大明高僧傳 3.27

3.27

Śramaṇa Shi Yingneng’s false surname was Yang. In truth, he was Emperor Jianwen. As the legitimate grandson of Taizu and the eldest son of Crown Prince Yiwen, he was enfeoffed as Imperial Grandson-Successor; his taboo name was Yunwen. At his birth, his cranium was somewhat slanted. Taizu stroked him and said, "A crescent moon." When he began reading books, he was exceedingly clever. One evening, Crown Prince Yiwen was in attendance on Taizu, who ordered a poem on the new moon to be composed. The Crown Prince chanted: "Yesterday Master Yanling dropped his fishing hook; / Who has lifted it onto the head of the azure clouds? / Though it has not yet attained a full and round aspect, / Still its clear radiance shines over the nine provinces." The Imperial Grandson chanted: "Who took a jade fingernail / And notched it as a mark in the sky? / When its reflection falls into the rivers and lakes, / The flood dragons dare not swallow it." Taizu was displeased upon perusing it, for not attaining fullness and a reflection falling into the rivers and lakes were both inauspicious omens. In the thirty-first year of Hongwu, Taizu was critically ill; he then bestowed upon him a small box, closely sealed and locked, admonishing him to open it only in an urgent crisis. On the sixteenth day of the fifth month of that year he ascended the throne at the age of twenty-three. The next year the reign era was changed to Jianwen. He summoned Fang Xiaoru to serve as Hanlin Reader-in-Waiting, on duty in the Wenyuan Chamber, daily lecturing on the rites of the *Zhouguan* (*Rites of Zhou*), altering Taizu's established systems. Thereupon, many of the princes were unsubmissive. He then extended exceptional favor and courtesy to them. The Reader-in-Waiting and Minister of the Court of Imperial Sacrifices Huang Zicheng and the Minister of War Qi Tai deliberated on stripping the princes of their authority, plotting to begin with Yan. They ordered Vice Minister Zhang Bing and Regional Military Commissioner Xie Gui to spy on Yan's movements. This subsequently provoked Yan to raise the army to Pacify the Ordeal, marching south to punish Huang and Qi. On the thirteenth day of the sixth month of the fourth year of Jianwen, Jinchuan Gate was breached. The Emperor set fire to the palace. He opened Taizu's bequeathed box and looked inside: he found a ordination certificate for "Yang Yingneng," a razor, a kāṣāya, and black monastic garments. He then shaved his head, escaped via the imperial culvert, and fled to wander extensively in the four quarters. He went from Lake Xiang into Shu, and from Yunnan through Min into Guangxi, entering Shoufo Temple at the south gate of Hengzhou. He resided there for fifteen years. Whenever he ascended the seat to expound the Dharma, those who took refuge were exceedingly numerous. Wherever he arrived became a great Dharma assembly, yet no one knew that he was the Emperor. Again he went to Nanning and stayed in an austere temple. Patch-robed monks gathered like clouds, and the Master gave instructions in accord with conditions; the whole assembly was joyful. After a long while, he reached Si'en Prefecture. He stood in the middle of the road just as the Prefect was going out. The attendants shouted at him. The Master said, "I am Emperor Jianwen. Traversing from Dian through Min to this place, I am now old. I wish to send my bones back to the imperial homeland." The Regional Inspecting Censor reported this to the court, and he was bestowed the title of "Old Buddha." An order was issued to send him to the capital by courier relay. He then composed a poem: "Drifting about rivers and lakes for forty autumns, / Returning, I am unaware that snow has filled my head. / Heaven and earth hold resentment—where is home? / The Yangzi and Han are heartless—their waters flow on their own. / In the Changle Palace, cloud shadows are dark; / In the Zhaoyang Hall, the sound of rain is sorrowful. / New rushes and slender willows are green year after year; / The old rustic swallows his voice and weeps without cease." When he arrived at the capital, the court had not yet verified the truth or falsehood of it. Since the eunuch Wu Liang had previously served his meals, they sent him to examine him. Seeing Liang, the Master at once called out, saying, "Are you not Wu Liang?" He replied, "I am not." The Master said, "Formerly when I was in the informal hall, I once tossed a piece of meat to the ground, and you prostrated on the ground to lick and eat it. How could you forget?" Liang bowed his head and wept bitterly. Soon after, he was taken into the Western Palace to be supported, and he finally passed away in the palace. The commentary says: "Once Emperor Jianwen succeeded as the second in the great line, he ought to have reverently and meticulously safeguarded the established laws of Taizu with his worthy assisting ministers and remedied what they did not reach; then Emperor Wen would have been at peace in his princely estate. How could the troops of Pacifying the Ordeal ever have breached the Jinchuan Gate? Because he suddenly and mistakenly employed the likes of Fang and Huang, lecturing on the *Zhouguan* and practicing the well-field system, changing old institutions and threatening the imperial princes—how could Emperor Wen sit by and watch the Great Treasure ruined by dwarfs and stand with hands tied waiting to be bound? That the state has flourished and all under heaven has been peacefully ordered for hundreds of years today is truly reliant on that one expedition of Pacifying the Ordeal. Regarding the Jianwen affairs, the *Yanshan ji* argues deeply that once he met with disaster, there is surely no principle by which he became a monk; and having become a monk, there is surely no affair by which he returned to the palace. The certificate of Yang Yingneng was an imposture. Recorded here in reliance upon the historical anecdotes of our dynasty, the *Huangming tongzai*, the *Xianzhang lu*, the *Si'en zhi*, and other accounts, it is indeed indispensable to the biographies of monks. Let the gentleman scrutinize it."