宋高僧傳 23.38

23.38

釋道舟，姓管氏，朔方迴樂人也。髫年聰雅，庠序有儀，雖誦《詩》、《書》，樂聞釋典，決志出家于龍興寺孔雀王院。爰得戒珠，漸圓心月，吟哦唄讚，嘹亮可聽。乃率信士造永興寺，功成不宰。辭靈帥韓公洙，入賀蘭山白草谷，立要持念，感枯泉重湧，有靈蛇游泳于中——遂陟法臺談講也。道俗蜂屯，檀施山積，讚唱音響，可遏行雲，獷悍之人，若鴟鴞之革韻。乃刺血畫大悲千手眼立像。屬其亢陽，則絕食瞑目，要期雨之通濟，方議充腸。中和二年，聞關輔擾攘，乃於城南念定院塔下，斷左肱焚之，供養大悲像，「願倒置干戈，中原、塞上，早見弭兵。」言畢，迅雷風烈洪澍焉。又嘗截左耳為民祈雨、復斷食七日請雪，皆如其願。至于番落，無不祇畏。以天福六年辛丑歲二月六日，其夜未央，結加趺坐，留累門人方畢而絕，享齡七十有八。遺骸不散，如入禪定，遂加漆紵焉。建隆中，郭忠恕者博覽群籍，小學尤長，篆隷為能，多事凌轢，因過投于北裔，詢舟前烈，著碑頌焉。

Śramaṇa Daozhou, secular surname Guan, was a native of Huile in Shuofang. In his youth he was intelligent and refined, with well-mannered decorum; though he recited the Classic of Poetry and the Book of Documents, he took delight in hearing Buddhist scriptures and resolved to leave secular life at the Peacock King Cloister of Longxing Temple. Thereupon he obtained the jewel of the precepts and gradually rounded the moon of his mind; when he intoned chants and hymns of praise, their clear resonance was delightful to hear. He then led faithful laymen to construct Yongxing Temple, taking no pride in its completion. Taking leave of Military Commissioner Han Zhu of Lingzhou, he entered Baicao Valley in Mount Helan, made vows and maintained his recitations, which supernaturally moved a parched spring to bubble forth again, with a divine snake swimming in its midst—whereupon he ascended the Dharma stage to expound and preach. Monastics and laity swarmed like bees, and almsgiving piled up like mountains; the sound of his hymns and praises could halt passing clouds, and fierce, violent men changed their tone like transformed owls. He then pricked his blood to paint a standing image of the Great Compassionate One with a Thousand Hands and Eyes. When there was severe drought, he would cease eating and close his eyes, demanding a pervasive and beneficial downpour before considering filling his belly. In the second year of Zhonghe, hearing of disturbances in the Capital Region, beneath the pagoda of Nianding Cloister in the south of the city he severed his left arm and burned it, offering it to the image of the Great Compassionate One, [vowing]: 'May weapons be overturned, and may the Central Plains and the northern frontier soon see an end to warfare!' As soon as he finished speaking, there came swift thunder, fierce wind, and torrential downpours. He also once cut off his left ear to pray for rain for the people, and again fasted for seven days to entreat for snow, and all were granted as he wished. Even the foreign tribes all stood in awe and reverence of him. On the sixth day of the second month of the sixth year of Tianfu, a xin-chou year, before the night was over, he sat cross-legged, and as soon as he had finished leaving his instructions to his disciples, he passed away, at the age of seventy-eight. His remains did not decompose, as if he were entering dhyāna, whereupon lacquer and hemp cloth were applied to them. During the Jianlong era, Guo Zhongshu, who was well-read in the multitude of books, especially excelled in philology, and was skilled in seal and clerical scripts, faced much mistreatment and slander, and having fled as an exile to the northern frontier, he inquired about Zhou's former deeds and composed a stele inscription in his praise.