宋高僧傳 4.20

4.20

Śramaṇa Sungyeong was a man from Lelang commandery. The clans of his native land and the lineages of the Eastern Barbarians are difficult to ascertain in detail. His ability to learn the sage's teachings through re-translation arose purely from natural endowment. Moreover, as for the study of hetuvidyā, Master Xuanzang had refined and investigated it, yet among the Chinese monks he transmitted it to, few had thoroughly mastered it. That Sungyeong was able to comprehend it—were it not for the power of his past cultivations, from what could he have reached this? Having obtained Xuanzang's "syllogism of true consciousness-only", he constructed the "inconclusive syllogism of contradictory opposition". In the Qianfeng reign era, he sent it via tribute-bearing envoys. At that time, Master Xuanzang had already passed away for nearly two years. His syllogism ran: "The well-established visible form in the ultimate sense / is definitely separate from the eye-consciousness / because, by its own thesis, it is subsumed under the first three and not subsumed under the eye / just like the eye-faculty." Truly, because the Tripiṭaka Master's formulation was concealed and comprehensive, no one without great wisdom could clarify it. Sungyeong formulated as his thesis: "It is not separate from the eye-consciousness / because, by its own thesis, it is subsumed under the first three and not subsumed under the eye / just like the eye-consciousness." In this way, he effectively established the other proposition. When Mahāyāna Ji inspected this work, he immediately saw what Sungyeong failed to understand. Nonetheless, he ultimately admired the understanding and insight of this monk from the frontier, and so sighed in praise, saying: "Dharma Master Sungyeong of Silla: his fame resonates throughout the Tang and Tibet; his learning encompasses the Mahāyāna and Hīnayāna. In practice, he venerates Kāśyapa, exclusively holding to the dhūtas; in mind, he emulates Bakkula, constantly winning renown for few desires. Having amassed his art in the Western Xia, he transmits illumination to the Eastern Barbarians. His name and path daily renew; monastics and laity bow in admiration. Although dragon-elephants are not few there, overseas he was once acclaimed as peerless, and yet he formulated this 'contradictory opposition' against this syllogism." Master Ji reflected that a man from a distant land possessed such sharp wisdom, yet assaulted Master Xuanzang, unwittingly triggering an insight that rather perfected the Tripiṭaka Master's formulation—what a pity! Sungyeong wrote considerably in his home country, and some of his writings were transmitted to the Central Plains; his doctrinal foundation was the "definitive Mahāyāna teaching of Dharma characteristics". Seeing that the Avataṃsaka Sūtra states that one attains Buddhahood right from the initial aspiration, he gave rise to slander and disbelief. Some say: "When he opened his hands and feet and bid his disciples to support him down to the ground, the earth slowly cracked open, and Sungyeong's body suddenly plummeted." It was said at the time that he sank alive into hell. Even now there is a pit, over a zhang across, a sunken chasm in truth, called the "Sungyeong Naraka".