宋高僧傳 19.47

19.47

釋惠忠，俗姓王，潤州上元人也。初在母孕，忽遇異僧，謂曰：「所生貴子，當為天人矣。」誕育已來，不食葷腥，有異常童。稟性敦厚。年二十三，以經業見度，即神龍元年也。遂配莊嚴寺，志節高簡，為時輩所推。聞牛頭山威禪師襲達磨蹤，得佛法印，遂造山禮謁。威見忠，乃曰：「山主來矣。」因為說法，頓悟上乘。威既得人，如老氏之逢尹喜，乃命入室付法傳燈，并委山門之事，遂出鄽聚。忠即繼踵茲峯，夙夜精勵。常頭陀山澤，飲泉藉草，一食延時。每用一鐺，眾味同煮，用畢懸於樹杪，方復繩床晏坐。終日如杌，衣不易時，寒暑一納，積四十年，遂彰靈應非一。州牧明賢，頻詣山禮謁，再請至郡，施化道俗。天寶初年始出止莊嚴。忠以為梁朝舊寺，莊嚴最盛，今已歲古凋殘，興懷修葺，遂於殿東擬創法堂。先有古木，鵲巢其頂，工人將欲伐之。忠曰：「且止，待鵲移去，始當伐之。」因至樹祝曰：「此地造堂，當速移去。」言畢，其鵲競銜柴遷寓他樹。合郭道俗觀者如堵，莫不歎異。又立基未定，忽有二神人為上其處，因乃定焉。雖汲引無廢，神曠不撓，四方之侶，相依日至。以大曆三年——山門石室前有忠挂衣藤——，是歲盛夏忽然枯悴。靈芝仙菌，且不復生。至九月，忠演法高座，無故水出遶座而轉。至四年六月十五日，集眾布薩，至晚乃命侍者剃髮浴軀。是夜瑞雲覆剎，天樂聞空，十六朝怡然坐化。時風雨震蕩，樹木摧折，和州延祚寺僧徒其夕咸見白虹直東西，貫于山中，鳥獸哀鳴，林壑巖間哭聲數日方止。岳牧韋公損聞而哀愴，遣使贈賻，并令上元令劉君備威儀送歸山。于時炎蒸，至七月七，天降雨絕凉。八日神柩出，纖塵不飛。又有群鶴徘徊輿上，送至山門。瘞後數日，墳內放光，照于山林。五年春，依外國法茶毘，獲舍利不可勝計，圓細如珠，光彩瑩徹。遠近道俗有恨無所剋獲，咸於焚身處煨燼中至求，凡百千人，皆得舍利。故知法身圓應，感物無窮，聖力潛通，光騰千古。門人起木塔。春秋八十七矣。身逾七尺，霜眉徑寸，儀容殊偉，燕頷龍腮，神氣孤拔，色如金聚，含光玉潤，若梵僧。所居帳幃弗張，蚊蚋不犯。曾居蘭若幽棲，松竹深邃，甞有虎鹿並各產子，馴遶入室，曾無懼色。開元二十七年，上元令長孫遂初脫略異聞，躬造山詢驗。及到山半，猛虎當路瓟吼，遂乃驚怖，莫知所為。忠聞，出林曉喻，虎因寢聲，伏于林中。遂恐懾，合掌禮謝而迴。忠又向吳郡，具戒院中有凌霄藤，盛夏萎悴，人擬伐之。威大師曰：「勿翦！惠忠還日，其藤更生。」人不之信，及秋，忠還，其藤重茂矣。又昔有供僧穀倉在莊，夜有強盜來竊之，虎乃吼喚逐之。盜棄負器而逃。其類夥多，良難驟述。忠著《見性序》及《行路難》，精旨妙密，盛行于世。又鄴中釋圓寂，氏族生地俱不可尋。初從嵩山見老安禪師，道契相符，莫測涯岸。以高宗咸亨二年生，計終歲已一百有奇年矣。襄州節度使嚴綬，傾心供養，亦號無生和尚焉。

