宋高僧傳 17.22

17.22

釋神邕，字道恭，姓蔡氏，東晉太尉謨——即度江祖——十五代孫也。因官居于暨陽，邕生于是邑。母宣氏始娠之際，率多徵異。襁褓中聞唱經聲，必有凝神側聽之貌。丱角聰晤過人。年十二辭親學道，請業於法華寺俊師。每覽孔釋二典，一讀能誦。同輩者罕不欣慕。開元二十六年，勅度隸諸暨香嚴寺名藉。依法華寺玄儼師，通《四分律鈔》。儼識其志氣，謂人曰：「此子數年後，卒為學者之司南矣。爾其勉之！」儼新出《輔篇律記》，邕抉其膏腴，窮彼衢術，一宗學者少能與其聯鑣方軌焉。性非局促，又從左溪玄朗師習天台止觀、禪門、《法華玄疏》、《梵網經》等，四教三觀等義，祕鍵載啟，觀性知空，爰至五夏，果精敷演，吳會間學者從之。天寶中本邑郭密之請居法樂寺西坊，恢拓佛舍，層閣摩霄，半澄江影，廊宇完備。後乃遊問長安，居安國寺，公卿藉其風宇，追慕者結轍而至。方欲大闡禪律，倏遇祿山兵亂，東歸江湖，經歷襄陽，御史中丞庾光先出鎮荊南，邀留數月。時給事中竇紹、中書舍人苑咸，鑽仰彌高，俱受心要。著作郎韋子春——有唐之外臣也，剛氣而贍學——與之詶抗。子春折角，滿座驚服。苑舍人歎曰：「闍梨可謂塵外摩尼，論中師子！」時人以為能言矣。旋居故鄉法華寺，殿中侍御史皇甫曾、大理評事張河、金吾衛長史嚴維、兵曹呂渭、諸暨長丘丹、校書陳允初賦詩往復，盧士式為之序引，以繼支、許之遊，為邑中故事。邕修念之外，時綴文句，有集十卷，皇甫曾為序。自至德迄大曆中，頻受請登壇度戒，起丹陽洎乎金華，其間釋子皆命為親教師也。又以縣南路通衢、婺，其中百餘里殊無伽藍，釋侶往來宴息無所。邕願布法橋，接憩行旅，遂於焦山可以為梵場也。得邑人騎都尉陳紹欽等率群信搆淨剎，一紀方乃集事焉。前吏部侍郎徐浩出佐明州，以邦國聚落，乃白廉使皇甫溫奏賜額曰大曆焉。先是，中岳道士吳筠造邪論數篇，斥毀釋教，昏蒙者惑之。本道觀察使陳少遊請邕決釋、老二教孰為至道，乃襲世尊之攝邪見，復寶琳之破魔文，爰據城塹，以正制狂。旗鼓纔臨，吳筠覆轍。遂著《破倒翻迷論》三卷，東方佛法再興，實邕之力歟。末遊天台，又纂地誌兩卷，並附於新論矣。邕廞頤豐角，風韻朗拔，前後廉問皆延置別榻，請為僧統，以加崇揖之禮。貞元四年戊辰歲十一月十四日，遇疾，遺教門人，趺坐端相而歸寂于大曆法堂焉。以十二月十四日奉靈儀於寺北原，遵僧制也。報齡七十九，法歲五十。明年冬十一月方建塔矣。祕書省校書郎陸淮為其銘，上首弟子智昂、靈澈、進明、慧照等咸露鋒頴，禪律互傳。至十一年，戶部員外郎丘上卿為碑紀德焉。

