大明高僧傳 4.11

4.11

釋真清。號象先。長沙湘潭羅氏子也。生而頴異脩幹玉立威儀嚴肅不妄言笑。日誦經史數千言終身不忘一字。父為河南縣尹。常對賓朋以大器期之。年十五補邑弟子員。偶有異僧過而目之曰。此法門之良驥也。十九因家難起。遂投南嶽伏虎巖依寶珠和尚薙染受具足戒。令看無字話。自是一心參究寒暑不輟。至二十五從珠遊金陵探禹穴。因舟觸岸有聲忽有省。珠大喜曰。幸子大事已明。善宜保護。珠以年高自普陀棲隱于下天竺。時內臣張公永慕珠道行。密奏　　張太后賜紫色僧伽黎衣以徵其德。珠忽一日命師曰。吾欲觀化。無令人入。聞吾擊磬聲。當啟戶。數日不聞動定。師密窺牖隙見珠鼻柱垂地。越一日聞磬。師方排闥而入。珠已泯然逝矣。珠既化去。師乃訪鹽官古蹟駐錫覺皇。俄患背疾。感雲長入夢授藥病愈。時佛慧寺月溪法師講起信論於吉祥。豔師乃率眾延唱臨濟宗旨。眾扣師室。師從容語之曰。圓宗無象。滿教難思。我若有宗可講。非但法堂前草深一丈。即真空亦為緣慮之場。汝若有法可聽。豈特頭上安頭。實際却為聲名之境。三世諸佛歷代祖師不過以楔出楔隨迷遣迷。是故會旨者山嶽易移。乖宗者錙銖難入。況起信之旨大徹宗乘。何須更煩忉怛勉之。眾皆稽首而退。師乃南遊天台窮搜勝絕。懷無見覩之高風誅茆其塔前三年。有荊山法師赴石梁之社。偕師至毘陵永慶。互以楞嚴參究。荊山歎曰。某所講經雖精微于佛語。聞師所論誠出卷于塵中。師欲返初服。而禮部唐公荊川留結千日之期。已而復歸天台古平田寺。臨海王司寇敬所入山訪道。訂為方外交。隨遷華頂天柱峯。修大小彌陀懺六年。暇則敷演十乘闡明三觀。故四方學者攀蘿而至者戶外之履常滿。一夕夢。琳宮綺麗寶樹參差見彌陀三聖。師方展拜。傍有沙彌。授與一牌書曰。戒香薰修。寤知中品往生之象也。蓋師日勤五悔。密持梵網心地品及十六觀經為常課是亦精誠之所感耳。甞示眾曰。大乘八萬小乘三千實整六和之模範出三界之梯航也。今世之高流輕蔑律儀惟恃見解。遂令後學不遵佛制輒犯規繩。本自無愆誤造深罪。饒他才過七步辯若懸河。不免識墮鐵城。終未解脫。汝等勉之。萬曆丁亥八月蒙　　慈聖宣文明肅皇太后遣使降旨褒崇賜金紋紫方袍以寵之。十月王太初居士因丁內艱。請師就永明禪室闡妙宗鈔。百日為期。時台郡王理邢某親登雲嶠而設供焉。戊子歲儉群盜蜂起。相戒無敢入師之室。𭬥李五臺居士陸光祖虛芙蓉之席見招。辭不赴忽謂眾曰。桃源之慈雲實懶融四世孫為開山。唐天寶賜額曰雲居山曰安國。五代德韶國師中興為第二道場。永明壽禪師剃髮之所。今坐禪石永明庵故址在焉。韶公常領徒五百說法此地。昔螺溪寂法師請復台教。諦觀亦親禮足。皆此寺也。今為豪民奪之。將為掩骨所。竊思　　朝廷千數百年之香火一旦為俗子葬地。誰之罪也。遂罄衣鉢贖歸之。將謀興建。俄雲間陸宗伯平泉聘說法于本一院。李方伯沖涵聘講於桐川。再畢返棹嘉禾龍淵。欻抱疾告門人曰。夜來神人啟我為魏府子。其富貴非吾所志也。遂付衣鉢遺囑弟子。如法闍維。盡發長物。於五臺雲棲西興五處飯僧。有勉服藥石者。師謝曰。生死藥能拒乎。吾淨土緣熟聖境冥現。此人間世固不久矣。是歲正月七日乃絕粒惟飲檀香水而已。期於二十九日告終。每日雖米漿不入於口。與眾說無生法。誨諭進修而拳拳弗倦。至夕乃起別眾曰。吾即逝矣。無以世俗事累我。眾請曰。和尚往生淨土。九品奚居。曰中品中生也。眾曰。胡不上品生耶。曰吾戒香所薰位止中品。言畢泊然而逝。延五日顏色紅潤如生。手足溫軟怡容可掬。吊者無敢下拜。荼毘日天色霽明淨無纖翳。舉火之際忽有片雲。如蓋凝覆其上灑微雨數點。烟焰起時異香充塞。內自殿閣僧房外自路人船子。所聞種種隨力不同。火餘骨有三色而鏘鏘有聲。紅者如桃。白者如玉。綠者潤似琅竿猶香氣郁郁。師生於嘉靖丁酉十二月二十六日。示寂於萬曆癸巳正月二十九日。世壽五十七。臘三十八。如惺抱骨初建塔慈雲之南岡。壬寅遷于寺西螺師山右繡文溪之上。武塘了凡居士袁黃撰銘。

Śramaṇa Zhenqing, styled Xiangxian, was a son of the Luo family of Xiangtan in Changsha. From birth he was extraordinarily talented, standing tall like jade, with a dignified and austere bearing, never indulging in idle chatter or frivolous laughter. Daily he memorized several thousand words of the scriptures and histories, never forgetting a single character for the rest of his life. His father served as magistrate of Henan County and often spoke of him to guests and friends as having the makings of a great vessel. At age fifteen he was appointed as a county student. Once, an unusual monk passed by, looked at him intently, and said, "This is a fine steed of the Dharma gate." At age nineteen, due to a family misfortune, he went to Mt. Nanyue's Fuhu Cliff and relied on Master Baozhu to receive tonsure and full ordination. The master had him contemplate the "Wu" keyword. From then on, he investigated it single-mindedly, never ceasing through cold winter or hot summer. At twenty-five, he accompanied Baozhu on travels to Jinling and explored Yu's Cave. Hearing the sound when the boat struck the riverbank, he was suddenly enlightened. Baozhu was overjoyed and said, "Fortunately, the great matter is already clear to you; protect it well!" Because of his advanced age, Baozhu moved from Putuo to reside in seclusion at Lower Tianzhu. At that time, the palace attendant Lord Zhang Yong admired Baozhu's spiritual practice and secretly petitioned Empress Dowager Zhang to bestow a purple saṅghāṭī robe in recognition of his virtue. One day Baozhu suddenly instructed the master, saying, "I wish to contemplate transformation. Let no one enter. When you hear the sound of me striking the sounding-stone, you may open the door." For several days no motion or stillness was heard. The master peeked secretly through a chink in the window and saw that Baozhu's nose was touching the ground. One day later, he heard the sounding-stone; just as the master pushed open the door and entered, Baozhu had already quietly passed away. After Baozhu had transformed, the master visited the ancient sites of Yanguan and stayed at Juehuang. Soon he suffered from a back ailment. Moved by Guan Yunchang appearing in a dream and giving him medicine, he recovered from the illness. At that time, Dharma Master Yuexi of Fohui Temple was lecturing on the Awakening of Faith at Jixiang. Charmed by him, he led the assembly to invite him to proclaim the Linji lineage's tenets. The assembly knocked at the master's room. The master calmly told them, "The perfect lineage has no marks, and the complete teaching is difficult to fathom. If