宋高僧傳 7.22

7.22

Shi Zhenhui, surnamed Bao, was a native of Changshu in Wujun. At the age of thirteen, he went forth from home at Longxing Temple in his home prefecture. By nature quiet and reserved, he strove to make the most of every moment. After only a year had passed, he had completely memorised the Lotus Sūtra; his constant practice was to recite two full copies every day. At the age of nineteen, he selected a famous master in Yangzhou to receive the full precepts. From then on, he travelled west to the Yi and Luo river valleys and north to the borders of Jin; wherever there was a lecture hall, he took a humble seat to seek instruction, examining the sūtras and treatises and plumbing their nature and characteristics, so that among his peers, few could match his pace. As for unworthy and weak companions, he turned his back on them entirely. In the first year of Tianyou of the Tang, he arrived at lodgings in Xiangguo Temple in the present Eastern Capital and lectured on the Lotus Sūtra some ten times, but people had not yet come to revere him; thus one knows that even rare treasures have their proper season to be sold. When the Liang dynasty established its capital here, people and goods assembled in abundance. In the second year of Zhenming, Duke Kong, the military governor of Songzhou, admired Hui's deportment and recognized his practice of the Way. He thereupon offered the courtesies due to a master and friend, donated his stipend and wealth, and established a hall for the permanent lecturing on the Lotus Sūtra in the West Pagoda Cloister; from then on, crowds gathered in great numbers. Hui also read the textual teachings of the Tripiṭaka and practiced circumambulation during the two times, diligent and untiring. As for secular arts and the sayings of the Hundred Schools, he banished them from his discussions, admonishing his disciples, saying: "Heterodox theories confuse the true mind; what is indeterminate does not perfume [the seeds of awakening]—why must one practice worldly ways? I only wish to make the lion's roar, not the yelp of a jackal." He devoted himself solely to offering incense, lighting lamps, and sweeping the floor, taking the Inner Court as his resting place. On the tenth day of the second month in the second year of Qingtai of the Later Tang, he summoned more than fifty disciples, prepared scented water to bathe himself, instructed them to chant the Ascent [to Tuṣita] and pay homage to the Buddha, gave away all his robes and belongings, and held a non-regular meal so that the monks received a half-noon offering. When this was completed, on the eleventh day, he joined his palms toward empty space and said, "How I have troubled the host of holy ones to line the sky and welcome me!" His disciples, numbering fully a hundred, all heard heavenly music on that day, and in an instant he passed away. His secular age was seventy-three, and his monastic age was fifty-four summer retreats. He had lectured at the temple for more than thirty years, conducting thirty-seven full courses on the sūtra, read the Tripiṭaka twice, and cultivated the karma for Maitreya's Inner Court. On the eighteenth day of the second month of that year, he was buried on the plain of the East Temple Estate in the suburbs of Junyi; approximately a thousand monastic and lay disciples gathered to see him off with banners, canopies, and ceremonial retinues.