宋高僧傳 18.23

18.23

釋道鑒，姓馮氏，吳郡人。未知從來，而居歷下靈巖山寺，蹤迹神異，不測僧也。元和中，有馮生者，亦吳郡人也，以明經調選未捷，因僑寄長安。一日見老僧來詣馮居，謂之曰：「汝，吾姓也。」因相與往還。僅于歲餘，遂注擬作尉于東越。方務治裝，鑒負錫來告去。馮問：「師去，安所詣乎？」鑒曰：「吾廬在齊州靈巖之西廡下。薄遊神京，至今正十年矣。幸得與子遊，今歸舊所，故來相別。然吾子尉于越鄉，道出靈巖寺下，當宜一訪我也。」馮諾之曰：「謹受教矣。」數日，馮出關，東之赴任，至靈巖寺門，立馬望曰：「豈非鑒師所居寺乎？」即入訪之。時一僧在庭，馮問：「道鑒上人廬舍安在？」僧曰：「此寺無道鑒。」馮疑異，默而計曰：「鑒公純直，豈欺我乎？」於是獨遊寺中，行至西廡下，忽見壁畫一僧，與鑒師貌同。馮大驚嗟：「鑒師果異人歟？且能降神與我交。」久之，視其真相旁題云：　「馮氏子，吳郡人也。年十歲學浮圖法，以道行有聞，卒年七十八。」馮閱其題，方悟云「汝，吾姓也」，言非謬矣。一說蘇州西去城二十許里，有靈巖山寺，西北廡下畫沙門形，云是梁天監十五年作遊方居士狀，經過山寺，寓過宵宿，而於僧厨借筆硯，僧眾皆不留意。詰旦，僧遍搜索而亡有客，見殿隅畫一梵僧，面骨權奇，膚色皴黑，眉長且垂，眸子電轉，眥間青白，昂鼻方口，張脣露齒，擎拳倚右肩之上，身屈可長一丈五寸，衣麁衲袈裟，臂擐大珠，徒跣。眾見驚懾，莫測其來。遠近咸格，有焚香禮歎者，有請福禳災者。或於晴夜，殿中析窣，聞有行道之聲，由是鳥雀不敢污踐簷楹之間矣。然則鄉人謂之靈巖和尚，或云靈巖聖僧。甞見形謂一老姥曰：「貧道好食茭粽。」疑是聖者，翌日持簞入殿供養，迄今年別三月三日民競送之，以菰蔣葉角黍米[卄/瀹]之，吳人謂之茭粽也。唐先天二年，陸魯公子疾，醫工未驗，公憂慮增劇。門遇一僧分衛，屈入，遂索水器含噀之，即時病間。魯公喜，贈物頗豐，了不迴視。遂問：「和尚居處何寺？」答曰：「貧道住蘇州吳縣西靈巖寺。郎君為官江表，望入寺相尋。」斯須已去。未久，調補尚書刑部郎，續遷桂州廉使。常念當年救病之僧，迂路姑蘇，入靈巖寺覓焉。乃說其形貌，合寺僧云：「非此所有。」陸盡日徘徊不忍去，忽於殿中見聖者形，曰：「往年療某者，此僧也。」寺僧說其由致，通感難知。陸捨錢數萬，備香火之資，却留旬日，供養方去。又寺中淨人每於像前占燭燈，添油助燼，意盜油塗髮耳。居無何，其髮焦卷而墮，傍人勸令禮懺，別買麻膏增炷，平復如初。又武宗將廢佛教也，近寺有陸宣者，夢聖者云：「受弟子供施年深，今來相別，且歸西天去也。」宣急命畫工圖寫真貌。至會昌五年，毀拆寺宇，方知告別之意焉。距咸通七年蝗災，爾時彌空亘野，食人苗稼，至于入人家食繒帛之物。百姓徬徨，莫能為計。時民人吳延讓等率耆艾數十百人詣像前焚香泣告，即日蟲飛越境焉。乾符五年，寺眾當詣闕乞鐘歸寺，差僧選日登途。聖者先入右神策軍本局，預陳囑託。及正請鐘僧到，見司吏，怪問：「數日前有僧來，云隷蘇州靈巖山寺。」其僧曰：「某行無伴侶。」後右軍胥因事遊吳，見壁畫云：「此是七月中曾來司內計會鐘僧也。」然吳中極彰靈異，且不測厥由。曾有梵僧來，禮畫像云：「智積菩薩何緣在此？」歎嗟彌久，而自此號「智積應身」也。

