宋高僧傳 25.39

25.39

釋鴻楚，字方外，姓唐氏，永嘉人也。生而符彩且異群兒。及甫髫齡，器度宏曠。楚之外，昆弟皆出俗越之龍宮伽藍，遂祈二親，亦願隨往。網疎魚脫，籠揭鶴飛，杜若殖于蘭洲，新繒染于絳色，互相切直，誦習彌通。年二十三，方升上品無作。及迴本郡，時州將朱褒知其名節，欽揖愈勤。唐大順中以城南有廢大雲寺荒墌，表聞昭宗，欲重締構。帝俞其請。於是百工俱作，楚躬主之。施利程功，不愆于素；而講經禮像，無相奪倫。武肅王錢氏，乾化初年於杭州龍興寺開度戒壇，召楚足臨壇員數，因奏薦梁太祖，賜紫衣并號，固讓弗聽，終不披著——自言涼德，何稱法門命數之服？時詩人鄭說南遊，訪鴻靜法師，邂逅與楚會。體知高行，杼詩贈楚云：「架上紫衣閑不著，案頭金字坐長看。」楚寬慈，人未甞見其慍色。神氣清爽，厥頤豐下，且皤其腹。目不邪視，顧必迴身。世俗之言，不輕掉舌。所講《法華經》，計五十許座。一日，楚之講堂中忽生蓮華，重柎複葉，香氣芬荂。以長興三年壬辰六月五日，無疾而化。俗齡七十五，法臘五十二。道俗孺慕。其年遷塔于慈雲右岡焉。楚講貫外，深夜行道誦經。將逝夕，燈光忽暗，經聲絕微，告門人曰：「勞爾給使，吾將往矣。」其所臥之榻中先有白蛇——其大若肱，恒同臥處——，長誡童侍，無妄驚擾。生常撰《上生經鈔》，刺血寫《法華經》一部，至今永嘉人謂為僧寶中異寶焉。

Shi Hongchu, courtesy name Fangwai, was surnamed Tang and was a native of Yongjia. At his birth, his auspicious marks and radiance were distinguished from ordinary children. When he had just reached the age of childhood, his capacity and temperament were vast and expansive. Outside of Chu, his elder and younger brothers all left the secular world for the Longgong monastery in Yue[zhou]; he thereupon besought his parents, wishing likewise to go with them. As fish escaping a coarse net, or cranes taking flight when the cage is lifted, like sweet-flag planted on orchid isles, or new silk dyed in crimson, they corrected and straightened each other, and their recitation and study became thoroughly penetrating. At the age of twenty-three, he finally mounted [the platform for] the unconditioned superior rank [of full ordination]. When he returned to his home commandery, the regional commander Zhu Bao learned of his renowned integrity and greeted him with ever greater veneration. During the Dashun era of the Tang, as south of the city lay the derelict foundation of the abandoned Dayun Temple, he submitted a memorial to Emperor Zhaozong requesting to rebuild it. The emperor granted his request. Thereupon all the artisans set to work together, and Chu personally took charge of it. He dispensed funds and scheduled the work without departing from simplicity; yet his lecturing on the scriptures and bowing before the images did not disrupt the schedule. In the early years of the Qianhua era, King Wusu of the Qian family established an ordination platform at Longxing Temple in Hangzhou and summoned Chu to complete the required number of platform [preceptors]. Thereupon he memorialised and recommended him to Taizu of the Liang, who bestowed a purple robe together with a title. Chu resolutely declined and would not comply, ultimately refusing to don it—declaring of himself that his virtue was slight, how could he be worthy of the vestments ordained by the Dharma gate? At that time, the poet Zheng Shuo was traveling south and visited Dharma Master Hongjing, where he met Chu by chance. Discerning his exalted conduct, he composed a poem and presented it to Chu, which ran: "On the rack, the purple robe hangs idle and unworn; / At his desk, he sits long gazing at the gold-lettered text." Chu was magnanimous and compassionate; no one ever saw a displeased expression on his face. His spirit was clear and refreshing, his jowls were full below, and he had a prominent belly. His eyes never cast improper glances, and when looking back he always turned his whole body. He did not lightly wag his tongue with secular talk. As for the *Lotus Sūtra* he lectured upon, it amounted to some fifty sessions. One day, a lotus flower suddenly sprouted in Chu's lecture hall, with layered calyxes and double petals, its fragrance rich and flourishing. On the fifth day of the sixth month in the renchen year, the third year of the Changxing era, he passed away without illness. His secular age was seventy-five, and his dharma age was fifty-two. Clerics and laity mourned him as children would a parent. In that year, his stūpa was relocated to the right ridge of Ciyun. Beyond his lectures and recitations, he walked the path and recited the scriptures late into the night. On the eve of his passing, the lamp light suddenly grew dim and the sound of his scripture recitation became extremely faint. He told his disciples: "I have troubled you to wait upon me; I am about to depart." In the couch where he slept, there had previously been a white snake—as thick as a forearm, it always shared his resting place—and he constantly admonished his novice attendants not to recklessly disturb it. During his life, he authored the *Shangsheng jing chao* (Commentary on the Scripture of Rebirth [in Tuṣita]) and pricked his own blood to copy a complete copy of the *Lotus Sūtra*; down to the present, the people of Yongjia regard him as an extraordinary jewel among the saṅgharatna.