宋高僧傳 26.25

26.25

釋增忍，俗姓史氏，沛國陳留人也。典謁之年，登其鄉校。百氏簡策，寓目入神。藝文且工，乃隨計吏，數舉不捷。會昌初，薄遊塞垣，訪古賀蘭山中，得淨地者白草谷內。發菩提心，頓挂儒冠，直歸釋氏。乃薙草結茅為舍，倍切精進。羌胡之族，競臻供獻酥酪。至五載，節使李彥佐嘉其名節，於龍興寺建別院，號白草焉——蓋取其始修道之本地也。忍刺血寫諸經。大中七年，李公慮其枯悴，躬往敦諭曰：「師何獨善一身，行小乘行？胡不延惜生性，任持教法？所利博哉！」忍執情膠固，遂著〈三教毀傷論〉以見志。帥覽而益加崇重。九年，因讀《大悲經》，究尋四十二臂至「無畏手」，疑而結壇，浹旬禱請，自空中現其正印，雙拳歷歷可觀。遂命畫工繪寫此臂焉。或有譏謗者，忍再精慤虔告，畫工濯筆銅椀中，忽感寶性華一朵，枝趺𩬞葉，一皆鮮明，覩者驚歎。至咸通十二年七月十日示滅于白草院，春秋五十九。以十月十七日藏神于水館之南，建塔焉。初，忍刺血寫經，總二百八十三卷。畫盧舍那，閣三十五尺，門一丈六尺。起樣畫《大悲功德》三軸，自著《大悲論》六卷，並藏諸篋笥焉。後節使唐恒夫仰其遺跡，奏乞旌勸，勅諡大師曰廣慧，塔曰念定。弟子無轍，亦致遠之高足，齎血書經二卷、瑞華椀一枚，詣闕奏呈，宣賜紫衣。天復中終。及梁乾化初，中書令西平王韓公遜錄遺跡奏聞，太祖勅致諡曰法空，別賜紫方袍，塞垣榮之。後唐同光中，從事薛昭紀為碑焉。

Shi Zengren, whose secular surname was Shi, was a native of Chenliu in Peiguo. At the age when he could attend school, he enrolled in the local academy. Scanning the bamboo slips of the hundred schools, he grasped their spirit. He was also skilled in literature, and accompanied the evaluation officers, but repeatedly took the examinations without passing. At the beginning of the Huichang era, he journeyed lightly to the northern frontier; seeking out ancient remains in the Helan Mountains, he obtained pure land in the Baicao Valley. He aroused the bodhicitta, abruptly hung up his Confucian cap, and went straight to the Śākyan fold. Thereupon he cut the grass and knotted thatch to make a hut, redoubling his diligent vigor. The Qiang and Hu tribes vied to arrive and offer him ghee and curd. By the fifth year, the military commissioner Li Yanzuo praised his moral integrity, and constructed a separate courtyard at Longxing Temple, naming it Baicao—deriving the name from the original ground of his first cultivation of the Way. Ren pricked his flesh to write various scriptures in blood. In the seventh year of the Dazhong era, Lord Li, concerned over his emaciation, personally went to urge him gently, saying: "Why should the Master cultivate only himself and practice the Hīnayāna? Why not preserve your vital nature and uphold the teaching of the Dharma? Its benefit would be vast!" Ren remained steadfastly set in his intent, and thereupon composed the *San jiao huishang lun* (Discourse on Injury in the Three Teachings) to show his aspiration. The commissioner read it and revered him even more. In the ninth year, on reading the *Dabei jing*, as he investigated the forty-two arms down to the "fearless hand," he was filled with doubt and erected an altar; after praying for a full ten days, its correct mudrā manifested in empty space, both fists clearly visible. He then commanded a painter to portray this arm. When some mocked and slandered it, Ren again prayed with purified sincerity, and as the painter washed his brushes in a bronze bowl, they suddenly brought about a miraculous flower of precious nature, its stem, calyx, tendrils, and leaves all vividly bright, so that all who saw it marvelled in admiration. On the tenth day of the seventh month of the twelfth year of the Xiantong era, he showed his extinction at Baicao Courtyard, at the age of fifty-nine. On the seventeenth day of the tenth month, his spirit was interred south of the Shuiguan, and a stūpa was erected. Earlier, Ren had pricked his blood to write scriptures totaling two hundred and eighty-three scrolls. He painted a Vairocana with a pavilion thirty-five feet high and a doorway sixteen feet high. He drafted the designs to paint three scrolls of *The Merit of Great Compassion*, and himself composed the *Dabei lun* in six scrolls, all of which were stored in chests. Later, the military commissioner Tang Hengfu, revering his surviving traces, memorialized requesting imperial commendation; an imperial decree bestowed on the master the posthumous title Guanghui, and the stūpa was named Nianding. His disciple Wuzhe was also a senior disciple capable of going far; carrying two scrolls of the blood-written scriptures and one auspicious flower bowl, he proceeded to the palace to present them, and an imperial decree bestowed the purple robe upon him. He died during the Tianfu era. Then, at the beginning of the Qianhua era of the Liang, Han Xun, the Director of the Chancellery and Prince of Xiping, recorded the remaining traces and memorialized them; Taizu decreed that the posthumous title Fakong be conferred, and separately bestowed a square purple robe, which brought honor to the frontier. In the Tongguang era of the Later Tang, the retainer Xue Zhaoji composed a stele for him.