宋高僧傳 17.30

17.30

釋無名，姓高氏，渤海人也。祖宦今西京，乃為洛陽人矣。沖孺之齡，舉措卓異，口不嚌辛血，性不狎諠譁，邈矣出塵，故難留滯。年二十八，若瘦雁之出籠，投師習學，依隨隷同德寺。及精律藏，解一字以無疑；聞有禪宗，思千里而請決。舉領整裘，開扃見路，辭飛筆健，思若湧泉。因隨師遊方，訪祖師之遺跡，得會師付授心印。會先語諸徒曰：「吾之付法，無有名字。」因號無名也。自此志歷四方，周遊五嶽，羅浮、廬阜、雙峯、𡷗公、鑪嶺、牛頭、剡溪、若耶、天台、四明，罔不詢問，風格高遠，神操朗澈，博識者覩貌便伏，僻見者發言必摧。時德宗方納鮮于叔明、令狐峘料簡僧尼事，時名有表直諫，並停。尋時鮮于叔明、令狐峘等流南海百姓。至貞元六年，往遊五臺，居無定所。九年十二月十二日於佛光寺先食訖，儼然坐化，春秋七十二，臘四十三。十一年闍維，獲舍利一升。澤潞節度使李抱真建塔於佛光寺，貞元六年庚午歲也。或云：「名著疏解《彌陀經》焉。」

Śramaṇa Wuming, surnamed Gao, was a native of Bohai. His grandfather served as an official in what is now the Western Capital, and thus he became a native of Luoyang. In his tender childhood, his conduct was extraordinary: his mouth tasted neither pungency nor blood, and by nature he shunned noisy clamor. Aloofly transcending worldly dust, he could hardly be detained. At the age of twenty-eight, like an emaciated goose leaving its cage, he went to a master to study and attached himself to Tongde Temple. As he became refined in the vinaya-piṭaka, he understood each single character without doubt. Hearing of the Chan school, he thought of travelling a thousand li to seek resolution. Adjusting his collar and straightening his robe, unlocking the gate to behold the path, his phrasing flew, his pen was vigorous, and his thoughts welled up like a spring. Following his master on itinerant travels to visit the traces of the patriarchs, he attained the mind-seal transmitted by Master Shenghui. Hui had previously said to his disciples: "The Dharma I transmit has no name." Therefore, he took the name Wuming ("No Name"). From then on, he set his mind on traversing the four quarters, traveling all around the Five Sacred Peaks: Luofu, Lushan, Shuangfeng, Tonggong, Luling, Niutou, Shanxi, Ruoye, Tiantai, and Siming—nowhere did he fail to visit and inquire. His style was lofty and far-reaching, his spiritual disposition serene and pellucid. Men of wide learning surrendered upon seeing his appearance, and those of deviant views were invariably broken when they spoke. At that time, Emperor Dezong was about to adopt the proposal of Xianyu Shuming and Linghu Huan to screen the monks and nuns; Wuming submitted a direct remonstrance, and the plan was entirely halted. Soon after, Xianyu Shuming, Linghu Huan, and others were exiled as commoners to the Southern Sea. In the sixth year of Zhenyuan [790 CE], he traveled to Mount Wutai, having no fixed abode. On the twelfth day of the twelfth month of the ninth year [794 CE], after finishing his meal at Foguang Temple, he sat majestically and passed away, at the age of seventy-two, with a dharma age of forty-three. In the eleventh year, when the jhāpita (cremation) took place, one sheng of relics was obtained. Li Baozhen, the Military Commissioner of Zelu, erected a pagoda at Foguang Temple; this was in the sixth year of Zhenyuan, the gengwu year. Some say: "Wuming composed a commentary expounding the Amitābha Sūtra."