宋高僧傳 17.44

17.44

釋道丕，長安貴胄里人也。唐之宗室，父從晏，襄宗沿堂五院之首。母許氏為求其息，常持《觀音普門品》，忽夢神光燭身，因爾妊焉。及其誕生，挺然岐嶷，端雅其質，屬籍諸親異而愛之如天童子。年始周晬，父將命汾晉，會軍至于霍山，沒王事。丕雖童穉，聚戲終鮮笑容。七歲，忽絕葷羶，每遊精舍，怡然忘返。遂白母往保壽寺禮繼能法師，尊為軌範。九歲，善梵音禮讚。是歲襄宗幸石門，隨師往迎駕。十九歲，學通《金剛經》義，便行講貫。又駕遷洛京，長安焚蕩，遂背負其母，東征華陰。劉開道作亂，復荷母入華山，安止巖穴。時穀麥勇貴，每斗萬錢。丕巡村乞食，自專胎息，唯供母食。母問：「還食未？」丕對曰：「向外齋了。」恐傷母意，至孝如此。年二十歲，母曰：「汝父霍山亡沒，戰場之地，骨曝霜露。汝能收取歸葬，不亦孝乎？」遂辭老親往霍邑，立草庵，鳩工集聚白骨，晝夜誦經，呪之曰：「古人精誠所感，滴血認骨。我今志為孝子，豈無靈驗者乎？儻群骨中有動轉者，即我父之遺骸也。」如是一心注想，目未輕捨，數日間，果有枯髏從骨聚中躍出，競騖丕前，搖曳良久。丕即躄踴抱持，如復生在，齎歸華陰。是夜其母夢夫歸舍，明辰骨至，其孝感聲譽日高。至二十七歲，遇曜州牧婁繼英，招丕住洛陽福先彌勒院，即晉道安翻經創浴之地也。天祐三年丙寅，濟陰王賜紫衣。後唐莊宗署大師曰廣智。丕於梁朝後主、後唐莊宗、明宗、凡內建香壇，應制談論，多居元席。及晉遷都今東京，天福三年詔入梁苑，副錄左街僧事，與傳法阿闍梨昭信大師俱道貌童顏，號二菩薩。是故朝貴士庶，多請養生之術。丕精勤不懈，一佛一禮。《佛名經》、《法華》、《金剛》、《仁王》、《上生》四經，逐一字禮。然其守杜多之行，分衛時至，二弟子隨行。開運甲辰歲為左街僧錄，雖臨僧務，日課修持。相國李公濤、西樞密太傅王公朴、翰林承旨陶公穀等，無不傾心歸重。至漢乾祐中，謝病乞西歸。未允之際，屬漢室凌夷，兵火連作，恣行剽掠。丕於廊廡之下，倚壁誦念，二日紛拏，一無見者。時京城見聞，益加欽尚。逃歸洛邑，周太祖潛隱所重。廣順元年，勅召為左街僧錄，不容陳讓，還赴東京，居于僧任。世宗尹釐府政，嫌空門繁雜，欲奏沙汰，召丕同議。時問難交發，開喻其情，且曰：「僧之清尚，必不露於人前。僧或凶頑，而偏遊於世上。必恐正施藨𮐀，草和蘭茝而芟；方事淘澄，金逐沙泥而蕩。大王儲明欲照，蓄智當行，為益皇帝邪？為損君親邪？若益君乎，不令一物失所。若損親也，是壞六和福田。況以天下初平，瘡痍未合，乞待後時，搜揚未晚。故老子云：『治大國如烹小鮮。』慮其動則麋爛矣。」世宗深然其言，且從停寢。及世宗登極，丕謂僧曰：「吾皇宿昔有志，汝當相警護持。」堅乞解歸洛陽，又立禮《首楞嚴經》。二年，果勅併毀僧寺，并立僧帳，蓋限之也。毀教不深，乃丕之力也。以顯德二年乙卯六月八日微疾。十日，令弟子早營粥食云：「有首楞嚴菩薩眾多相迎」，令鳴椎，俄然而化，春秋六十七，僧臘四十七。緇素號哭，諸寺具威儀送葬于龍門廣化寺之左，立石塔焉。未終之前，寺鐘無故嘶嗄、表剎龍首忽焉隕墜、僧澄清夢寺佛殿梁折，極多異兆焉。

Śramaṇa Daopi was a native of Guiyou Neighborhood in Chang'an. He belonged to the imperial lineage of the Tang; his father, Congyan, was the head of the Five Halls of the Hall-Attendant Court under Emperor Xiangzong. In order to pray for a son, his mother, Lady Xu, constantly recited the "Universal Gate Chapter of Avalokiteśvara". Suddenly she dreamed of a divine light shining upon her body, and through this she became pregnant. When he was born, he was remarkably precocious, with an upright and refined character; the relatives in the clan registry marveled at him and loved him as a divine child. When he had barely reached his first birthday, his father was ordered on a mission to Fen and Jin, joined the army, went to Mount Huo, and perished in the service of the monarch. Although Pi was still a child, when he gathered to play he seldom smiled. At seven years of age, he suddenly abandoned meat and pungent roots; whenever he visited a monastery, he was delighted and forgot to return. Thereupon he informed his mother and went to Baoshou Temple to pay homage to Dharma Master Jineng, venerating him as his master of conduct. At nine years of age, he was skilled in Sanskrit chanting and praises. That year, Xiangzong visited Shimen, and he accompanied his master to welcome the imperial carriage. At nineteen, he thoroughly grasped the meaning of the Diamond Sūtra and began to lecture on it. When the imperial carriage moved to the capital Luoyang and Chang'an was burned and pillaged, he carried his mother on his back and journeyed east to Huayin. When Liu Kaidao rebelled, he again carried his mother into Mount Hua, settling in a rock cave. At that time grain and wheat were exorbitantly expensive, each dou costing ten thousand coins. Pi made rounds through the villages to beg for food; for himself he practiced only embryonic breathing, offering food solely to his mother. His mother asked: "Have you eaten yet?" Pi replied: "I have already taken my meal outside." He feared