宋高僧傳 27.19

27.19

釋普岸，姓蔡氏，漢東人也。沖弱之齡，逈然聰敏，骨目奇秀，天生不嗜葷羶，長有出塵之意。其父嚴毅，訓授經籍，漸通其義，秉翰伸辭，宛然華藻。因入僧舍，暫執經卷，乃歎曰：「佛法玄微，非造次可及！」決志辭親。時懷海禪師居百丈山，毳納之人駢肩累足，時號「大叢林」焉。岸叩其關，海攝受之。日隨普請施役，夜獨執燭誦經，曾不憚勞，遂諧剃染。及陞戒品，便習禪那，壁坐忘疲，觀心恒務。瞻蔔附風而香遠，[虥-儿+巾]貓逢獸而吼高，學者成圍，請於安陸壽山院坐道場矣。如是環拱可四百餘眾，執器聽瞿沙之說，投籌待毱多之度。大利群機，得道者眾。大和年中，謂眾曰：「吾山水之遊未厭，諸人勿相留滯。天台赤城，道猷曾止息焉；華頂石梁，智者昔降魔矣！將遊之也。」自襄陽邐迤而來，從沃洲、天姥入天台之西門得平川，谷中峯名大舍，號「平田」是也。觀其山四舍欝翠，東西山石門而有三井龍潭。東入石橋聖寺，乃是綠身道猷尊者結茅居此。未幾，見虓虎乳子，瞪目而視岸。岸以杖按其頭曰：「貧道聞此山是神仙窟宅，羅漢隱居，今欲寄此安禪，檀越勿相驚撓。」經宿，領子而去。以大和七年癸丑十月二十七日營構丈室，携一童侍，給薪水耳。八年春，禪侶輻湊，眾力義成此院，號平田焉。開成中，宛是大道場。會昌三年七月，告眾入滅，春秋七十四。度弟子全亮，俗姓陳氏，悟師之道，得鳳之毛，一人！唯約，在上元入滅，肉身不朽。岸遷塔于是山前，此寺置五百羅漢殿，永嘉全億長史畫半千形像，每一迎請，必於石橋宿夜焚香，具幢蓋、螺鈸，引導入于殿，香風送至。幡幢之勢前靡，而入門即止。其石梁聖寺在石橋之裏。梵唄方作，香靄始飄。先有金色鳥飛翔，後林樹石畔見梵僧，或行或坐，或招手之狀，或臥空之形，眴息之間，千變萬化。漢南國王錢氏頻年施供養，祥瑞極繁。今上太平興國三年，於滋福殿宣問兩浙都僧正贊寧石橋長廣量度，一皆實奏，帝歎嗟久之。至八年因福田寺道者自詢誓斷腕然鍊，乞重造此寺，乃宣內殿頭高品衛紹欽、張承貴革故規制，若化出天宮焉。今岸師影堂在寺之右。

