宋高僧傳 20.22

20.22

釋地藏，姓金氏，新羅國王之支屬也。慈心而貌惡，頴悟天然。七尺成軀，頂聳奇骨特高，才力可敵十夫。甞自誨曰：「六籍寰中，三清術內，唯第一義與方寸合。」于時落髮涉海，捨舟而徒，振錫觀方。邂逅至池陽，覩九子山焉，心甚樂之，乃逕造其峯，得谷中之地，面陽而寬平。其土黑壤，其泉滑甘，巖棲磵汲，趣爾度日。藏甞為毒螫，端坐無念。俄有美婦人作禮饋藥云：「小兒無知，願出泉以補過。」言訖不見，視坐左右間潗㵫然，時謂為九子山神為湧泉資用也。其山天寶中李白遊此，號為九華焉。俗傳山神，婦女也。其峯多冒雲霧，罕曾露頂歟。藏素願持四大部經，遂下山至南陵，有信士為繕寫，得以歸山。至德年初，有諸葛節率村父自麓登高，深極無人，雲日鮮明，居唯藏，孤然閉目石室。其房有折足鼎，鼎中白土和少米，烹而食之。群老驚歎曰：「和尚如斯苦行，我曹山下列居之咎耳。」相與同構禪宇，不累載而成大伽藍。建中初張公嚴典是邦，仰藏之高風，因移舊額奏置寺焉。本國聞之，率以渡海相尋，其徒且多，無以資歲。藏乃發石得土，其色青白，不磣如麵，而供眾食。其眾請法以資神，不以食而養命。南方號為「枯槁眾」，莫不宗仰。龍潭之側有白墡硎，取之無盡。以貞元十九年夏，忽召眾告別，罔知攸往。但聞山嗚石隕，扣鐘嘶嗄，如趺而滅。春秋九十九。其屍坐於函中，洎三稔開將入塔，顏貌如生，舉舁之動骨節，若撼金鎖焉。乃立小浮圖于南臺，是藏宴坐之地也。時徵士右拾遺費冠卿序事存焉。大中中僧應物亦紀其德哉。

Śramaṇa Dizang, surnamed Kim, was an offshoot of the royal house of Silla. He had a compassionate heart but a forbidding appearance, with natural acuity. Standing seven feet tall, the extraordinary bone on the crown of his head was uniquely prominent, and his strength could rival ten men. He once admonished himself, saying: "Within the realm of the Six Classics, amidst the arts of the Three Purities, only the Supreme Meaning accords with the mind." Thereupon he shaved his head, crossed the sea, abandoned his boat to proceed on foot, and raised his staff to observe the various directions. By chance he arrived at Chiyang and gazed upon Mount Jiuzi, feeling great delight in his heart. He went straight to its peak and found a place in the valley, facing the sun and broad and level. Its soil was black earth, and its springs were smooth and sweet. Nesting in crags and drawing from mountain streams, he spent his days in simplicity. Zang was once bitten by a venomous insect, yet he sat upright without wandering thoughts. Presently, a beautiful woman bowed and presented medicine, saying: "My little child was ignorant; I wish to bring forth a spring to atone for the fault." Having finished speaking, she disappeared. Looking to the left and right of his seat, water was bubbling forth; at the time, it was said that the spirit of Mount Jiuzi had brought forth a spring to provide for his use. During the Tianbao era, Li Bai traveled to this mountain and named it Jiuhua. Popular tradition holds that the mountain spirit is a woman. Its peaks are mostly veiled in clouds and mist, rarely exposing their summits. Zang had long vowed to uphold the four great divisions of scriptures. He thereupon descended the mountain to Nanling, where faithful donors copied them for him, allowing him to return to the mountain with them. At the beginning of the Zhide era, Zhuge Jie led the village elders up the heights from the foot of the mountain. Deep in the mountains there were no people; the clouds and sun were bright and clear. Living there was only Zang, solitary, closing his eyes in a stone chamber. In his room was a cauldron with a broken leg, in which white clay was mixed with a little rice, cooked, and eaten. The group of elders sighed in wonder, saying: "That the Venerable Master undergoes such ascetic practice is our fault for living down at the foot of the mountain!" Together they constructed a Chan monastery, which in no more than a few years became a great saṅghārāma. At the beginning of the Jianzhong era, Lord Zhang Yan governed this commandery; admiring Zang's lofty manner, he transferred an old temple plaque and memorialized the throne to establish it as a temple. When his native country heard of this, people crossed the sea in succession to seek him out; his followers became numerous, with no means to provide for the year. Zang then excavated rock and obtained earth; its color was blue-white, not gritty, like flour, and he offered it to feed the assembly. His assembly sought the Dharma to nourish their spirits, not relying on food to nourish life. In the south they were called the "withered assembly," and everyone revered them. Beside the Dragon Pool was a white clay ravine, from which extraction was inexhaustible. In the summer of the nineteenth year of the Zhenyuan era, he suddenly assembled the community to bid farewell, though none knew where he was going. One only heard the mountain groan and rocks fall, while the struck bell sounded raspy; he sat cross-legged and entered extinction. His worldly age was ninety-nine. His corpse sat within a casket; after three years, when it was opened to be placed in a stupa, his countenance was as if alive. When they lifted and carried it, the skeletal joints moved like shaking golden chains. They then erected a small stupa on the Southern Terrace, which was the place where Zang had sat in meditation. At that time, the summoned scholar and Omissioner of the Right Fei Guanqing recorded the events in a preface. During the Dazhong era, the monk Yingwu also chronicled his virtues.