宋高僧傳 7.40

7.40

釋傅章，俗姓彭氏，開封東明人也。厥父諲，即邑甸之上農也，塵務之外，正見不回，恒讀佛經，懸解詮旨。母邢氏甞夢入法宇，手探道器，因而娠焉。與父知懷非常之子，指腹誓令出俗。年甫十一，乃禮本邑唯識師祕公為師，一見異之。初授《淨名》、《仁王》、《法華》三經，及削髮去周羅，隨祕公遊五臺，禮文殊應跡之地。其年受具。為息慈日，便於浚郊清朗法師座下聽習《法華經》。後於睢陽道雅法師重溫前業，尋學《唯識》於本師，頗揭厲于義津法水。又親附副僧錄通慧《因明》，且臻其極章。日誦三經兼二戒本，講貫訓徒，向二十載，未甞少輟。廣順中，左街僧錄廣智大師薦聞于周高祖，賜紫方袍。大宋乾德二年，左街僧錄道深薦于太祖神德皇帝，賜師號曰義明。俄示疾而終于本院，春秋五十五，法歲三十六。未絕之前，命筆作偈警世，而贈諸朋執矣。所度弟子一十五人，以其年十一月十六日卜京之南原，用茶毘之法，薪盡火滅，得舌且不灰，眾歎戒德。門人檀信共立塔焉，則開寶五年也。先是，厥父恒務《法華經》，終後焚之，亦舌不壞。子父同驗，實為罕有。相國寺清慧大師彝炳為《塔銘》焉。

Shi Fuzhang's secular surname was Peng, and he was a native of Dongming in Kaifeng. His father, Yin, was an eminent farmer of the county; beyond his worldly labors, his right view never wavered, and he constantly read Buddhist scriptures, intuitively understanding their profound doctrines. His mother, Lady Xing, once dreamed of entering a Dharma hall and touching ritual implements with her hands, whereupon she became pregnant. She and his father knew she bore an extraordinary child, and pledged before his birth that he would leave the secular life. When he was just eleven, he paid homage to Master Mi, a Yogācāra master of his home county, as his teacher, who recognized him as extraordinary upon their very first meeting. He was first instructed in the three sūtras of Vimalakīrti, Benevolent Kings, and Lotus Sūtra. After shaving his head and cutting his topknot, he accompanied Master Mi on a pilgrimage to Mount Wutai to pay homage to the site of Mañjuśrī's manifestations. That same year, he received the full precepts. As a novice, he attended the lectures of Dharma Master Qinglang in the outskirts of Jun to study the Lotus Sūtra. Later, he reviewed his earlier studies under Dharma Master Daoya in Suiyang, and soon afterward studied Yogācāra under his root master, crossing deeply through the ford of doctrine and the waters of the Dharma. He also studied Hetuvidyā closely under the Assistant Saṅgha Rectifier Tonghui, reaching the pinnacle of its treatises. Every day he recited the three sūtras alongside the two prātimokṣa texts, expounding and instructing disciples for nearly twenty years without the slightest pause. During the Guangshun reign, the Left Street Saṅgha Rectifier, Grand Master Guangzhi, recommended him to Emperor Gaozu of the Later Zhou, who bestowed upon him a purple square robe. In the second year of the Qiande reign of the Great Song, the Left Street Saṅgha Rectifier Daoshen recommended him to Emperor Taizu, Shende, who granted him the master title Yiming. Soon after, he manifested illness and passed away in his cloister at the age of fifty-five, with a Dharma age of thirty-six. Before his breath ceased, he called for a brush and composed a gāthā to warn the world and bestow upon his friends. He had ordained fifteen disciples. On the sixteenth day of the eleventh month of that year, a site was divined on the southern plain of the capital to perform the cremation. When the wood was spent and the fire extinguished, his tongue remained unburned, and the assembly praised his precept virtue. His disciples and donors jointly erected a stupa for him, which was in the fifth year of the Kaibao reign. Prior to this, his father had constantly devoted himself to the Lotus Sūtra, and after his death and cremation, his tongue likewise remained indestructible. This shared verification between father and son was truly rare. Grand Master Qinghui, Yibing of Xiangguo Temple composed the stupa inscription.