宋高僧傳 25.49

25.49

釋守真，永興萬年人也。俗姓紀，漢詐帝信之鴻緒。乃祖乃父，素履貞吉，奕葉孝行，充塞閭里，故鄉人美其孝焉，遂目之曰紀丁蘭也——真即其後矣！洎黃寇干紀，僖宗蒙塵，車駕避鋒而西幸，咸、鎬失守而沒賊，因而徙家居于蜀矣。及冠也，偶遊聖壽寺見修進律師行出物表，語越常度，乃解帶卸冠，北面而事之。七支既備，先謁從朗師，學《起信論》；次依性光師，傳法界觀；後禮演祕闍梨，授瑜伽教，竝得心要，咸盡指歸。自明達諸法，宣暢妙典，四十年間略無怠矣。而賜號曰昭信焉。講《起信》及法界觀共七十餘遍，皆以燈傳燈，用器投器，嗣乎法者二十許人。開灌頂道場五遍，約度僧尼士庶三千餘人，開水陸道場二十遍。常五更輪，結文殊五髻教法，至夜二更輪，西方無量壽教法，稱阿彌陀尊號，修念佛三昧，期生淨域。一日，謂弟子緣遇曰：「如來不云『出息不保入息』？吾之壽也幸矣，汝之年也耄矣，今欲順俗從世，預設二塔，其可得乎？」緣遇稽首而對曰：「廣度長老捨院之右地請建塔者有年矣！今大師屬其意，長老致其美，因緣冥契，安可而止。」於是鳩工而營之，自十月琢磨，至來一月徹繢。以開寶四年秋八月九日命眾念佛，佛聲既久，令止，奄然而歸寂，俗壽七十八，僧臘五十三。其月二十一日焚葬於北永泰門外智度院側。其獲舍利光潤，各將供養之。次沙彌彌伽者，于闐國人也，專誦《華嚴經》，曾無間息。聖曆年中，天帝釋請迎伽上天誦持，乃曰：「每被阿脩羅見擾，故屈師來，請為誦宣《華嚴經》，以禳彼敵。」遂陞座，朗諷是經。時修羅軍眾聞經乃現威神，一時而化去。又沙彌道蔭常念《金剛經》，寶曆初，因他出夜歸，虎暴中路，忽遇哮吼跳躑于前。蔭知不免，乃閉目而坐，唯默念是經，心期救護，虎遂伏草守之。達曙，村人來往，乃視虎，其蹲處涎流於地焉。蔭後持誦，益加高行矣。

Shi Shouzhen was a native of Wannian in Yongxing. His secular surname was Ji, and he was an illustrious descendant of Han Xin, who had been falsely titled emperor. His grandfather and father preserved pure conduct and were upright and auspicious; their filial deeds generation after generation filled the hamlets and lanes. Thus the villagers praised their filial piety and referred to him as a Ji Dinglan—and Zhen was his descendant! When the Huang [Chao] bandits rebelled against the dynasty, Emperor Xizong was forced to flee through the dust, and the imperial retinue headed west to evade their brunt. Xianyang and Haojing fell and were occupied by the rebels; because of this, the family moved and made their dwelling in Shu. Upon reaching adulthood, he happened to wander to Shengshou Temple and saw Vinaya Master Xiujin, whose practice transcended worldly concerns and whose speech went beyond ordinary measures; he thereupon untied his sash, took off his cap, and served him as disciple. After his seven branches of conduct were perfected, he first visited Master Conglang to study the Treatise on the Awakening of Faith (Qixin lun); next he relied on Master Xingguang, who transmitted to him the Contemplation of the Dharmadhātu; and later he paid obeisance to Ācārya Yanbi, who imparted to him the Yoga teachings. In all of them he attained the essential mind, completely mastering their final aim. From the time he clearly mastered all teachings and broadly propagated the wonderful texts, throughout forty years he showed not the slightest indolence. He was bestowed the title Zhaoxin. He lectured on the Awakening of Faith and the Contemplation of the Dharmadhātu more than seventy times in total; transmitting lamp to lamp and pouring vessel to vessel, there were about twenty disciples who succeeded to his Dharma. He opened an abhiṣeka bodhimanda five times, roughly ordaining more than three thousand monks, nuns, literati, and commoners; he also opened a Water and Land bodhimanda twenty times. Regularly in the fifth watch he practiced the liturgy of Mañjuśrī's Five Tufts, and by the second watch of the night he turned to the liturgy of Amitāyus of the Western Direction, reciting the venerable name of Amitābha, cultivating the Buddha-mindfulness samādhi, and aspiring for rebirth in the Pure Land. One day, he said to his disciple Yuanyu: "Did not the Tathāgata say, 'An outgoing breath does not guarantee an incoming breath'? My longevity is already a fortune, and your years are also advanced. Now I wish to follow the mundane custom of the world and set up two stupas in advance; can this be done?" Yuanyu bowed with forehead to the ground and answered: "The Elder of Guangdu Temple has already offered the land to the right of the courtyard and asked to construct a stupa for years! Now that the Great Master has turned his intention to it and the Elder brings forth this excellence, the causes and conditions coincide in secret; how could it be stopped?" Thereupon workers were assembled to construct it; from the tenth month stone was chiseled and polished, and by the first month of the coming year the painting was complete. On the ninth day of the eighth month in the autumn of the fourth year of Kaibao, he commanded the assembly to recite the Buddha's name. After the sound of the Buddha's name had continued for a long time, he told them to stop, and passed away quietly into extinction. His secular age was seventy-eight, and his saṅgha age was fifty-three. On the twenty-first day of that month, he was cremated and buried beside the Zhidu cloister outside the Northern Yongtai Gate. The relics obtained were bright and lustrous, and each person took some to venerate them. Next was the novice Śramaṇera Miqie (Megha), a native of the Kingdom of Khotan. He devoted himself to reciting the Avataṃsaka Sūtra without any interruption. During the Shengli era, Śakra, Lord of the Devas, invited and welcomed Qie to the heavens to recite and uphold it, saying: "We are repeatedly harassed by the asuras; therefore we have troubled you, Master, to come, requesting that you recite and proclaim the Avataṃsaka Sūtra to ward off those foes." He thereupon ascended the seat and clearly chanted this sūtra. At that time, the asura army heard the sūtra and he displayed his divine authority, dissolving them all at once. There was also the novice Śramaṇera Daoyin, who constantly recited the Diamond Sūtra. At the beginning of the Baoli era, when returning home at night from going elsewhere, a ferocious tiger blocked the middle of the road, suddenly roaring, leaping, and pouncing in front of him. Yin knew he could not escape, so he closed his eyes and sat, merely reciting this sūtra silently, his mind wishing for rescue and protection. The tiger then crouched in the grass and guarded him. When dawn broke, the villagers came and went; looking at the tiger, saliva flowed onto the ground where it crouched. Afterwards Yin recited it with even higher practice.