Shi Huizhong, whose secular surname was Wang, was a native of Shangyuan in Runzhou. When his mother was first pregnant with him, she suddenly encountered an extraordinary monk who said to her: “The noble son to be born will become [a guide for] gods and humans.” From the time of his birth onward, he did not eat meat or fish, being different from ordinary children. He was by nature earnest and generous. At the age of twenty-three, he was ordained through his proficiency in the scriptures; this was the first year of Shenlong. He was subsequently assigned to Zhuangyan Temple. His aspirations and conduct were lofty and unadorned, and he was esteemed by his contemporaries. Hearing that Dhyāna Master Wei of Mount Niutou had succeeded to Bodhidharma's footsteps and attained the Buddha's seal of Dharma, he went to the mountain to pay him homage. When Wei saw Zhong, he said: “The master of the mountain has arrived!” He then expounded the Dharma for him, and [Zhong] had an instantaneous awakening to the supreme vehicle. Having found such a person, just like Laozi meeting Yin Xi, Wei ordered him to enter his chamber, conferred the Dharma upon him to transmit the lamp, and entrusted the affairs of the mountain monastery to him, thereupon departing for the towns and settlements. Zhong then continued in his footsteps on this peak, exerting himself day and night. He constantly practiced dhūta austerities in the mountains and marshes, drinking from springs and resting on the grass, sustaining himself with a single meal a day. He always used a single pot to cook all kinds of flavors together, and when he was done, he hung it from the tip of a tree branch, only then returning to his corded chair to sit peacefully. All day long he was like a block of wood. He did not change his robe with the seasons, wearing a single patched garment through cold and heat. Over the course of forty years, his miraculous responses became manifest on more than one occasion. Wise and worthy prefects frequently climbed the mountain to pay him homage and repeatedly invited him to the commandery to convert and guide the clergy and laity. Only at the beginning of the Tianbao era did he come out to reside at Zhuangyan [Temple]. Zhong considered that this old temple of the Liang dynasty, once the most magnificent of solemnities, was now aged and dilapidated, and he conceived the wish to repair it. He therefore planned to establish a Dharma hall to the east of the main hall. There was an ancient tree with a magpie nest at its crown, and the laborers were about to fell it. Zhong said: “Stop for a while. Only after the magpies have moved away should you fell it.” He then went to the tree and prayed: “A hall is to be built on this site; you should move away quickly.” When he had finished speaking, the magpies vied with one another to carry twigs in their beaks and relocated to another tree. The clergy and laity of the entire city walled it around watching, and none failed to marvel at the wonder. Furthermore, when the foundations were not yet determined, two divine beings suddenly appeared and marked out the spot for him, and so it was established. Although his guidance and teaching never ceased, his spirit was broad and unperturbed, and companions from the four directions arrived daily to rely on him. In the third year of Dali—in front of the stone chamber at the mountain gate, there was a wisteria vine on which Zhong hung his robe—in the height of summer that year, it suddenly withered. Spiritual mushrooms and immortal fungi no longer grew. In the ninth month, when Zhong was preaching the Dharma from the high seat, water welled up for no reason and circled around the seat. On the fifteenth day of the sixth month of the fourth year, he gathered the assembly for the upoṣadha; when evening came, he ordered his attendants to shave his head and bathe his body. That night, auspicious clouds covered the monastery, and heavenly music was heard in the sky. On the morning of the sixteenth, he passed away peacefully in a seated posture. At that time, wind and rain violently shook the earth, trees broke and fell, and the monks of Yanzuo Temple in Hezhou all saw a white rainbow running straight east and west, piercing the mountains. Birds and beasts cried mournfully, and weeping in the forests and ravines stopped only after several days. When Regional Inspector Duke Wei Sun heard of it, he was filled with grief and sorrow; he dispatched an envoy to present funeral gifts and ordered Magistrate Liu of Shangyuan to prepare ceremonial accoutrements to escort [the remains] back to the mountain. At that time the weather was sweltering and humid, but on the seventh day of the seventh month, heaven sent down rain that was exceedingly cool. On the eighth day, when the sacred coffin was carried out, not a speck of dust flew. Moreover, a flock of cranes hovered above the carriage, escorting it to the mountain gate. A few days after the burial, light shone forth from the tomb, illuminating the mountain forest. In the spring of the fifth year, cremation was carried out according to the foreign method, and countless śarīra relics were obtained, round and fine like pearls, their luster clear and bright. When clergy and laity from far and near lamented that they had obtained nothing, several hundred thousand people all sought earnestly among the ashes where the body was burned, and all obtained śarīra relics. Thus we know that the Dharmakāya’s complete response moves beings without limit, and that sage power secretly connects, its radiance soaring through a thousand ages. His disciples built a wooden pagoda. He had lived eighty-seven springs and autumns. He was over seven feet tall, with frosty eyebrows an inch long, and an exceptionally magnificent appearance: a swallow chin and dragon cheeks, a spirit solitary and lofty, and a complexion like a heap of gold, containing light and moist like jade, resembling an Indian monk. In his dwelling, no curtains were hung, yet mosquitoes and gnats did not disturb him. Once, when he dwelt in seclusion in an araṇya amid deep pines and bamboos, a tigress and a deer gave birth to young there at the same time; tame and gentle, they circled into his room, showing no fear whatsoever. In the twenty-seventh year of Kaiyuan, Magistrate Changsun Sui of Shangyuan, who initially disregarded such unusual reports, personally climbed the mountain to investigate and verify them. When he reached halfway up the mountain, a fierce tiger stood in the road, roaring and pawing the ground; Sui was terrified, not knowing what to do. Zhong heard it, came out of the forest, and admonished the tiger, which thereupon fell silent and prostrated in the forest. Terrified and humbled, Sui pressed his palms together, thanked him, and returned. Furthermore, when Zhong went to Wu Commandery, there was a Chinese trumpet creeper vine in the Juijie Courtyard that withered in the height of summer, and people intended to cut it down. Grand Master Wei said: “Do not cut it! On the day Huizhong returns, this vine will revive.” People did not believe him, but when autumn came and Zhong returned, the vine grew luxuriant once more. Also, in the past there was a granary on a manor providing grain for the saṅgha; at night robbers came to steal it, but a tiger roared and pursued them. The robbers abandoned their carrying vessels and fled. Instances of this kind were manifold, truly difficult to recount all at once. Zhong authored the Preface on Seeing the Nature and The Hard Road, whose refined principles are subtle and profound, and they circulated widely in the world. There was also Shi Yuanji of Yezhong, whose clan and birthplace can neither be traced. At first, he visited Dhyāna Master Lao'an on Mount Song, and their accord in the Way was harmonious, his depth unfathomable. Born in the second year of Gaozong's Xianheng era, he lived to be over a hundred years of age. Military Commissioner Yan Shou of Xiangzhou made offerings to him with wholehearted devotion, and he was also known as the Non-arising Upādhyāya.