大明高僧傳 2.29

2.29

Shi Puxi had the style name Jixiang. He was a native of Shandong. He was tall in stature, with a dark complexion, and was so lean and emaciated as to resemble an Indian monk. In his early years, he earnestly pleaded with his parents to allow him to leave household life. His parents reproached him, saying that having no descendants was the greatest [filial failure]. Consequently, he married and raised two sons, after which he was finally able to become a śramaṇa. He thoroughly investigated the Ci'en Characteristics school, studying treatises such as the Vijñaptimātra, Yogācārabhūmi, and Hetuvidyā. In the twenty-fifth year of the Zhiyuan reign period of the Yuan, Emperor Setsen (Kublai) founded imperial lecture seats in Jiang-Huai. Puzhao was one of them. An edict ordered the master to preside over it. Beyond ascending the seat, he daily chanted the Great Avataṃsaka Sūtra, taking ten fascicles as his daily practice. He was consistently on good terms with Duan Wunian of Yunnan. Duan was a giant leader of Vijñaptimātra; none in the world surpassed him. Whenever he debated principles with the master, if Duan made a slight slip, the master corrected him with upright words; Duan also genuinely submitted and praised him. When he entered extinction and underwent jhāpita, the relics were very abundant. His disciples kept his holy bones and stored them in a lacquered box, enshrining them for more than twenty years before first constructing a stupa at Mount Yu in Dantu. When it was time to place them into the stupa, they opened it to inspect them, and saw only relics clinging to the box and wrapping cloth like swarming bees and gathering ants; when touched, they sparkled brilliantly. Many among the people of Zhenjiang had portraits of him, worshipping him everywhere and calling him 'Jixiang Buddha'.