Śramaṇa Shenyong, courtesy name Daogong, was surnamed Cai and was a fifteenth-generation descendant of Cai Mo, Grand Defender of the Eastern Jin—the ancestor who crossed the Yangtze River. Because of an official posting, [his family] resided in Jiyang, and Yong was born in this county. When his mother, Lady Xuan, first became pregnant, there were mostly extraordinary omens. While still an infant in swaddling clothes, whenever he heard the sound of chanting scriptures, he invariably appeared to concentrate his mind and listen intently. As a boy, his intelligence surpassed others. At the age of twelve, he took leave of his parents to study the Way, requesting instruction under Master Jun at Fahua Temple. Whenever he perused the two canons of Confucius and the Buddha, he could recite them after a single reading. Few among his peers did not admire him. In the twenty-sixth year of Kaiyuan, by imperial decree he was ordained and registered at Xiangyan Temple in Zhuji. Relying on Master Xuanyan of Fahua Temple, he mastered the Commentary on the Four-Part Vinaya. Yan recognized his resolve and told others: 'A few years hence, this youth will ultimately become the compass for scholars. Strive to emulate him!' Yan had newly produced the Fupian lüji (Supplementary Notes on the Vinaya); Yong extracted its richest essence and thoroughly explored its pathways, so that few scholars of that school could ride abreast of him. He was not narrow-minded by nature, and furthermore studied the Tiantai cessation and contemplation, the gates of dhyāna, the Profound Commentary on the Lotus Sūtra, the Brahma Net Sūtra, and other works under Master Xuanlang of Zuoxi. With the doctrines of the Four Teachings and Three Contemplations, the secret keys were opened; contemplating nature, he realized emptiness. By the time five summer retreats had passed, he indeed expounded them with precision, and scholars from the Wu and Kuaiji regions followed him. During the Tianbao era, his fellow townsman Guo Mizhi invited him to reside in the western quarters of Fale Temple, where he expanded the monastic buildings: multi-storied pavilions touched the clouds, half-reflected in the clear river, and the corridors and halls were completely furnished. Later he traveled to Chang'an to seek instruction, dwelling at Anguo Temple; high officials and nobles relied on his lofty bearing, and admirers arrived in unbroken procession. Just as he was about to widely propagate dhyāna and the vinaya, the turmoil of An Lushan's rebellion suddenly broke out, so he returned east to the rivers and lakes. Passing through Xiangyang, Palace Censor-in-Chief Yu Guangxian, who had set out to garrison Jingnan, invited him to stay for several months. At that time, Supervising Censor Dou Shao and Secretariat Drafter Yuan Xian, striving ever higher in their veneration, both received the essentials of mind from him. Drafter of the Institute of History Wei Zichun—an official of our Tang who was unyielding in spirit and rich in learning—debated and contended with him. Zichun's horns were broken, and the whole assembly was struck with awe and submission. Drafter Yuan sighed: 'The ācārya can truly be called a maṇi jewel beyond the dust, a lion among disputants!' His contemporaries considered this an apt appraisal. Soon he returned to dwell at Fahua Temple in his hometown. Vice Palace Censor-in-Chief Huangfu Zeng, Assistant Minister of the Court of Judicial Review Zhang He, Senior Administrative Officer of the Jinwu Guard Yan Wei, Officer of the Armory Lü Wei, Magistrate of Zhuji Qiu Dan, and Collator Chen Yunchu exchanged poems with him, for which Lu Shishi wrote a preface, continuing the excursions of Zhi Dun and Xu Xun and becoming a famous local tale. Beyond his cultivation of mindfulness, Yong occasionally composed literary prose; he left a collection in ten scrolls, for which Huangfu Zeng wrote a preface. From the Zhide era to the Dali era, he was repeatedly invited to ascend the platform to confer the precepts; from Danyang to Jinhua, all Buddhist disciples throughout the region called him their upādhyāya. Moreover, because the road south of the county was a thoroughfare leading to Quzhou and Wuzhou, along which for over a hundred li there was no saṅghārāma whatsoever and traveling monks had nowhere to rest, Yong vowed to build a bridge of Dharma to receive and shelter wayfarers. Thereupon, finding that Mount Jiao could serve as a site for a monastery, he gathered townsmen such as Knight Commandant Chen Shaoqin, who led the faithful to construct a pure sanctuary, which took a full twelve years to complete. When former Vice Minister of Personnel Xu Hao was posted as assistant official to Mingzhou, observing that it was a gathering place of state and villages, he reported to Investigation Commissioner Huangfu Wen to memorialize for the bestowal of the plaque naming it Dali Temple. Prior to this, the Daoist Wu Yun of Mount Zhongyue had written several heterodox treatises denouncing and defaming the Buddhist teachings, and the ignorant were misled by them. Chen Shaoyou, the Surveillance Commissioner of the circuit, invited Yong to resolve whether the Buddhist or Laozi's teachings constituted the ultimate Way. Yong thereupon followed the World-Honoured One's subjugation of wrong views and restored Baolin's texts that crushed demons; relying on strong ramparts, he used the orthodox to check madness. As soon as the banners and drums met, Wu Yun suffered total defeat. Yong then composed the Po dao fan mi lun (Treatise on Overturning Perversions and Discarding Delusions) in three scrolls; that the Buddha's Dharma flourished again in the East was truly due to Yong's efforts. In his later years he visited Mount Tiantai and also compiled two scrolls of a gazetteer, which were appended to the new treatise. Yong had full jaws and prominent temples, with an aloof and elevated bearing; successive investigative commissioners invited him to separate couches and requested that he serve as the Controller of Clergy, treating him with reverent bows. On the fourteenth day of the eleventh month in the fourth year of Zhenyuan (a wuchen year), he fell ill, imparted his final instructions to his disciples, and sitting cross-legged with an upright posture, returned to tranquility in the Dali Dharma hall. On the fourteenth day of the twelfth month, his funeral cortège was escorted to the plain north of the temple, in accordance with the saṅgha's rules. His worldly age was seventy-nine, and his Dharma age was fifty. In the winter of the following year, in the eleventh month, a stūpa was finally erected. Lu Huai, Collator in the Palace Library, composed the inscription, while his senior disciples Zhi'ang, Lingche, Jinming, Huizhao, and others all displayed sharp talent, mutually transmitting dhyāna and vinaya. In the eleventh year, Qiu Shangqing, Vice Minister of the Bureau of Revenue, composed a stele recording his virtues.