宋高僧傳 16.4

16.4

Shi Biancai was surnamed Li and was a native of Xiangyang. When his mother was pregnant with him, she suddenly developed an aversion to meat and blood; obscurely [content with] a single meal a day, she passed her days in pure austerity. When he was born, an extraordinary fragrance filled the room, and his kinsmen marveled at it. At the age of seven, he went to Dhyāna Master Ji of Mount Xian to leave home. As he grew older, his memory was brilliant: whenever he received the teachings of the scriptures, he always took his own height [in scrolls] as the limit; he never asked twice about a character, nor did he ponder a meaning a second time. His master regarded him as a great vessel. At the age of sixteen, he shaved his hair and was registered at Dayun Temple in his home prefecture. Next, he traveled through the various commanderies, climbed famous mountains, and went to Yuquan Temple in Jingzhou to receive the full precepts. Hearing that Vinaya Master Huaiwei of Anguo Temple in Chang'an and Vinaya Master Yiban of Bao'en Temple were the gaze of the Dharma gate and models for teachers and disciples, he submitted his heart to them and requested instruction. Where he had doubts, they were unfailingly resolved; no meaning failed to be penetrated; joining the two traditions, he was exalted as their foremost head. In the fourteenth year of the Tianbao era, Xuanzong considered that the people of the north were endowed with a unyielding temperament and prone to unruly customs; among the ranks of monasteries, there remained the habit of riding and archery. Yet as there should be instruction without distinction, how could it be stopped? An imperial edict appointed Biancai as instructor to preside over the ordination platform and ordain people. Early in the Zhide era, Suzong ascended the throne in this region. Grand Councilor Du Hongjian memorialized that Biancai should reside at Longxing Temple, and an edict conferred on him the title of Great Virtuous Instructor within the Shuofang jurisdiction, ordering him to admonish and encourage them, reform the customs of the northern tribes, and follow the path of the vinaya. He was also commanded to establish a Lotus Sanctuary for the state. When the imperial carriage returned after recovering the two capitals, imperial rescripts were repeatedly bestowed; in his final years, [the emperor] particularly paid attention to the sudden teaching of the Mahāyāna. In the second year of the Yongtai era, the treacherous minister Pugu Huai'en covertly enticed the foreign barbarians and internally brandished weapons of war. Biancai exhorted those clad in felt robes not to slaughter the Chinese people. In the third year of the Dali era, he was summoned to the capital to serve as Great Virtue of Zhangxin Temple. At that time, the military commissioner, Duke Chang, Duke of Guo, had long admired Biancai's renown, and together with Duke Ren, the military supervisor, frequently engaged with him in discussions on the Way. In the winter of the thirteenth year, he manifested illness in his body. On the eighth day of late winter, having given his final admonitions to his disciples, he sat peacefully on a rope-bed and quietly entered extinction at the age of fifty-six. In the second month of the following jiwei year, his divine spirit was relocated to the northwest corner inside the temple. Prior to this, a townsman named Shi Yong had been on corvée duty atop the city wall; before the night was spent, he heard the sound of pipes and strings coming from the west—it was heavenly music. An extraordinary fragrance scattered down from the sky, which was an omen of rebirth in the Pure Land. From Chang'an, Biancai returned to the northern border; having received the appreciation and patronage of the Duke of Guo, he greatly cultivated meritorious enterprises, and the completion of this monastery was entirely due to Biancai's earnest exhortations. An imperial decree posthumously bestowed on the Grand Master the title 'Nengjue' (Capable of Awakening) and granted a set of purple robes; the glory commemorating his passing made his fame heard beyond the frontier. During the Tianfu era, Wang Dan, Reviewing Judge of the Court of Judicial Review, composed an inscription praising his virtues.