宋高僧傳 17.39

17.39

釋玄暢，字申之，俗姓陳氏，宣城人也。暢爰在弱齡，便持異操，戲則聚沙為塔摘葉為香。年九歲，於涇邑水西寺依清逸上人，教授經法。年十九，削髮。二十歲，往福州兜率戒壇受具足戒，聽掇律科，深得宗旨。新繒細縷，一染色佳，而往越中求聞異說。仰京室西明寺有宣律師舊院，多藏毘尼教迹，因栖惠正律師法席。自入京華，漸萌頭角，受京城三學大德，益廣見聞。方事講談，遽鐘堙厄，則會昌廢教矣！時京城法侶頗甚徬徨，兩街僧錄靈宴、辯章，同推暢為首，上表論諫。遂著《歷代帝王錄》，奏而弗聽。由是例從俗服，寧弛道情，龍蛇伏蟄而待時，玉石同焚而莫救。殆夫武皇厭代，宣宗在天，坏戶重開，炎崗息熾。暢於大中中，凡遇誕辰，入內談論，即賜紫袈裟，充內外臨壇大德。懿宗欽其宿德，蕃錫屢臻。乃奏修加《懺悔一萬五千佛名經》，又奏請《本生心地觀經》一部八卷，皆入藏。暢時充追福院首領，又充總持寺都維那，尋署上座。暢講律六十座，度法者數千人，撰《顯正記》一十卷、《科六帖名義圖》三卷、《三寶五運》三卷，雖祖述舊聞，標題新目，義出意表，文濟時須。乾符中，懿宗簡自上心，特賜師號曰法寶。二年三月二十一日示滅，俗齡七十九，僧臘五十九。弟子賜紫惠柔，大德師遂、宗紹，以其年四月二十五日窆于長安邑高陽鄉小梁村。四年丁酉歲，尚書禮部侍郎崔沆與暢交分殊深，著碑述遺跡焉。

Śramaṇa Xuanchang, courtesy name Shenzhi, secular surname Chen, was a native of Xuancheng. Even in his tender years, Chang maintained unusual resolve: when at play, he would gather sand to build stupas and pluck leaves as incense. At nine years of age, he relied upon Venerable Qingyi at Shuixi Temple in Jing County, who instructed him in the scriptures and Dharma. At nineteen, he shaved his head. At twenty, he went to the Tuṣita Precept Platform in Fuzhou to receive the upasampadā. Hearing and gathering the branches of the vinaya, he thoroughly grasped their essential doctrines. Just as freshly woven fine silk takes on a beautiful color with a single dyeing, he then traveled through Yue to seek and hear different teachings. Revering the fact that the ancient cloister of Vinaya Master Xuan at Ximing Temple in the capital preserved many traces of the vinaya teachings, he accordingly took up residence at the Dharma assembly of Vinaya Master Huizheng. From the moment he entered the capital, his extraordinary talent gradually emerged, and he was accepted by the Great Virtues of the Three Learnings in the imperial capital, which further broadened his knowledge and experience. Just as he was engaging in lectures and discussions, he suddenly encountered the disaster: the Huichang suppression of Buddhism! At that time, the Dharma companions in the imperial capital were in great turmoil. The saṅgha rectifiers of the Two Streets, Lingyan and Bianzhang, jointly recommended Chang to lead them in presenting a memorial of remonstrance. Thereupon he composed the Record of Past Emperors, but it was submitted and not heeded. As a consequence, he followed the crowd in donning secular clothing; yet would he ever relax his devotion to the Way? Like dragons and snakes hibernating to await their time, jade and ordinary stones were burned together without rescue. When Emperor Wuzong departed this world and Xuanzong ascended the throne, the blocked doorways were reopened, and the blazing hill was extinguished. During the Dazhong era, whenever an imperial birthday occurred, Chang would enter the palace for doctrinal discussions, whereupon he was granted the purple kāṣāya and appointed as an officiating Great Virtue of the precept platforms both inside and outside [the palace]. Emperor Yizong admired his venerable virtue, and imperial bounties arrived repeatedly. He then memorialized to compile and expand the Sūtra of Repentance with the Names of Fifteen Thousand Buddhas, and also requested that the one work in eight fascicles of the Sūtra on the Contemplation of the Mind-Ground in Past Lives be entered into the Tripiṭaka, which was granted for both. At the time, Chang served as head of the Zhuifu Cloister, and concurrently as the Chief Karmadāna of Zongchi Temple, and soon was appointed Senior Elder (sthavira). Chang gave sixty lecture series on the vinaya and ordained thousands of monks. He authored the Records Revealing the Correct in ten fascicles, the Illustrated Guide to the Terminology of the Six Slips of the Vinaya in three fascicles, and The Three Jewels and Five Periods in three fascicles. Though he transmitted past teachings, he created new headings; their meanings were extraordinary, and their text met the needs of the times. During the Qianfu era, Yizong personally chose from his imperial heart to specially bestow upon him the master's title "Fabao". On the twenty-first day of the third month in the second year, he manifested cessation, at a secular age of seventy-nine and a saṅgha age of fifty-nine. His disciples—the purple-robed Huirou, and Great Virtues Shisui and Zongshao—buried him on the twenty-fifth day of the fourth month of that year in Xiaoliang Village, Gaoyang Township, Chang'an County. In the fourth year, dingyou, Vice Minister of Rites Cui Hang, who shared a profound friendship with Chang, composed a stele narrating his surviving deeds.