宋高僧傳 17.35

17.35

釋楚南，閩人也，俗姓張氏。爰在髫齡，冥然跪於父母前，訴志出家。投開元寺曇藹師而受訓焉。當授經法，目所經覩，輒誦於口。執巾侍盥，灑掃應對，頗能謹愿。迨乎冠歲，乃落髮焉。詣五臺登戒，就趙郡學相部律。往上都，學《淨名經》。一律一經，略通宗旨，則知頓機，不甘為漸教縛。遂往芙蓉山，根性未發。謁黃蘗山禪師，問答雖多，機宜頓了。倏值武宗廢教，南遂深竄林谷。大中興教，出遇昇平相裴公休出撫宛陵，請黃蘗出山，南隨侍。由此便詣姑蘇報恩寺，專行禪定，足不踰閾，僅二十餘載。乾符四年，蘇州太守周慎嗣嚮風，請住寶林院。又請居支硎山。至五年，昌化縣令徐正元與紫溪戍將饒京同召住千頃慈雲院。訓示禪徒之外，唯儼然在定，逾月或浹旬。光啟三年，前兩浙武肅王錢氏請下山供施。昭宗聞其道化，賜其鹿胎衣五事，別齎紫衣。文德元年二月，忽雙虹貫堂室，二鹿蹶然入寺，法堂梁折。至五月，辭眾，後於禪床垂兩足、伸二臂于膝，奄然而卒。春秋七十，僧臘五十六。遷塔于院西隅。大順二年壬子歲二月，宣州孫儒寇錢唐之封略。兵士發塔，見南全身不散，爪髮俱長，悔罪而去。南公平昔著《般若經品頌偈》一卷、《破邪論》一卷，以枝梧異宗外敵，見貴於時也。

Śramaṇa Chunan was a native of Min, with the secular surname Zhang. When he was still a youth with hair in tufts, he quietly knelt before his parents and declared his intention to leave household life. He went to Master Tan'ai of Kaiyuan Temple and received instruction from him. Whenever he was taught scriptures and teachings, whatever his eyes passed over, he would immediately recite with his mouth. Carrying the towel, attending the washing, sweeping, and answering, he was exceedingly prudent and respectful. When he reached capping age (twenty), he shaved his head. He went to Mount Wutai to receive ordination, and proceeded to Zhao Commandery to study the vinaya of the Xiangbu school. He then went to the Superior Capital to study the Vimalakīrti-nirdeśa Sūtra. Having broadly penetrated the essential tenets of one vinaya and one sūtra, he became aware of the capacity for sudden enlightenment, unwilling to be bound by the gradual teachings. He then proceeded to Mount Furong, but his latent capacity had not yet unfolded. He paid homage to the Chan Master of Mount Huangbo; though their questions and answers were many, his capacity immediately awakened. Suddenly encountering Emperor Wuzong's suppression of the Dharma, Nan went deep into hiding among the forests and valleys. With the revival of the Dharma during the Dazhong era, he came out and met Prime Minister Pei Xiu, who went out to pacify Wanling and invited Huangbo to descend the mountain; Nan accompanied him as an attendant. Thereupon, he proceeded to Bao'en Temple in Gusu, exclusively cultivating dhyāna concentration, not stepping beyond the threshold for over twenty years. In the fourth year of Qianfu [877 CE], Zhou Shensi, Prefect of Suzhou, admired his reputation and invited him to dwell at Baolin Cloister. He also invited him to reside on Mount Zhixing. In the fifth year, Xu Zhengyuan, Magistrate of Changhua County, and Rao Jing, the garrison commander of Zixi, jointly invited him to dwell at Ciyun Cloister on Mount Qianqing. Besides instructing Chan disciples, he remained solemnly in meditative concentration, sometimes for more than a month, or for a full ten-day period. In the third year of Guangqi [887 CE], Qian [Kuan], who later became King Wusu of Liangzhe, invited him to descend the mountain to receive offerings. Emperor Zhaozong, hearing of his moral transformation, bestowed upon him five deer-fetus robes and separately presented a purple robe. In the second month of the first year of Wende [888 CE], suddenly twin rainbows pierced the hall, two deer leapt startled into the temple, and a beam of the Dharma hall snapped. In the fifth month, he bade farewell to the assembly; afterward, sitting upon the meditation couch, hanging down both feet and extending both arms over his knees, he suddenly passed away. He was seventy years old, with a saṅgha age of fifty-six. His pagoda was moved to the western corner of the cloister. In the second month of the second year of Dashun, the renzi year [892 CE], Sun Ru of Xuanzhou raided the territory of Qiantang. Soldiers opened the pagoda and saw that Nan's whole body had not decayed, and his nails and hair had grown long; repenting of their transgression, they departed. In ordinary times, Master Nan authored one fascicle of Gāthās and Verses on the Chapters of the Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra and one fascicle of the Treatise Refuting Heterodoxy (Poxie lun), using them to counter other sects and external adversaries; these were valued by his contemporaries.