神僧傳 2.6

2.6

Shi Tanyi was surnamed Yao and was of Qiang descent. At sixteen, he renounced household life and served Master Dao'an as his teacher at Tanxi Monastery. Teng Shezhi, the prefect of Changsha under the Jin, donated his residence in Jiangling to make it a monastery. He informed Dao'an and asked for a monk to oversee it. Dao'an said to Tanyi, 'The gentry and common people of Jing-Chu are just beginning to take refuge in the teachings; who else but you can accomplish their conversion?' Tanyi then took up his staff, journeyed south, and constructed the monastery. Later, when the rebel Yue Yi raided south of the Han River, the entire region of Jiangling fled to Shangming to seek refuge. Tanyi built another monastery there. After the bandits were wiped out, he returned to Jiangling and restored Changsha Monastery. Praying with sincere devotion, he was granted a response and obtained a relic, which he placed in a golden vase set on the altar of the vegetarian feast. Tanyi made prostrations and vowed, 'If this is truly the diamond-hard remains, may it emit light!' In the middle of the night, five-colored radiance gradually emerged from the vase, illuminating the entire hall. The assembly was astonished, and all revered Tanyi's spiritual attunement. Later, he went to Mount Jun in Baling to fell timber, where he encountered several tens of white snakes lying across and blocking the path. Tanyi withdrew to his lodging and said to the mountain spirit, 'I am felling timber to build a monastery; I hope you will share in this merit.' That night, he dreamed of a divine being who told him, 'Since you, Dharma Master, require it for the Three Jewels, I especially rejoice in it. But do not allow others to cut down timber at will.' When he went again the next day, the road was completely clear and level. Thereupon he felled timber and floated it downstream. Among the laborers, there were inevitably those who engaged in theft. When they arrived back at the monastery, Tanyi's timber was intact, while the timber stolen by others was entirely seized by the officials. Such was his sincere response. Tanyi often lamented that although the monastery had been founded and monks were sufficient, images were still few: 'The depictions, appearances, and divine marvels made by King Aśoka are mostly distributed across various regions; why am I lacking in attunement that I cannot summon them?' He then focused his mind with earnest sincerity to beseech a genuine response. On the eighth day of the second month in the nineteenth year of the Taiyuan era of the Jin, the jiawu year (394 CE), an image suddenly appeared to the north of the city, its brilliant marks reaching the sky. At that time, the monastic assembly of Baima Monastery had gone first to welcome it, but were unable to move it. Tanyi went to bow and pay reverence, saying to the assembly, 'This must be King Aśoka's image descending upon our Changsha Monastery.' He then had three disciples lift it; it rose effortlessly, and they escorted it back to his monastery. Monastics and laypeople rushed forth, carriages and horses crowding the roads. Later, the Dhyāna Master Saṅghananda of Kapiśa came down from Shu, entered the monastery to pay homage, saw the Sanskrit letters above the halo of the image, and said, 'This is an image of King Aśoka; when did it come here?' Only then did those who heard this realize that Tanyi had not been mistaken. He passed away at the age of eighty-two. On the day of his death, the image's round halo suddenly vanished through a miraculous transformation, and no one knew where it went. Monastics and laypeople all considered this the result of Tanyi's spiritual communion.