters had not explained in detail. He brought its radiance forth clearly, as though pointing to his own palm. He vowed to expound it one hundred times in his lifetime. The monastery in the Yue district was called Fahua at the time. Formerly, the Jin śramaṇa Tanyi had built a hermitage at the mountain peak, entered this Dharma samādhi, and evoked the appearance of the Bodhisattva Samantabhadra. One need only observe that its stūpa was like Prabhūtaratna's, welling up to bear witness to the scripture, and its palace was like a wheel-turning king's, flying through the air to listen to the Dharma. The twin crows that manifested the omen still wheel and cry today; the six-tusked elephant that displayed the wonder still appears and disappears at times. What is beyond comprehension and reflection indeed refers to this! Truly it is a garden of blessings of the Tathāgata, a hidden peak of the Bodhisattva. Xuan'yan then divined a site to reside in seclusion, retired deeply with tied bowl, established an ordination platform, and assembled practitioners of the vinaya. As for superior scholars of Qin and Heng, and eminent monks of Yan and Dai, their numbers were like rice stalks and hemp, counted like bamboo and reeds; taking his instructions to heart, they came seeking instruction, trudging in straw sandals and carrying umbrella hats. He sat in serene meditation without leaving for nearly thirty years. In the twenty-fourth year of the Kaiyuan era (736), the Emperor personally annotated the Diamond Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra and decreed that it be promulgated throughout the realm, ordering that it be widely expounded. Yuan Yanchong, the Area Commander of Henan, personally invited Xuan'yan to renew the brilliance of the sacred sun. He then expounded and supported it with profound praise, fully according with the imperial intention, enabling the blind to see the light of the sun and moon and the deaf to hear the roar of thunder. Xuan'yan's eloquent delivery was indeed powerful! Those who delight in the lesser teaching are burdened by the sickness of being confused by self, while those who master the broader perspective are often bewildered by the Dharma path of realizing emptiness. As for converging the three to return to the one, or touching principle while merging with phenomena, even Upāli and those below him were still troubled by these. Yet Xuan'yan organized the Hīnayāna into principles while expounding the Great Dharma, awakening to the fact that the Buddha-realm is not existent and recognizing that the realm of Māra is empty. Thus he could cause nirvāṇa and saṃsāra to be as one, and defilements and bodhi to reach the same end; to generate the resolve and ascend to the Buddha stage—who could it be if not he? Both monastics and laity took refuge in him; facing humaneness, he yielded to none. Formerly, Dharma Master Senghu had constantly dwelt on Stone City Mountain, sitting in meditation before the green cliff. Looking up at its central peak, it seemed as though a Buddha image were there, and he vowed to carve a hundred-foot image to depict Tuṣita. But before his noble vow was fulfilled, Master Hu passed away. Emperor Wu of the Liang ordered Vinaya Master Sengyou to travel swiftly by courier to take charge of the project; yet barely had the design and carvings been conceived and planned, when suddenly the mountain cliff crashed down and revealed the complete seated figure, totaling over a hundred feet in height. Although gold, stone, strings, and winds—the offerings of the four heavens—were constantly heard, the adorned marks of merit carved on the ten stages were still lacking. Xuan'yan then donated all his robes and bowls from within and led benefactors from without, coating it with the color of yellow gold and casting it into the appearance of white silver; with bronze, tin, lead, and refined iron, as well as fine jade and precious corals, the seven treasures were thus integrated, and the eight delicacies were thereby fully provided. Although Baoji offered a canopy and three thousand worlds manifested, and Kāśyapa presented robes of gold worth over a hundred thousand, yet like Mount Sumeru appearing in the great ocean, or the bright sun rising from a high mountain, this was again Xuan'yan's inconceivable merit. Therefore, Xu Qiao, the Regional Governor of Luozhou, and Xu Anzhen, the Minister of Works, both observed the etiquette of companions in the Way as members of the same clan; Kang Xixian, the Director of Studies at the National University, He Zhizhang, the Mentor to the Crown Prince, and Zhu Yuanzhen, Court Gentleman for Dispersion and Magistrate of Lin'an County in Hangzhou, also formed bonds of Dharma fellowship as fellow countrymen. In the twenty-sixth year of the Kaiyuan era (738), when ordination was granted by imperial favor, Qi Huan, the Surveillance Commissioner and Regional Governor of Runzhou; Jing Cheng, the Area Commander of Yuezhou; Lu Jianyi, the Surveillance Commissioner; and Wang Bi, the Regional Governor of Sizhou, none failed to halt their banners at this pure domain to receive his Dharma instructions. Duke Qi then joined boats to welcome Xuan'yan to Danyang, Yuhang, Wuxing, and other commanderies, directing him to personally confer the upasampadā upon the newly ordained disciples of the Śākya clan. From Guangling to Xin'an, spanning a thousand li, the monastics and laity who received the teaching almost exceeded ten thousand people. He paid homage to the Buddha Names Sūtra a hundred times and held ten sessions of the Great Unrestricted Feast; regarding his entering territories and abidance, none could compare with him. Upholding the Dharma and transmitting it, they were born from the mouth of the Buddha: his disciples Fahua Tanyi, Chongmo, Longxing Chongyi, Kaiyuan Zhifu, Chengxin Chongyi, Xiangyan Huaijie, Baolin Hongpei, Jueyin, and Guanding, all never tipped their oil bowls and never leaked their flotation bladders. Does not the sūtra say: 'Like a sandalwood forest surrounded by sandalwood; like a lion king surrounded by lions'? Truly, Xuan'yan's majesty and spiritual power were present, and the Abbot's merits could never be effaced. One must know that there is no peace in the three realms and that all living beings perish together; this life has already moved to its subsequent rest, and the next life should see the initial mind. In the first year of the Tianbao era (742), the cyclical year renwu, his karmic conditions for conversion were exhausted. On the third day of the eleventh month, he manifested illness on his rope-chair; at the hour of noon on the seventh day, he passed away sitting in the Ordination Platform Cloister, at the age of sixty-eight. On the twenty-fifth day of that month, he was buried beneath Mount Qin, south of the temple. Twin stūpas were raised high, their brightness surpassing white clouds; a thousand pines were planted in rows, their elegant hues gathered beneath the bright moon. Shenyong and Chongxiao oversaw the beginnings, while Weizhan and Daozhao served as abbots; all personally protected this sacred place and directly transmitted the seal of wisdom. The rest of his three thousand followers and five hundred disciples received the profound teaching of prajñā and took up the esoteric practice of vinaya, all recognized as founding distinct lineages without having to wait for Maitreya. In the fifteenth year of the Tianbao era (756), the cyclical year bingshen, Wan Qirong composed the Stele in Praise of Virtue.