宋高僧傳 15.23

15.23

釋乘如，未詳氏族。精研律部，頗善講宣，繩準緇徒，罔不循則。代宗朝翻經，如預其任。應左右街臨壇度人，弟子千數。先是五眾身亡，衣資、什具悉入官庫，然歷累朝，曷由釐革。如乃援引諸律：出家比丘生隨得利，死利歸僧，言其來往本無物也。比丘貪畜，自茲而𡞞者，職由於此。今若歸官，例同籍沒。前世遺事，闕人舉揚。今屬文明，乞循律法，斷其輕重。大曆二年十一月二十七日勅下，今後僧亡，物隨入僧，仍班告中書門牒，天下宜依。如之律匠，非止訓二眾而已，抑亦奮內眾之遺事。立功不朽，如公是乎！終西明、安國二寺上座。有《文集》三卷，圓照鳩聚流布焉。

Shi Chengru: his clan is unknown. He meticulously investigated the vinaya texts and was quite skilled at lecturing and expounding, regulating the dark-robed assembly such that none failed to follow the rules. During the reign of Emperor Daizong, he took part in the translation of scriptures. Responding to calls from both the Left and Right Streets, he presided at the altar to ordain people, with disciples numbering in the thousands. Prior to this, when members of the five assemblies passed away, their robes, supplies, and utensils all went into the government storehouses; through successive reigns, how could this be rectified? Chengru thereupon cited various vinayas: when an ordained bhikṣu is alive, acquisitions follow him; upon his death, acquisitions revert to the saṅgha—meaning that coming and going, there are fundamentally no possessions. If bhikṣus covetously hoard, their falling away from here stems precisely from this. Now, if [their belongings] revert to the state, it equates them with confiscated property. Past legacies lacked anyone to raise and redress them. Belonging now to an enlightened age, he begged that the vinaya rules be followed, distinguishing between light and heavy property. On the twenty-seventh day of the eleventh month of the second year of Dali, an imperial edict was issued: henceforth, when monks die, their belongings shall accordingly revert to the saṅgha, and this was promulgated in a dispatch from the Secretariat-Chancellery, to be obeyed throughout the realm. As a vinaya master, Chengru not only instructed the two assemblies, but also upheld the neglected matters of the monastic community. Accomplishing immortal merit—Master Chengru was truly such a man! He ended his days as the sthavira (senior monk) of both Ximing and Anguo temples. He had a Collected Works in three volumes, which was gathered and circulated by Yuanzhao.