宋高僧傳 29.4

29.4

Śramaṇa Zhiyi was a man of unknown origin. He lived on the half-peak of Lingyin Temple, strictly maintaining the vinaya precepts, and was adept at long whistling. When finishing his whistle, he would draw out the sound so that it faded into the clouds, like blowing reed leaves or lifting floating gossamer threads—slowly rising and soaring, now mournful, now choked, whistling and plaintive, so that listeners felt mournful and chilled; they called it the 'brahmā sound of the mournful pine.' It greatly aroused good roots in living beings; sometimes he sang praises before the statues, chanting melodiously. By the stream of Ling Mountain he raised a white gibbon, which at times would leap over mountains and cross streams, not returning for a long time. Zhiyi would then purse his lips, open his throat, and make a brahmā call to summon it, and the gibbon would arrive. People of the time called it the 'brahmā summons for the white gibbon.' Master Zhiyi acted as a gibbon father, just like the monkey-keeper of old. Later, packs of monkeys gathered by the stream. Whenever the monks finished their meal, they would collect the leftover food and send it to the Gibbon Terrace; then they would have a mountain boy call out two or three times, and the troop of monkeys would vie to arrive. By the time Emperor Wuzong of the Tang suppressed the teaching, that temple was demolished, reduced to a wasteland of overgrown weeds, and the matter of feeding gibbons at the terrace was entirely obliterated. It is not known where Master Zhiyi ended his days.