I had a lineage to preach, not only would the grass grow ten feet deep before the Dharma hall, but even true emptiness would become a place of conditioned thoughts. If you had a Dharma to hear, not only would that be adding a head on top of a head, but ultimate reality would instead become a realm of fame and reputation. The Buddhas of the three periods and the ancestral masters through the generations have done nothing more than knock out a wedge with a wedge, dispelling delusion according to delusion. Therefore, for those who grasp the import, mountains and peaks are easily moved; for those who run counter to the lineage, not even the slightest hair can enter. How much more so when the import of the Awakening of Faith thoroughly penetrates the vehicle of the lineage! Why bother with further sorrow and labor to urge them on?" The assembly all bowed their heads and withdrew. The master then traveled south to Tiantai, thoroughly searching out supreme landscapes. Cherishing the noble character of Wujian Du, he thatched a hut before his stupa for three years. Dharma Master Jingshan attended the assembly at Shiliang and joined the master in going to Yongqing in Piling, where they investigated the Śūraṅgama-sūtra together. Jingshan sighed and said, "Though what I lecture on in the scriptures is subtly attuned to the Buddha's words, hearing what the master discusses is truly drawing forth the scroll from within the dust!" The master wished to return to his original lay clothes, but Lord Tang Jingchuan of the Ministry of Rites detained him to complete a thousand-day retreat. Afterward, he returned to the ancient Pingtian Temple on Mt. Tiantai. Minister of Justice Wang Jingsuo of Linhai entered the mountain to seek the Way and formed an otherworldly friendship with him. He then relocated to Tianzhu Peak at Huading, where he practiced the Great and Small Amitābha Repentances for six years. In his leisure, he expounded the ten vehicles and clarified the three contemplations. Thus scholars from all directions, pulling themselves up by the vines, came in such numbers that the shoes outside his door were always filled. One night he dreamed of splendid jade palaces and staggered jewel-trees, and saw the three Amitābha sages. Just as the master bowed in prostration, a novice monk beside them handed him a plaque inscribed: "Incense of the Precepts Cultivation." Awakening, he knew this was a sign of rebirth in the middle grade. This was because the master daily practiced the five repentances with diligence and secretly maintained the "Mind Ground" chapter of the Brahma Net Sūtra and the Sixteen Contemplations Sūtra as his daily regimen, which had moved the holy through his sincerity. He once instructed the assembly, saying, "The eighty thousand [practices] of the Mahāyāna and the three thousand of the Hīnayāna are truly the model for regulating the six harmonies, the ladder and ferry to transcend the three realms. Eminent people of today despise the vinaya and rely solely on intellectual understanding, thereby causing later students to disregard the Buddha's regulations and frequently violate the rules. Originally free of transgression, they mistakenly commit grave offenses. Even if their talent surpasses seven paces and their eloquence flows like a suspended river, they will not escape their consciousness falling into the iron city, remaining unliberated after all. You must exert yourselves!" In the eighth month of the dinghai year of the Wanli era, he received an imperial decree sent by Empress Dowager Cisheng Xuanwen Mingsu praising and honoring him, bestowing a purple square robe with golden patterns to grace him. In the tenth month, the lay practitioner Wang Taichu, due to mourning for his mother, invited the master to the Yongming Meditation Room to expound the Miaozong chao, set for a period of one hundred days. At that time, Judge Xing of Taizhou personally climbed the cloudy peaks to offer provisions. In the wuzi year, there was a famine, and bandits arose like swarms of bees, but they warned one another never to dare enter the master's room. Lay practitioner Lu Guangzu (Wutai) of Xiuli left the abbot's seat at Furong vacant and