宋高僧傳 7.30

7.30

釋僧照，姓張氏，范陽人也。年十四出家，投憫忠寺，聰晤絕儔，神儀偉秀。初受經偈，日誦數千百言，目所覽者過於宿習。吐論知見，有老成之風。遂度為沙彌。受具已來，歷于再閏，暗誦經典，已踰六大部矣，即《最勝王》、《大悲》、《維摩》、《法華》等經。傍加聽尋經、論，十數年間，深文伏義，藍出青矣。天祐中，遊方南下，爰屆中山，元戎王處直請住法華寺。相次易帥請之，太傅、隴西公連表薦賜紫方袍，加至真大師。次則扶風馬公請為僧正，非所好也。及抵洛陽，有命開《法華經》講，止法林院。況乎都闕浩穰，象龍輻湊，及照之唱導，翕如於下風伏膺矣。以乾祐元年三月二十六日，示滅于講院，春秋七十，僧臘五十。四眾號慕，侍中李公傾易定，曾為外護，復守洛宅，飾終喪禮，悉以資奉。粵四月三日遷神于城南，行茶毘法，收舍利，紅潤可數百粒。濟陽丁公為保釐之簉職，為樹塔于廣化之寺南岡。照平昔講凡七十餘座，勤勤為法。門生頗多。宰臣馬公孫最所欽重，前後贈詩僅數十首，洛中為美談矣。

Shi Sengzhao, surnamed Zhang, was a native of Fanyang. At age fourteen he left home and went to Minzhong Temple. His intelligence was peerless, and his bearing was magnificent and distinguished. When he first received scriptures and verses, he recited thousands of words daily, and what his eyes perused surpassed what he had practiced in previous lives. When he expressed opinions and views, he showed the manner of a mature elder. He was then ordained as a śrāmaṇera. Since receiving full ordination, over the course of two intercalary months, the scriptures he had memorized already exceeded six great sections—namely, the Suvarṇaprabhāsa, the Mahākāruṇika, the Vimalakīrti-nirdeśa, the Lotus, and other scriptures. In addition, he listened to and investigated scriptures and treatises; within ten-odd years, the deep texts and hidden meanings became clearer to him than the indigo from which blue is extracted. During the Tianyou era, he traveled south, and when he reached Zhongshan, Commander Wang Chuzhi invited him to reside at Fahua Temple. Successive military commissioners invited him; the Grand Preceptor, the Duke of Longxi, repeatedly submitted memorials recommending that he be bestowed a purple square robe and given the title Grand Master Zhizhen ('Ultimate Truth'). Next, Lord Ma of Fufeng invited him to become saṅgha administrator, but it was not what he desired. When he arrived in Luoyang, an order was issued for him to deliver lectures on the Lotus Sūtra, and he stayed at Falin Cloister. Moreover, in the bustling imperial capital where giants of the Dharma converged, when Zhao preached and guided, they all submitted to him with admiration. On the twenty-sixth day of the third month of the first year of Qianyou, he showed extinction in the lecture cloister, at the age of seventy, with a saṅgha age of fifty. The fourfold assembly wailed and longed for him; Lord Li, the Secretariat Director, who had governed Yiding, had formerly acted as his external protector, and while again defending Luoyang, he provided everything necessary for the final funeral rites. On the third day of the fourth month, his spirit was moved to the south of the city, where the cremation method was performed; they collected several hundred red and moist grains of śarīra. Lord Ding of Jiyang, who held the post of defending official, erected a pagoda for him on the southern ridge of Guanghua Temple. In his lifetime, Zhao delivered more than seventy lecture series, striving diligently for the Dharma. His disciples were very numerous. Prime Minister Lord Masun revered him the most, and presented him with dozens of poems from first to last, which became a celebrated topic in Luoyang.