宋高僧傳 4.45

4.45

釋宗哲，西河平遙人也。稚歲而有奇相，聰頴天資，既尋師範，砥節飾躬。屬玄奘三藏新翻諸經論，哲就其門，請益無替，凡幾周星，備窮諸典，若指于掌，於奘門下號為得意哲，猶隋慧布之題目焉。後因講唱，厥義日新，時謂之為「法江」。哲曰：「為吾謝此品藻焉，殊不知法海在乎太原矣。」所指者蓋浮丘為滄溟也。哲憫學者不達其意而師，誖哉，乃著義例，寰海之內莫不企羨。其如說「佛位三事喻」中，沼法師言「三點三目」，強分上下，勝劣配屬，太成巧誣。哲云三事俱得。然無名師品量。退而省之，哲其得矣。號之「得意」，豈虛也乎！沼師所以成餘師之說也。

Shi Zongzhe was a native of Pingyao in Xihe. In his childhood he had extraordinary features, and was naturally intelligent. Having sought out teachers and models, he tempered his integrity and cultivated his conduct. It coincided with Tripiṭaka Master Xuanzang's new translations of various sūtras and treatises; Zhe went to his gate and sought instruction unremittingly. After several full cycles of Jupiter, he thoroughly mastered the various scriptures as easily as pointing to the palm of his hand. Among Xuanzang's disciples, he was known as "Zhe Who Grasped the Meaning," just as Huibu was styled under the Sui. Later, when he expounded and lectured, his explanations were fresh day by day, and contemporaries referred to him as the "River of Dharma." Zhe said, "Thank them on my behalf for this assessment, but they truly do not know that the Ocean of Dharma lies in Taiyuan." What he referred to was that Fuqiu was the vast ocean. Pitying those scholars who took teachers without understanding their true intent—how perverse!—Zhe wrote an interpretive guide, which everyone across the realm looked up to with admiration. For instance, regarding the explanation of the "Metaphor of the Three Attributes of the Buddha-stage," Master [Hui]zhao said of the "three dots and three eyes" that by forcefully dividing them into superior and inferior, and assigning high and low qualities, it was too contrived and false. Zhe held that the three attributes are all obtained together. Yet he had no famous teacher to evaluate his stature. When one steps back to examine it, Zhe truly got it right! How could calling him "He Who Grasped the Meaning" be in vain? It was for this reason that Master Zhao adopted the explanations of other masters.