宋高僧傳 28.21

28.21

釋從彥，姓米氏，燕人也。始自識環，尋知跪橘，顒昂挺質，豁達為襟。年距十五，父母聽許出家於并部慧覺禪院也。受戒後，經江鼓枻，論海化鯤，流輩畏之，咸知宗奉。乃懷心於祖教，望攻玉於他山。由是北別氷天，南觀桂海，不虞惡瘴，唯慕叢林，欣遇龍牙山禪師為決所疑，蔚成達者。後唐清泰丙申歲還遊嵩少。洛中始安，人情輯睦，彥營構禪坊，延聚緇侶而供養之。歷晉、漢、周三朝，皆加恩命，乃曰：「寵辱若驚，吾無驚久矣！然俗諦門中，感世主以綈繡緣飾朽木者哉。」以開寶二年八月三日示疾而終。四年辛未，改權從久，瘞于層塔焉。

Śramaṇa Congyan, whose surname was Mi, was a native of Yan. From the time he first recognized the jade ring and soon understood the filial devotion of the kneeling-citron story, his character was lofty and upright, his mind open and expansive. When he reached fifteen, his parents permitted him to leave home at Huijue Chan Cloister in Bingbu. After receiving the precepts, he navigated the river of scriptures and transformed into a giant fish in the sea of treatises; his peers stood in awe of him and all took him as their exemplar. He set his mind upon the ancestral teaching, hoping to polish his jade against the stone of other mountains. Therefore, he bid farewell to the frozen lands in the north and observed the cassia sea in the south, fearing no foul miasmas, longing only for the monastic communities. He had the joy of meeting the Chan Master of Mount Longya, who resolved his doubts, whereupon he blossomed into an enlightened master. In the bingzhen year of Qingtai of the Later Tang, he returned to travel through Mounts Song and Shaoshi. Luoyang was just becoming peaceful and people were harmonious; Yan constructed a meditation cloister, inviting and gathering monastics to provide them offerings. Spanning three dynasties—Jin, Han, and Zhou—he was repeatedly conferred imperial favors. He said, '"Favour and disgrace bring anxiety"—I have long been without anxiety! Yet within the realm of worldly truth, I am moved that worldly rulers use embroidered silk to adorn rotten wood.' On the third day of the eighth month of the second year of Kaibao, he manifested illness and passed away. In the xinwei year, the fourth year, the temporary burial was converted to a permanent one, and he was interred in a tiered pagoda.