宋高僧傳 9.6

9.6

釋普寂，姓馮氏，蒲州河東人也。年纔稚弱，率性軒昂，離俗升壇，循于經律。臨文揣義，逈異恒流。初聞神秀在荊州玉泉寺，寂乃往師事，凡六年。神秀奇之，盡以其道授焉。久視中，則天召神秀至東都論道，因薦寂，乃度為僧。及秀之卒，天下好釋氏者，咸師事之。中宗聞秀高年，特下制令普寂代本師統其法眾。開元二十三年，勅普寂於都城居止。時王公大人競來禮謁，寂嚴重少言，來者難見其和悅之容，遠近尤以此重之。二十七年，終于上都興唐寺。年八十九。時都城士庶謁者皆制弟子之服。有制賜諡曰大照禪師。及葬，河南尹裴寬及其妻子，並縗麻列于門徒之次。傾城哭送，閭里為之空焉。裴尹之重寂，職有由矣。寂之闡化，神異頗多，裴皆目擊，又得心印，歸向越深，時多譏誚。裴日夕造謁，執弟子禮曾無差脫。一日詣寂，寂懸知弟子一行之亡。及寂之終滅，裴之悲慟若喪所親，縗絰徒步出城，妻子同爾，搢紳之譏生於是矣。

Shi Puji's secular surname was Feng, and he was a native of Hedong in Puzhou. Barely out of his youth, he had a lofty and spirited nature; leaving the secular world to ascend the ordination platform, he complied strictly with the sūtras and vinaya. When examining texts and weighing their meanings, he was far beyond ordinary monks. Hearing at first that Shenxiu was at Yuquan Temple in Jingzhou, Puji went there to serve him as a teacher, for a total of six years. Shenxiu marvelled at him and transmitted his teachings to him in their entirety. During the Jiushi era, Empress Zetian summoned Shenxiu to the Eastern Capital to discuss the Dao, and taking the opportunity, he recommended Puji, who was then ordained as a monk. When Shenxiu passed away, all throughout the empire who loved the Buddhist teachings took Puji as their master. Emperor Zhongzong, hearing of Shenxiu's advanced age, specially issued a decree ordering Puji to take the place of his master in leading the assembly of his Dharma. In the twenty-third year of Kaiyuan, an imperial decree commanded Puji to reside in the capital. At that time, princes, dukes, and high officials vied to pay him courtly homage; Puji was grave, solemn, and sparing of words, so that visitors seldom saw a genial countenance on him, and people near and far revered him all the more for this. In the twenty-seventh year, he passed away at Xingtang Temple in the Upper Capital at the age of eighty-nine. At that time, scholars and commoners of the capital who had visited him all donned the mourning garb of disciples. An imperial decree bestowed the posthumous title 'Chan Master Dazhao' (Great Illumination). At his burial, Pei Kuan, the Governor of Henan, along with his wife and children, wore hemp mourning garments and stood among the ranks of his disciples. The entire city turned out weeping to see him off, leaving the neighbourhoods deserted. Governor Pei's reverence for Puji had good reason: in Puji's propagation of the teachings there were many miraculous phenomena which Pei had witnessed with his own eyes; having also received the mind-seal, his devotion was exceedingly deep, though he was often ridiculed by contemporaries. Pei paid visits day and night, observing the etiquette of a disciple without the slightest deviation. One day when he went to Puji, Puji already knew from afar of the passing of his disciple Yixing. When Puji passed away, Pei's grief was like losing a parent; wearing mourning garments, he walked on foot out of the city, and his wife and children did the same, from which the mockery of the scholar-officials arose.