大明高僧傳 2.6

2.6

Shi Hongji, courtesy name Tongzhou, with the alternative style Tian'an, was a native of Yuyao in Yue. His surname was Yao. Orphaned in his youth, he left home under Master Shuntian Man at Baoji Monastery in his home village. As a child with his hair in tufts, his intelligence and talent were unmatched; when Man taught him the Lotus Sūtra, he could immediately recite it. At the age of sixteen, he became a fully ordained monk. Every day he held to the Fourfold Vinaya, not daring to overstep the guidelines even in his stride. Soon he sighed, saying, 'The precepts must certainly not be neglected, yet can one postpone the rigorous investigation of the doctrinal vehicle to aid one's practice and understanding?' Thereupon, he went to Yin to rely on Master Banshan Quan and study the Tiantai teachings. After a long time, he was thoroughly versed in its tenets. He once cultivated the Lotus, Golden Light, Pure Land, and other repentances. One day, while in samādhi, he seemed to behold the Venerable One of Siming, who handed him a rhinoceros-horn ruyi sceptre. From that time on, his debates overflowed daily like a hanging river or a surging spring, completely without hindrance. In the first year of the Taiding era of the Yuan, he went forth into the world to reside at Wanshou Yuanjue. The following year, the seawall at Yanguan collapsed, and the residents lived in fear day and night, dreading that it would become a home for fish and turtles. Tuohuan, the grand councilor of the Yuan, was deeply worried about it. He prayed to the Great Being Guanyin at Upper Zhú and ordered Hongji to establish a great Water and Land retreat along the coast and enter the samādhi of benevolence. Taking sea sand, he recited the Great Compassion Dhāraṇī and led the assembly in scattering it throughout the place. Wherever their footsteps reached, the embankment became solid again. People called it miraculous. In the Tianli era, he was transferred to the two monasteries of Jiqing and Xianci. Meeting with a lean year of famine, he retired to live in separate quarters. People from Suzhou invited him to build and revive Dade Wanshou Monastery; after six winters and summers, the monastery was completed. In the fifth year of the Zhizheng era, the Bureau of Buddhist and Tibetan Affairs invited him to take charge of Yuantong [Monastery] in Kuaiji. He stayed there for four years and then returned to Baoji to cultivate the mindfulness-of-the-Buddha samādhi exclusively. In the seventh year, as Hongji was at an advanced age of eighty, the Yuan sovereign issued a decree ordering him to preside over Pufu [Monastery] in Hangzhou. Hongji stayed firmly in bed and did not rise. His disciple Fahang and others came forward and said, 'For the master yourself, it is good to refuse; but what about this Way?' Having no choice, Hongji forced himself to rise, accept the decree, and go there. Before long, he brushed off his sleeves and returned to his former secluded retreat, opening the Pavilion of the Clear Mirror to live in seclusion. Seeing that the various commentaries on the Śūraṅgama-sūtra were unbalanced in verbosity and brevity, he wished to reconcile their interpretations and compose an exegesis for it. Suddenly, he fell ill. He immediately summoned his disciples and earnestly exhorted them with the tenet of the Mind-Only Pure Land. When some among them failed to understand his meaning, Hongji said in a stern voice, 'Birth and death are difficult matters! Birth and death are difficult matters!' He then wrote a gāthā and passed away. It was the tenth day of the third month in the sixteenth year of the Zhizheng era. He had lived eighty-six years and completed seventy-one summer retreats. After seven days, his countenance looked as if he were still alive. The assembly buried him in a ceramic vessel at Songhua Cove on Mount Emei in his home village, which was also the spot chosen by Hongji himself. Disciples who inherited his Dharma were Daochen of Upper Zhú, Jingchen of Yongxi, Yunzhong of Puguang, Youchuan of Yuantong, and Mingjing of Tiangong, five people in all. His writings include Several Fascicles of Correct Record of the Fourfold Teachings and The Outer Collection of Tian'an, which circulate in the world.