大明高僧傳 4.11

4.11

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.