宋高僧傳 3.26

3.26

釋子隣，姓范氏，兗州乾封大范村人也。父峻朝，不喜三寶，或見桑門，必加咄唾。有問其故，即欲敺焉。隣生已數歲，小字隣兒，見著袈裟者，則生慕羨之意。開元初，東都廣愛寺慶修律師遊于岱宗，經范氏之舍。隣一見之，喜貫顏色，拜求出家。問曰：「父母云何？」對曰：「不令堂親知，知則遭箠撻矣。師但先去，某乃影隨。」律師行五里間，隣已至矣。及洛寺，受教之易，若甘之受和焉。染削已，或名志隣。至十一年忽思二親，辭歸寧覲。其父喪明，母終已三載矣。因詣嶽廟，求知母之幽趣，即敷坐具，誦《法華經》，誓見天齊王為期。其夜，嶽神果召隣問：「何故懇苦如是？」隣曰：「母王氏亡來已經除服，敢問大王，母今何在？」王顧簿吏，對曰：「王氏見繫獄受苦。」隣曰：「我母何罪？」王曰：「生和尚時，食雞卵，又取白傅頭瘡，坐是之故，職汝之由。」隣悲號委頓，求王請免。曰：「縶縻有分，放釋無門。然則為法師計，請往鄮山禮阿育王塔，或可原也。」隣詰朝遵途，到句章山寺，叩頭哀訴，五輪著地，禮畢投策。至四萬數，俄聞有呼隣聲，若蔡順之解，望空見雲氣中母謝曰：「承汝之力，得生忉利天矣，故來報汝。」倏然不見。隣後求解經論，至于關輔間，外學兼通，美聲籍甚。以名僧之選，恒入肅宗內殿應奉，高其舌端，精於捷對，御前口占，敘述皇道，時輩靡及。勅賜紫方袍，充供奉僧。代宗即位，更崇釋氏。永泰中，不空重譯《仁王護國》、《密嚴》等經，隣與千福寺法崇、西明寺慧靜、保壽寺圓寂分職證義，並良賁潤文。隣莫測其終。先所禮塔，今鄮山育王寺後峯之翠微茅庵基及井存焉。井實方池，其水碧色，緣苔泛泛然，辭人遊者，詩詠絕多矣。

Śramaṇa Zilin, surnamed Fan, was a native of Dafan Village in Qianfeng, Yanzhou. His father, Junzhao, took no delight in the Three Jewels; whenever he saw a śramaṇa, he would invariably scold and spit at him. If anyone asked him why, he would immediately want to strike them. When Lin was several years old, his childhood name being Lin'er, whenever he saw anyone wearing a kāṣāya, feelings of admiration arose in him. Early in the Kaiyuan era, Vinaya Master Qingxiu of Guang'ai Temple in the Eastern Capital was travelling to Mount Tai and passed by the Fan family residence. As soon as Lin saw him, joy flushed across his countenance, and he bowed, begging to leave home. [Qingxiu] asked, "What of your parents?" He replied, "I must not let my mother know; if she knew, I would be beaten. Master, simply go ahead; I will follow like a shadow." When the vinaya master had gone five li, Lin had already arrived. Upon reaching the temple in Luoyang, his receptive ease to teaching was like sweetness blending with seasoning. After he shaved his head and donned the robes, some called him Zhilin. In the eleventh year, he suddenly thought of his parents and took leave to return and visit them. His father had lost his sight, and his mother had passed away three years prior. He then went to the shrine of Mount Tai, seeking to know his mother's rebirth in the underworld; he spread out his sitting mat, recited the Lotus Sūtra, and vowed to meet King Tianqi. That night, the mountain god indeed summoned Lin and asked, "Why are you so earnestly aggrieved?" Lin said, "Since my mother, née Wang, passed away, the mourning period has already ended. May I ask the Great King, where is my mother now?" The king looked to the clerk holding the registers, who replied, "The woman Wang is currently bound in hell, suffering torment." Lin said, "What crime did my mother commit?" The king said, "When she gave birth to the monk, she ate chicken eggs, and also took egg whites to apply to scalp sores. Because of these acts, she is punished on your account." Lin wept aloud in anguish and begged the king for a remission. [The king] said, "Binding and fettering have their causes; there is no way for release. However, as a plan for the Dharma master, please go to Mount Mao to worship the Aśoka Stūpa; perhaps she may be pardoned." At dawn the next day, Lin set out, arriving at the temple on Mount Gouchang. Kowtowing in lamentation, with all five limbs touching the ground, after completing his prostrations he cast divining sticks. When they numbered forty thousand, he suddenly heard a voice calling "Lin!", like the response to Cai Shun. Looking into the air, he saw his mother amid clouds and mist thanking him: "Relying on your power, I have attained rebirth in Trāyastriṃśa Heaven; therefore I came to tell you." In an instant, she was seen no more. Later, Lin sought understanding of scriptures and treatises, travelling to the Guanfu region. Comprehending non-Buddhist learning as well, his fine reputation was renowned. Chosen as a famous monk, he frequently entered the inner halls of Emperor Suzong to attend imperial audiences. Noted for his eloquence and skilled in swift replies, he improvised in the imperial presence, expounding the imperial way such that his contemporaries could not match him. By imperial decree, he was granted a purple square-cut robe and served as an attending monk of the court. When Emperor Daizong ascended the throne, he venerated Buddhism even more. During the Yongtai era, Amoghavajra retranslated the Renwang huguo jing, the Mixian jing, and other scriptures; Lin, along with Fachong of Qianfu Temple, Huijing of Ximing Temple, and Yuanji of Baoshou Temple, shared the duties of certifying meaning, with Liangben polishing the phrasing. No one knew how Lin met his end. The stūpa he had earlier worshipped is where the foundations of the thatched hermitage and the well at Cuizhi, on the peak behind Yuwang Temple on Mount Mao, still exist today. The well is actually a square pool whose water is emerald-green, with green moss floating gently upon it; literati and travellers have composed exceedingly many poems about it.