宋高僧傳 7.26

7.26

Shi Jumin, surnamed Ren, was a native of Xihe. His father was devoted to the arts and lived in reclusion in the hills and gardens. His mother, Lady Wang, had received the eight precepts and had her mind devoted to the Three Jewels; from the time she was pregnant with Jumin, she loved virtuous conditions even more and sought blessings, and so gave birth to a fine son. When he was born, at merely seven years of age, his will was sincere and earnest; as soon as he saw a Buddha statue, he gazed up at it with delight. His parents knew he had causes from past lives; on occasions when they took him to a temple, he wished to forget about returning home. Arriving at the Jingxin Cloister in his home commandery, he saw the treatise master Xuanyuan, became deeply attached to his room, and wept, begging to be received as a disciple. Both parents knew they could not obstruct his wish, and both consented to it. At ten years of age, he finished memorizing the two scriptures, the Lotus Sūtra and the Vimalakīrti-nirdeśa; he upheld ten fascicles a day without interruption, as if carefully holding a vessel of lapis lazuli. His composure and deliberate self-control were like those of a mature elder. When his years were complete, he practiced the śīla, mastered the rules of allowances and prohibitions, and constantly reflected upon the mirror of joy and sorrow. Thenceforth, he thoroughly investigated the principles and tenets of the Mahāyāna in the scriptures and treatises; the master under whom he studied was Sanxue of Yonghe in Bingbu. Making the night into day, he sat before his desk by the window, with no leisure for anything else. Apart from studying doctrinal essays and cultivating the six affairs and two causes, in his later years he applied himself with even greater diligence to the Mahāparinirvāṇa-sūtra and the Hetuvidyā-śāstra. He also transmitted the Golden Treatise, completely casting aside other concerns, lecturing ten times on each; he further sought out commentaries, extensively read through all kinds of books, grasped their meanings with the utmost precision, and displayed a multitude of virtues. Soon, receiving an imperial command, he dwelled at the Tianwang Cloister within the city; together with his disciples, offerings to him were never lacking, and his transmission and upholding [of the Dharma] were never discontinued. In the first year of Qianyou, because the Han founder [Liu Zhiyuan] had long revered Jumin's name from his days living in retirement in the Jin territory, he specially sent a court official to bestow a purple robe and granted him the title 'Grand Master Yuanzhi.' Subsequently, an edict summoned him to reside at the Lecture Hall Cloister of Chongfu Temple and concurrently serve as the saṅgha administrator (sēngzhèng) within the jurisdiction. Within a year, he reformed the practices in Jin, scrutinizing and disciplining the monks so that they bent like grass before the wind. On the fifth day of the eleventh month in the second year of Qianyou, he passed away without illness. At that time, the fourfold assembly harbored grief, and the entire city longed for his virtue. His worldly age was ninety-three, and his dharma age was fifty-four. Following the cremation (jhāpita) rites of the Western Regions, they poured much scented water and held banners and flowers; the monastics and layfolk filled the outskirts, and dark clouds veiled the sun. Before the fire had died out, all held up precious urns, waiting to fill them with the [relics] shaped like grains of millet, jointly witnessing his consecrated body. At that time, those who obtained śarīra found them more or less numerous according to their own conditions. Separately, his remaining bones were collected and reported in a memorial to the throne. The Han ruler decreed that he be buried at Tianlong Temple on the Western Mountains, that all matters be provided by officials, and that a stone pagoda be erected. By imperial decree, he was given the posthumous title Dashì ('Master of Penetrating Knowledge').