宋高僧傳 30.4

30.4

Śramaṇa Haozhi, whose secular surname was Ding, was a native of Zhuji in Kuaiji. In his youth, he took no pleasure in mundane affairs; naturally, he ate neither wine, meat, nor pungent roots. He therefore went to Master Zang of Mount Hangwu to shave his hair. Early in the Yuanhe era, he received the full precepts at Tianzhu Temple in Hangzhou. Among the hundreds of scriptures, vinaya texts, treatises, commentaries, and subcommentaries, he savoured their richness. One day, wearing straw sandals and leaning on a staff, he proceeded to the Chan gate of Hongzhou, where he thoroughly penetrated the essentials of mind, going empty and returning full. He then went back to Daqing Temple in his native commandery to guide and instruct those seeking benefit for over twenty years, becoming an eminent monk of the region south of the Yangzi. When he met Confucian scholars, he looked upon them with favor; therefore, many renowned figures associated with him. He often playfully composed verses of poetry, the words of which were astonishing. Whenever officials served as surveillance commissioners or military governors in Yue, they would visit his door as soon as they entered the region, guided by his reputation and actual virtue. He was not only able to attract and guide others, but was also skilled in social interaction. During the Dahe era, he traveled to Mount Wutai, his route passing through the capital city, where he stayed only one night before departing. The former military commissioner Qie Zhirong and Palace Attendant Song Changchun particularly relished his Way and eagerly summoned him from afar. Early in the Kaicheng era, he arrived at the capital again; the two nobles joined their efforts to chant in unison, pulling at his hems and stubbornly detaining him, so that they installed him in the grand abbot's quarters of Anguo Temple to dwell there. Among the dragon-elephants of the royal capital, none failed to esteem and revere him. Before long, he was summoned to serve as an imperial attendant of great virtue. This was not what he liked, but he yielded to convention and accepted it. Yet his sighs of longing to return home were never once cast aside. On the twenty-fifth day of the tenth month of the fourth year, having finished his instructions to his disciples, he peacefully passed away at the age of fifty-six, with thirty-two summer retreats. The Qie and Song households pooled their funds to temporarily bury him by the Chan River; the people of the east all grieved for him. Later, his disciple Jianzhu brought his remains back to be buried south of Mount Chong, erecting a stupa at Huayan Temple. In the fourth year of the Huichang era, Wei Xuan, Retainer of the Court Cadre, composed a stele inscription to record his generation.