大明高僧傳 3.12

3.12

Shi Shizhang, courtesy name Yuanpu, was a son of the Wang family of Haining in that commandery. At birth, he had a hidden rhinoceros horn ridge reaching his crown, and his eyes were bright and black as dotted lacquer. From childhood, he would not take rank or pungent foods; when his parents secretly tested him, he would immediately vomit incessantly. He loved reading Buddhist books. A monk from a neighbouring temple requested of his father, saying, 'This is a seed of the Śākya clan; why not give him to me to be his master?' The father angrily said, 'My child is like a puṇḍarīka flower, not of your kind.' He then dedicated him to enter Chuanfa Temple to receive the five precepts. At that time, the Hanlin Attendant-in-Waiting Liu Guan often rested at the temple quarters; fond of the Master, he instructed him in the classics and histories, personally expounding their profound principles. When the Master heard them, they were resolved effortlessly as if meeting the edge of a blade. At the age of nineteen, he tonsured his hair and became a fully ordained monk. Dharma Master Wo'an Wu was presiding over Upper Tianzhu; the Master was about to carry his umbrella and hasten to attend him, when he suddenly dreamed of journeying to a jewel treasury, where a great bodhisattva instructed him to kneel reverently, pay homage, and orally recite repentance verses. When he woke and reflected on it, they were the verses of Samantabhadra's 'Chapter on Pure Conduct'. When he indeed met Wo'an, Wo'an looked upon him with newfound respect, and sequentially transmitted to the Master the specific chapter meanings of the Tiantai doctrinal contemplations. His mind was focused and unified, studying vigorously without weariness even unto forgetting sleep and food. Wo'an secretly took note of his diligence and constantly expected great things of him. At that time, Tianxin Ying was naturally arrogant and yielded to no one, hence the world called him the 'Tiger of Doctrine'; he too admired the Master’s conduct and agreed to share lamplight with him, daily honing and debating with him to the finest detail. The assembly called them 'the pair of jades'. After some time, Wo'an transformed and passed away. Dongming Ri succeeded to his seat to mould the scholars, selecting the Master to initiate lectures, and appointed him to manage guests and subsequently direct repentance rituals. In the thirteenth year of Zhizheng of the Yuan (1353), he received the appointment to be abbot of Qizhen. The temple neighboured the two monasteries of South Tianzhu and Yanfu; at that time, the two elders Dayong Cai and Juezong Ji resided there. The Master, feeling that his own learning was still insufficient, went daily to inquire of them. Every subtlety of doctrinal contemplation, whether provisional or complete, origin or trace, was clearly analyzed without exception. Thus he once sighed to the assembly, 'The treasury of teachings of the Buddhadharma is vast as a misty sea; it is certainly not something that self-cultivation alone can completely fathom. If I draw boundaries around myself and make no progress, how can I avoid the reproach of narrow-minded ignorance?' In the twentieth year (1360), he moved to preside over Jingde. At the end of the Yuan, the world was in great chaos from warfare; everyone planned for their own concealment. The Master alone focused his mind on temple affairs, never changing his resolve on account of the worldly difficulties. His manifesting of good and suppression of evil transformed the demeanor [of the place]. Daily he gathered the pure assembly to lecture on sūtras and commentaries, without an idle moment. When it came to our Great Ming during the Hongwu era, the seat at Jiqing fell vacant, and the Commandery Governor Lord Li requested him to expound the doctrinal vehicles there. Before long, the Central Secretariat received an imperial decree directing that the abbots of renowned monasteries across the five prefectures east and west of Zhejiang all gather in the capital, together to pave Tianjie and establish the Shanshi Bureau to govern the assembly of monks and jointly oversee its construction. The senior worthies from all quarters were all at a loss as to what to do; the Master alone brought forth strategic plans with proper order and arrangement, and the assembly of a hundred thousand all followed his model. In the sixth month of that year, after the full moon, he knew in advance that the time had arrived. He summoned his disciples and gave his final instructions. On the seventeenth day, he peacefully passed away in seated meditation. His age was forty-six; his dharma age was twenty-eight. He was jhāpita, and his disciples Yuanjue, Yiyin, Shengyuan, Keqin, and others enclosed his bones and built a stūpa to the south of Dharma Master Biancai's stūpa at Longjing. The Master’s capacity and demeanor were unconstrained, his discussions were impassioned, and he adhered to the upright path without bending to vulgar customs. Whenever he examined various monasteries, he saw that those who gathered disciples and formed factions all became reservoirs of resentment; the Master thereupon vowed not to tonsure or keep disciples. When students came seeking to attach themselves to him, he would firmly refuse them with stern words, never enrolling a single person indiscriminately.