hurting his mother's feelings; his filial piety was of this degree. When he was twenty years old, his mother said: "Your father perished at Mount Huo, a battlefield where his bones are exposed to the frost and dew. If you could collect them and bring them back for burial, would that not be filial?" He thereupon took leave of his aged mother, went to Huoyi, built a thatched hut, and hired laborers to gather white bones. Day and night he recited sūtras, making this incantation: "The ancients were so sincere that their blood dripped to identify bones. Now, with my resolve to be a filial son, how could there be no spiritual efficacy? If among these bones there are any that move, those are my father's remains." In this way, with one-pointed mindfulness, his eyes never strayed; within a few days, a dried skull indeed leaped out from among the heap of bones, raced eagerly before Pi, and swayed for a long time. Pi threw himself to the ground, leaped up, and embraced it, as if his father were alive again, and carried it back to Huayin. That night, his mother dreamed that her husband returned home; the next morning the bones arrived, and his renown for filial resonance grew daily. At twenty-seven years of age, he met Lou Jiying, the Governor of Yaozhou, who invited Pi to reside at the Maitreya Cloister of Fuxian Temple in Luoyang, which was the place where Daoan of the Jin had translated sūtras and founded the bathhouse. In the third year of Tianyou, bingyin, the Prince of Jiyin bestowed upon him a purple robe. Emperor Zhuangzong of the Later Tang granted him the master's title "Guangzhi". Under the Last Ruler of the Liang dynasty, and Emperors Zhuangzong and Mingzong of the Later Tang, whenever an incense platform was erected inside the palace for debates in response to imperial command, Pi mostly occupied the primary seat. When the Jin moved its capital to the present Eastern Capital, in the third year of Tianfu, an edict summoned him to Liangyuan to serve as deputy rectifier of saṅgha affairs of the Left Street. Together with Grand Master Zhaoxin, an ācārya who transmitted the Dharma, he possessed a venerable demeanor with a youthful complexion; they were known as the Two Bodhisattvas. For this reason, the court nobles, scholars, and commoners frequently sought from him the arts of nourishing life. Pi was diligent and untiring, bowing once to each Buddha. In the Four Sūtras—the Sūtra of the Names of Buddhas, the Lotus Sūtra, the Diamond Sūtra, the Benevolent Kings Sūtra, and the Sūtra on the Rebirth Above—he bowed to each and every character. Yet he maintained the dhūta practices; when the time for alms-gathering arrived, two disciples accompanied him. In the jiachen year of Kaiyun, he became the saṅgha rectifier of the Left Street; although he oversaw saṅgha affairs, he continued his daily course of spiritual practice. Minister Li Tao, Grand Preceptor and Western Bureau of Military Affairs Commissioner Wang Pu, Hanlin Academician Recipient of Edicts Tao Gu, and others all devoted their hearts and placed great faith in him. By the Qianyou era of the Han, he pleaded illness and requested permission to return west. Before this was granted, the Han ruling house declined, military conflicts broke out continuously, and