invited him, but he declined and did not go. Suddenly he said to the assembly, "Ciyun of Taoyuan was actually founded by the fourth-generation descendant of Lanrong. During the Tianbao era of the Tang, it was granted the plaque 'Cloud-Dwelling Mountain An'guo Temple.' National Preceptor Deshao of the Five Dynasties restored it as his second place of practice, and it was the place where Chan Master Yongming Shou shaved his head. The stone where he sat in meditation and the old site of Yongming Hermitage are still there. Master Shao often led five hundred disciples to preach the Dharma in this place. Formerly, Dharma Master Luoxi Ji requested the restoration of the Tiantai teachings, and Diguan also personally bowed at his feet here; all took place at this monastery. Now it has been seized by powerful gentry, who intend to use it as a burial ground. I secretly ponder: when the incense offerings of the imperial court for over a thousand years suddenly become a commoner's graveyard, whose fault is it?" He then emptied his bowls and robes to redeem it and intended to rebuild it. Soon Lu Pingquan, Minister of Rites of Yunjian, invited him to preach the Dharma at Benyi Cloister, and Administration Vice-Commissioner Li Chonghan invited him to lecture at Tongchuan. Having completed both, he sailed back to Longyuan in Jiahe. Suddenly falling ill, he told his disciples, "Last night a spiritual being informed me that I would become a son of the Prince of Wei's estate. Such wealth and honor are not my aspiration." He then handed over his robe and bowl, leaving testamentary instructions to his disciples: "Jhāpita according to the Dharma; distribute all my surplus goods to provide vegetarian feasts for monks at five places: Wutai, Yunqi, and Xixing." Some urged him to take medicine, but the master declined, saying, "Can medicine ward off life and death? My karmic affinities with the Pure Land have ripened, and the sacred realm has secretly manifested; this human realm will certainly not last long." On the seventh day of the first month of that year, he ceased eating grains, drinking only sandalwood water. He set the twenty-ninth day as the end. Although not even rice gruel entered his mouth each day, he spoke the Dharma of non-arising to the assembly, admonishing and guiding their cultivation without wearying. When evening arrived, he arose to bid farewell to the assembly, saying, "I am departing soon; do not burden me with worldly affairs." The assembly inquired, "When the Venerable is reborn in the Pure Land, in which of the nine grades will you dwell?" He replied, "Rebirth in the middle grade of the middle rank." The assembly said, "Why not rebirth in the highest grade?" He replied, "Perfumed by my incense of the precepts, my station is limited to the middle grade." Having spoken, he serenely passed away. For five days his complexion remained ruddy as if alive, his hands and feet warm and soft, his serene expression captivating. Among the mourners, none dared to prostrate. On the day of the jhāpita, the sky was clear and bright, without a speck of haze. As the fire was ignited, suddenly a wisp of cloud, like a canopy, gathered over it and sprinkled a few drops of light rain. When the smoke and flames rose, an extraordinary fragrance filled the air. From the halls and monastic quarters inside to the passersby and boatmen outside, the various scents perceived differed according to each person's capacity. After the fire, the bones were of three colors and clinked with sound: the red were like peaches, the white like jade, and the green as lustrous as fine green jade, still emitting an abundant fragrance. The master was born on the twenty-sixth day of the twelfth month of the dingyou year of the Jiajing era and manifested quiescence on the twenty-ninth day of the first month of the guisi year of the Wanli era, with a worldly age of fifty-seven and a dharma age of thirty-eight. Ruxing cradled his bones and first built a stupa on the southern mound of Ciyun. In the renyin year, it was moved to the west of the temple, on the right side of Luoshi Mountain above Xiuwen Creek. Lay practitioner Yuan Huang (Liaofan) of Wutang composed the inscription.