Shi Daojian was surnamed Feng and was a native of Wu commandery. His origins were unknown, but he resided at Lingyanshan Temple in Lixia; his tracks were wondrous and divine, and he was an unfathomable monk. During the Yuanhe era, there was a student named Feng, also a native of Wu commandery, who had stayed in Chang'an because he had not succeeded in the civil service selection through the Mingjing examination. One day he saw an elderly monk come to his residence, who said to him, "You share my surname." They thus began to associate with each other. After barely more than a year, Feng was designated to serve as a defender in Eastern Yue. Just as he was busy preparing his luggage, Jian arrived carrying a monk's staff to bid him farewell. Feng asked, "When you depart, Master, where will you go?" Jian replied, "My hut is beneath the western corridor of Lingyan in Qi Prefecture. My brief sojourn in the divine capital has lasted exactly ten years until now. Fortunate to have associated with you, I am now returning to my former place, which is why I have come to take my leave. However, when you, my friend, serve as defender in the land of Yue, your path will pass beneath Lingyan Temple; you should pay me a visit." Feng gave his promise, saying, "I respectfully accept your instruction." A few days later, Feng passed beyond the pass and headed east to take up his post. Reaching the gate of Lingyan Temple, he reined in his horse, looked, and said, "Is this not the temple where Master Jian resides?" He immediately entered to inquire about him. At that time, a monk was in the courtyard. Feng asked, "Where is the venerable Daojian's lodging?" The monk replied, "There is no Daojian at this temple." Feng was puzzled and astonished; pondering in silence, he thought, "Master Jian is pure and upright; how could he deceive me?" Thereupon he strolled alone through the temple, and when he walked beneath the western corridor, he suddenly saw a monk painted on the wall whose appearance was identical to Master Jian's. Feng was greatly astonished and sighed, "Is Master Jian truly an extraordinary man? He was even able to descend in spirit to interact with me!" After a long time, he looked beside the true portrait and saw an inscription that read: "The son of the Feng family, a native of Wu commandery. At the age of ten he studied the Dharma of the Buddha; renowned for his practice of the Way, he passed away at the age of seventy-eight." When Feng read the inscription, he only then realized that the statement, "You share my surname," had not been false. Another account says: Some twenty-odd li west of the city of Suzhou, there is Lingyanshan Temple. Beneath the northwestern corridor is painted the form of a śramaṇa. It is said that in the fifteenth year of the Tianjian era of the Liang dynasty, he took the guise of an itinerant lay practitioner passing by the mountain temple and lodging there for the night; he borrowed a brush and inkstone from the monks' kitchen, and none of the monks paid him any heed. At dawn, the monks searched everywhere, but the guest was gone; in a corner of the hall, they saw a painted Indian monk with prominent cheekbones, wrinkled black skin, long drooping eyebrows, eyes flashing like lightning, blue and white in his corners, a high nose, a square mouth with parted lips exposing his teeth, and a raised fist resting on his right shoulder. His bent body was about one zhang and five cun tall, dressed in a coarse patch-robe kāṣāya, with large beads worn around his arm, and barefoot. When the multitude saw it, they were terrified and could not fathom where he had come from. People from near and far all arrived; some burned incense, paid homage, and sighed in praise, while others sought blessings and averted calamities. On clear nights, rustling sounds were heard in the hall as the sound of walking the Way; on account of this, birds and sparrows dared not foul or alight between the eaves and pillars. Thus the local people called him the Lingyan Monk, or sometimes the Holy Monk of Lingyan. He once appeared in bodily form and said to an old woman, "This poor monk is fond of eating jiaozong." Suspecting he was a holy being, the next day she brought a basket into the hall to make an offering. Down to this day, every year on the third day of the third month, the people compete to send them, wrapping glutinous millet rice with water-bamboo leaves and boiling them; the people of Wu call them jiaozong. In the second year of the Xiantian era of the Tang dynasty, the son of Duke Lu of Yan fell ill; the physicians had no success, and the Duke's anxiety grew acute. At his gate he met a monk begging for food, invited him in, and the monk asked for a water vessel, took water in his mouth, and sprayed it; instantly the illness remitted. Duke Lu was delighted and gave him very generous gifts, but the monk did not look back at them at all. He then asked, "At what temple does the Upādhyāya reside?" The monk replied, "This poor monk lives at Lingyan Temple west of Wu County in Suzhou. When you, my good gentleman, serve as an official in Jiangbiao, I hope you will enter the temple to look for me." In an instant, he was gone. Before long, Duke Lu was appointed director in the Ministry of Justice and subsequently promoted to surveillance commissioner of Guizhou. Constantly remembering the monk who had saved him from illness that year, he took a detour to Gusu and entered Lingyan Temple to search for him. When he described his features and appearance, the monks of the entire temple said, "There is no such person here." Lu lingered the whole day, unable to bear leaving; suddenly in the hall he saw the form of the holy being and said, "The one who treated me in former years was this monk!" The temple monks recounted his origins, [showing that] such spiritual resonances are difficult to fathom. Lu donated tens of thousands of coins to provide funds for incense and lamps, and stayed for ten days making offerings before departing. Furthermore, a temple pure man regularly attended to the lamps before the image, adding oil to feed the wicks, with the intention of stealing oil to rub on his hair. Before long, his hair scorched, curled, and fell out; bystanders advised him to repent and pay homage, and to buy hemp oil separately to add to the wicks, whereupon his hair was restored as before. Also, when Emperor Wuzong was about to abolish Buddhism, there was a man named Lu Xuan near the temple who dreamed that the holy being said to him, "I have received your offerings, disciple, for many years; now I have come to take my leave and return to the Western Heavens." Xuan urgently commanded a painter to depict his true portrait. In the fifth year of the Huichang era, when the temple halls were demolished, he only then understood the meaning of the farewell. Later, in the seventh year of the Xiantong era, there was a locust plague; at that time, they filled the sky and spanned the fields, eating people's crops and even entering homes to consume silk fabrics. The people were bewildered and had no plan. At that time, locals such as Wu Yanrang led dozens to a hundred elderly people to the front of the image, burning incense and weeping in prayer; that very day, the insects flew across the border. In the fifth year of the Qianfu era, when the temple community was to go to the palace to beg for a bell to return to the temple, they selected a monk and chose a day to set out. The holy being went first to the headquarters of the Right Shence Army and gave instructions in advance. When the monk formally requesting the bell arrived and met the scribes, they asked in astonishment, "A few days ago a monk came, saying he was attached to Lingyanshan Temple in Suzhou." The monk said, "I traveled with no companion." Later, a clerk from the Right Army traveled to Wu on business and saw the wall painting, exclaiming, "This is the monk who came to our office in the seventh month to arrange for the bell!" Thus his spiritual wonders were extremely manifest in the Wu region, yet their origin could not be fathomed. An Indian monk once came, bowed before the painted image, and said, "For what reason is the Bodhisattva Jñānasaṃcaya here?" He sighed for a long time, and from then on he was called "the Response Body of Jñānasaṃcaya."