rampant looting ensued. Pi leaned against the wall under the covered corridor, chanting and reciting; during two days of turmoil, no one saw him. When those in the capital heard of this, they admired and respected him all the more. He fled back to Luoyang, where Emperor Taizu of the Zhou, before his ascension, held him in high esteem. In the first year of Guangshun, an edict summoned him to serve as saṅgha rectifier of the Left Street; refusing to accept his declining, he was made to return to the Eastern Capital and take up the saṅgha post. When Emperor Shizong governed the affairs of the metropolitan prefecture, he disliked the chaotic mixture in the Buddhist monastic order and wished to memorialize for a purge; he summoned Pi to deliberate with him. As difficult inquiries were raised from all sides, Pi illuminated and reasoned through the matter, saying: "The pure and noble among monks will certainly not show off before others. Those monks who are coarse and unruly, on the contrary, wander openly throughout the world. I fear that just as one applies the hoe, fragrant orchids will be cut down along with the weeds; or as one undertakes panning and washing, gold will be swept away along with the sand and mud. Your Royal Highness possesses stored brightness wishing to illuminate, and accumulated wisdom that should be put into action: is this to benefit the Emperor, or to harm your sovereign and parents? If it is to benefit your sovereign, you should not let a single thing lose its proper place. If it harms your parents, this destroys the field of merit of the six harmonies. Furthermore, since all under heaven has just been pacified and the wounds have not yet healed, I beg you to wait for a later time; it will not be too late to investigate and weed them out. Thus Laozi said: 'Governing a large state is like cooking small fish.' If they are stirred, one fears they will be reduced to mush." Shizong strongly agreed with his words and temporarily shelved the matter. When Shizong ascended the throne, Pi said to the monks: "Our Emperor has long had this intention; you must watch over and protect one another." He resolutely begged to be dismissed and returned to Luoyang, where he again bowed standing to the Śūraṅgama Sūtra. In the second year, an edict indeed ordered the merger and destruction of Buddhist temples and established monastic registers, ostensibly to set limits. That the destruction of the teaching was not severe was due to Pi's efforts. On the eighth day of the sixth month in the second year of Xiande, yimao, he suffered a slight illness. On the tenth day, he ordered his disciples to prepare gruel early, saying: "Many bodhisattvas of the Śūraṅgama are coming to welcome me." He ordered the mallet struck, and in an instant passed away, at the age of sixty-seven, with a saṅgha age of forty-seven. Clergy and laity wept and wailed, and the various temples arranged ceremonial insignia to escort his burial to the left of Guanghua Temple at Longmen, where a stone stupa was erected. Before his passing, the temple bell grew hoarse for no reason, the dragon head of the banner pole suddenly fell, and the monk Chengqing dreamed that the beam of the temple's Buddha hall snapped, among many extraordinary omens.