宋高僧傳 30.38

30.38

釋自新，姓孫氏，臨淄人也。濯戒尋師，曾無懈廢，聞膺禪師化被鍾陵，往參問焉。從雲居長往，迴錫嘗隱廣德山中。屬兩浙文穆王錢氏率吏士躬征苑陵入山寺，群僧皆竄，唯新晏如。問曰：「何不避乎？」對曰：「東西俱是賊，令老僧去何處逃避？」王驚其訐直，迴戈遣歸，見武肅王問之，言無所屈。加之高行，造應瑞院居之，假號曰廣現大師。初新甞入宣城山采藥，穿洞深去，始則闇昧，尋見日分明，行僅數里，洞側有別竅，溪水泛泛然。隈一大松，枝下有草庵，一僧雪眉擁納坐禪。旁有一磬火器，新擊磬，遂開目驚曰：「嘻！師何緣至此？」乃陳行止，揖坐，取石敲火煎茗，香味可愛。日將夕矣，僧讓庵令新宿，顧其僧上松巔大巢內，聞念法華經，聲甚清亮。逡巡，又咄罵云：「此群畜生毛類，何苦生人恐怖？速歸林薄，不宜輒出。」叱去，新窺之，乃虎豹弭耳而去。明日謂其僧曰：「願在此侍巾屨。」僧曰：「自居此地，百見草枯，四絕人煙，非師棲息處。」又問：「莫飢否？」相引溪畔，有稻百餘穗，收穀，手挪三匊黃粱。挑野蔬和煮，與食。後遣回去。送至洞口曰：「相遇非偶然也。所食茶與菜糜，師平生不乏食矣。」遂遵路回本院已，月餘日命同好再往尋之，失洞蹤跡。後在浙中，充寶塔寺主，以天福中卒于住寺，年八十餘。今影在冷水灣前，小院存焉。

Śramaṇa Zixin, whose secular surname was Sun, was a native of Linzi. Cleansing himself with the precepts, he sought masters without ever slackening or remiss. Hearing that Chan Master Ying was converting people in Zhongling, he went to consult him. Departing definitively from Mount Yunju, he turned his staff and once lived in seclusion in the mountains of Guangde. When King Wenmu of the Qian clan of Liangzhe led his officers and soldiers in person to campaign against Yuanling and entered the mountain temple, all the monks fled, and only Zixin remained calm and collected. The king asked, 'Why do you not take flight?' He replied, 'Both east and west are full of bandits; where would you have this old monk flee?' The king was astonished by his blunt straightforwardness, turned back his weapons, and sent him back. Meeting King Wusu, the king questioned him, and his words yielded to nothing. Moreover, due to his lofty conduct, Yingrui Cloister was built for him to reside in, and he was provisionally titled Grand Master Guangxian. Earlier, Zixin had once entered the mountains of Xuancheng to gather medicinal herbs; penetrating deep through a cavern, it was dark at first, but soon daylight became clear. Walking for barely several leagues, there was another opening at the side of the cavern, with a stream flowing copiously. Beside a great pine tree, beneath its branches, was a grass hut where a white-browed monk sat in dhyāna wrapped in a patched robe. Beside him was a chiming bell and fire-striking implements. Zixin struck the bell, and the monk opened his eyes in surprise, saying, 'Aha! What brings the Master here?' Zixin related his background and journey, whereupon the monk greeted him, had him sit, took a stone to strike fire, and boiled tea, whose fragrance was delightful. As the sun was setting, the monk yielded the hut for Zixin to lodge overnight; Zixin looked up and saw the monk climb into a large nest atop the pine tree, from which he heard the recitation of the Lotus Sūtra, the sound exceedingly clear and bright. In a short while, he scolded loudly, saying, 'You beasts and furred creatures, why do you needlessly terrify people? Return quickly to the woods and thickets; you must not burst out at will!' With a shout he drove them away; Zixin peeked out and saw tigers and leopards drooping their ears and departing. The next day, Zixin said to the monk, 'I wish to remain here to attend to your towel and shoes.' The monk replied, 'Since residing here, I have seen the grass wither a hundred times; cut off on all four sides from human habitation, this is no dwelling place for you, Master.' He also asked, 'Are you not hungry?' He led him to the stream bank where there were over a hundred ears of rice; he harvested the grain and rubbed three handfuls of yellow millet with his hands. Gathering wild vegetables, he boiled them together and offered them to Zixin. Afterward he sent him on his way, escorting him to the mouth of the cavern, saying, 'Our meeting was not accidental. Having eaten the tea and vegetable gruel, you, Master, shall never lack food for your entire life.' Zixin then followed the path back to his cloister, and more than a month later he invited a like-minded companion to seek it again, but they lost all traces of the cavern. Later, in Zhejiang, he served as the abbot of Baota Temple, and passed away at his resident temple during the Tianfu era, over eighty years old. Today his portrait is in front of Lengshuiwan, where a small cloister still survives.