宋高僧傳 25.41

25.41

釋鴻莒，姓唐氏，永嘉人也。早出家于越州龍宮寺。始則誦《法華經》全部。得度，裹足往趨長安學律。因讀化度寺碑，時有舉人旁聽，見莒目瞻多行，異之，知能背碑，請莒誦之。儒生覆其文，了無一誤。又相將去崇聖寺，亦然，而多強記，輩流所推。言歸故鄉，請受二眾依止。其細行也，生來未嘗叱其狸犬，豈況諸餘乎？然晝夜行道誦經，有鬼神扶衛——或為然燭，或代添香，皆鬼物也。天成三年戊子，水澇之後，報之以大旱，民荐饑饉。有強盜入其室，莒待之若賓客，躬作粥飯飼之，曰：「徐徐去，山深無人。汝曹為天災所困耳。」盜者拜受而去。弟子中欲襲其不備，莒曰：「非我弟子，我捨此永入深山矣！」諸子罷輕襲之意。長興癸巳歲中，恬然無疾，跏趺儼然長逝。至三更，手敲龕門者三，弟子哭泣啟開，云：「吾告汝等，與吾換新衣裳，緣佛土諸上善人嫌吾服章不淨。」易畢便終，七日頂暖。時院中有巨犬三——能猛噬——，遷塔日隨人馴狎。時山中麏鹿飛鳥相參，犬無摯猛，獸不驚奔。葬後，有虎繞墳嘷叫。其感物之情如是。有弟鴻楚，並高行，為時所重。

Shi Hongju was surnamed Tang and was a native of Yongjia. In his early years, he left the secular world at Longgong Temple in Yuezhou. He began by reciting the complete *Lotus Sūtra*. Having attained ordination, he bound his feet and hastened to Chang'an to study the vinaya. While reading the stele of Huadu Temple, a candidate for the civil examinations was listening nearby; seeing Ju's eyes scan many lines at once, he marvelled at it, and knowing he could recite the stele from memory, asked Ju to recite it. When the scholar checked the text, there was not a single mistake. They went together to Chongshèng Temple, and it was the same there; so powerful was his memory that he was praised by his peers. When he returned to his native land, both assemblies [of monks and nuns] requested to take refuge with him. As for his meticulous conduct, throughout his life he had never once scolded a cat or a dog, how much less anything else? Day and night he walked the path and recited the scriptures, and spirits and deities aided and guarded him—sometimes lighting candles for him, or replenishing the incense on his behalf, all being spirits. In the wuzi year, the third year of the Tiancheng era, after floodwaters, a severe drought followed, and the people suffered repeated famines. Bandits broke into his chamber; Ju treated them as guests, personally made gruel and rice to feed them, and said: "Depart slowly; the mountain is deep and there is no one around. You are merely driven by natural disaster." The bandits bowed, received the food, and left. Among his disciples, some wished to launch a surprise attack on them, but Ju said: "If you do so, you are no disciples of mine; I shall abandon this place and enter forever into the deep mountains!" The disciples then abandoned their intention of making a light attack. In the guisi year of the Changxing era, calm and free of illness, he sat in full lotus posture and solemnly passed away. At the third watch of the night, someone knocked on the niche door three times. His weeping disciples opened it, and he said: "I tell you all to change me into new robes, for all the superior good people of the Buddha-land dislike the impurity of my garments." Once the change was complete, he passed away, and the crown of his head remained warm for seven days. At that time, there were three large dogs in the courtyard—ferocious biters—yet on the day of the relocation of his stūpa, they followed the people tamely. At that time, roe deer, deer, and birds in the mountains mingled together; the dogs showed no fierceness, and the beasts did not flee in alarm. After the burial, a tiger circled the grave and roared. Such was his resonance with living things. He had a younger brother, Hongchu, who was likewise of exalted conduct and esteemed by the age.