Shi Pu'an was surnamed Cai and was a native of Handong. In his youth, he was extraordinarily clever and quick-witted, with exceptional features, and by nature he had no craving for meat or pungent food, while continuously holding the wish to leave the mundane world. His father was stern and resolute, teaching him the classical texts. He gradually mastered their meaning, and whenever he took up a brush to write, his prose was remarkably elegant. Once, on entering a monastic lodging, he briefly held a scripture scroll and sighed, saying, "The Buddha's Dharma is profound and subtle; it cannot be attained in haste!" He firmly resolved to take leave of his parents. At that time, Chan Master Huaihai resided on Mount Baizhang, where patched-robe monks packed shoulder to shoulder and foot to foot, so that it was known as the "Great Monastic Grove." Pu'an knocked at his gate, and Huaihai received him. By day he followed the general calls to manual labour, and by night he alone held a candle to recite scriptures, never shrinking from toil, and finally succeeded in shaving his head and dyeing his robes. When he ascended the ranks of full ordination, he immediately practiced dhyāna, sitting facing the wall and forgetting fatigue, constantly making the contemplation of the mind his task. Just as the campaka flower follows the wind and its fragrance travels far, or the striped cat encounters wild beasts and roars high, students surrounded him in circles, requesting him to sit in the bodhimaṇḍa at the Shoushan Cloister in Anlu. In this manner, more than four hundred people gathered around him, holding their vessels to listen to his exposition like that of Ghoṣa, and casting their tallies awaiting his deliverance like that of Upagupta. He greatly benefited the various capacities of beings, and many attained the Way. During the Dahe era, he said to the assembly, "I have not yet wearied of wandering among mountains and waters; let none of you detain me. At Chicheng on Tiantai, Daoyou once rested; at Huading and the Stone Bridge, Zhiyi of old subdued Māra! I intend to travel there." Winding his way from Xiangyang, he entered the western gate of Tiantai from Wozhou and Tianmu, where he reached an open plain. The peak within the valley was named Dashe, also known as "Pingtian" (Level Field). Observing the mountain, its four slopes were lush and verdant, and at the stone gates of its eastern and western mountains there were the Three Wells and Dragon Pool. Entering east to the Sacred Temple of the Stone Bridge, this was where the venerable green-bodied Daoyou had built a thatched hut and dwelt. Shortly thereafter, he saw a roaring tigress suckling her cubs, glaring at Pu'an. Pu'an pressed her head with his staff and said, "This poor monk has heard that this mountain is the abode of immortals and the retreat of arhats. I now wish to lodge here and settle in dhyāna; patron, do not disturb me." Passing the night, she led her cubs away. On the twenty-seventh day of the tenth month in the seventh year of the Dahe era, a guichou year [833], he built an abbot's quarters, taking only one novice attendant to supply firewood and water. In the spring of the eighth year, Chan companions flocked like spokes to a hub, and through the shared efforts of the assembly they completed this cloister, naming it Pingtian. During the Kaicheng era, it was indeed a great bodhimaṇḍa. In the seventh month of the third year of the Huichang era [843], he announced to the assembly that he would enter extinction, at the age of seventy-four. He ordained his disciple Quanliang, whose secular surname was Chen; having awakened to his master's Way, he was the sole feather of the phoenix—one person alone! As for Weiyue, he entered extinction in Shangyuan, and his fleshy body did not decay. Pu'an's stūpa was relocated to the front of this mountain. This temple established a Hall of the Five Hundred Arhats, and Chief Administrator Quan Yi of Yongjia painted the five hundred likenesses. Whenever an invitation was made, incense had to be burned through the night at the Stone Bridge, banners, canopies, conches, and cymbals readied, and they were guided into the hall, borne by a fragrant wind. The array of flags and banners bent forward, stopping as soon as they entered the gate. The Sacred Temple of the Stone Beam was located inside the Stone Bridge. Just as Sanskrit chanting began, the misty incense began to drift. First, golden birds flew and soared, and later, beside the forest trees and rocks, Sanskrit monks were seen, either walking or sitting, some gesturing as if beckoning, some reclining in midair, undergoing thousands of transformations in the twinkling of an eye. The Qian clan, Kings of Hannan, offered provisions year after year, and auspicious omens were exceedingly plentiful. In the third year of the Taiping Xingguo era of our current sovereign [978], in the Zifu Hall, an imperial inquiry was addressed to Zanning, Chief Saṅgha Rectifier of Liangzhe, concerning the length and breadth of the Stone Bridge; all was reported faithfully, and the Emperor sighed in admiration for a long time. In the eighth year [983], because the practitioner Zixun of Futian Temple vowed to sever his wrist and burn it, begging for the reconstruction of this temple, an imperial decree was issued commanding the Palace Attendants of High Rank, Wei Shaoqin and Zhang Chenggui, to overhaul the old structures, which appeared as if transformed into a heavenly palace. At present, Master Pu'an's portrait hall stands to the right of the temple.