宋高僧傳 9.9

9.9

釋懷讓，俗姓杜，金州安康人也。始年十歲，雅好佛書，炳然殊姿，特有靈表，識者占是出家相，非染俗貴。人寶來瑞，國慶無疆，方之麟鳳龜龍，無萬數也。天地無全功，氣序有盈虛，綱維缺壞，補塞不足，皆冥維密祐，惟應度者乃燭厥理，非庸庸所知也。弱冠詣荊南玉泉寺，事恒景律師，便剃髮受具。歎曰：「夫出家者為無為法，天上人間無有勝者，經之所謂出四衢道露地而坐也。」時坦禪師乃勸讓往嵩丘覿安公，安啟發之，因入曹侯溪，覲能公。能公怡然，無馨無臭，洪波泛臻大壑之廣乎？《韶濩》合奏大樂之和乎？讓之深入寂定，住無動道場，為若此也。能公大事緣畢，讓乃躋衡嶽，止于觀音臺。時有僧玄至拘刑獄，舉念願讓師救護。讓早知而勉之，其僧脫難，云是「救苦觀音」，得斯號也亦由此焉。化緣斯盡，傳法弟子曰道峻，曰道一，皆升堂覩奧也。其後一公振法鼓于洪州，其門弟子曰惟寬、懷暉。道一大緣將訖，謂寬等曰：「吾師之道存乎妙者也，無待而常，不住而至，能事集矣。金口所生，從法而化，於我為子，及汝為孫，一燈所傳，何有盡者？」讓以儀鳳二年生，至天寶三載八月十日終于衡嶽，春秋六十八，僧臘四十八。一公建塔于別峯。元和中，寬、暉至京師，揚其本宗，法門大啟，傳百千燈。京夏法寶鴻緒，於斯為盛。至八載，衡陽太守令狐權問讓前迹，權捨衣財以充忌齋。自此每歲八月為「觀音忌」焉。寶曆中，勅諡大慧禪師，塔號最勝輪。元和年中常侍歸登撰碑云。

Shi Huairang, whose secular surname was Du, was a native of Ankang in Jinzhou. At the age of only ten, he had an elegant penchant for Buddhist texts, with a dazzling and extraordinary bearing and a particularly numinous countenance. Those with discernment divined that these were signs of leaving householder life, not destined for secular nobility. A treasure among humans bringing good omens, an endless celebration for the realm, if compared to the qilin, phoenix, turtle, or dragon, they would not number in the tens of thousands. Heaven and Earth have no complete merit, and the seasonal qi waxes and wanes; when the cardinal bonds decay, repairs and plugs are insufficient, all relying on dark preservation and secret assistance. Only those who ought to be liberated perceive its principle; it is not something the mediocre can know. At capping age, he went to Yuquan Temple in Jingnan, served Vinaya Master Hengjing, and soon shaved his hair and received full ordination. He sighed and said, "Leaving householder life is for the unconditioned Dharma; between heaven and the human realm, nothing surpasses it. It is what the sūtra calls going out to the crossroad and sitting in an open space." At that time, Chan Master Tan encouraged Rang to go to Mount Song to meet Venerable An. An enlightened him, whereupon he entered the Caohou Stream to pay homage to Venerable Neng. Venerable Neng was delighted; without scent or foulness, was it like surging waves arriving at the vastness of the great abyss, or the harmonic concord of the *Shaohuo* performing great music? Rang's deep entrance into tranquil concentration and abiding in the unmoving bodhimanda were just like this. When Venerable Neng's great condition was completed, Rang climbed Mount Heng and dwelt at the Guanyin Terrace. At that time, a monk named Xuanzhi was detained in a criminal prison; he raised a thought wishing Master Rang would rescue and protect him. Rang knew of it beforehand and gave him encouragement; that monk escaped the disaster and said Rang was the "Sorrow-Relieving Avalokiteśvara." He also obtained this epithet on this account. When his converting conditions came to an end, his Dharma-transmitting disciples were Daoxun and Daoyi, both of whom ascended the hall and beheld the inner depths. Thereafter, Master Yi beat the Dharma drum in Hongzhou, and his gate disciples were Weikuan and Huihui. As Daoyi's great condition was about to conclude, he said to Kuan and the others: "The way of my master resides in the wondrous: unconditioned yet constant, not abiding yet arriving; the capable works are gathered. Born from the golden mouth and transformed from the Dharma, to me he is a father, and to you a grandfather. When transmitted by a single lamp, how could it ever be exhausted?" Rang was born in the second year of Yifeng and died at Mount Heng on the tenth day of the eighth month in the third year of Tianbao, at the age of sixty-eight, with a saṅgha age of forty-eight. Master Yi erected a stūpa on a different peak. In the Yuanhe era, Kuan and Hui came to the capital, propagated their ancestral school, and greatly opened the Dharma gate, transmitting hundreds of thousands of lamps. The grand continuation of the Dharma-jewel in the capital and the summer retreat was at its height here. In the eighth year, the Prefect of Hengyang, Linghu Quan, inquired into Rang's past deeds; Quan gave away clothes and wealth to provide for the anniversary vegetarian feast. From then on, every year the eighth month was known as the "Avalokiteśvara Memorial." During the Baoli era, he was posthumously bestowed by imperial order the title Chan Master Dahui, and his stūpa was named the Wheel of Supreme Victory. In the Yuanhe era, Attendant Gentleman Gui Deng composed an inscription.