弘贊法華傳 8.17

8.17

釋智聰。未詳何人。每誦法華。兼聽三論。陳平後。渡江住揚州安樂寺。大業既崩。思歸無計。隱江荻中。誦法華經。感有四虎遶之而已。聰不食經十餘日。初無飢渴。謂虎曰。吾命須臾。卿須可食。其虎忽作人言。造天立地。無有此理。俄見一老公。年可八十。掖下挾船。來就聰所曰。師欲渡江。棲霞住者。可即上船。四虎一時目中淚出。聰謂公曰。救危拔難。正在今日。可迎四虎。於是。利涉往達南岸。船及老人。不知何在。聰領四虎。同至棲霞舍利塔西。經行坐禪。誓不寢臥。眾徒八十。咸不出院。若有凶事。一虎入寺大聲告眾。由此驚悟。至貞觀二十三年四月八日。小食訖。往止觀興皇。禮大師影像。還歸本房。安坐而卒。異香充溢。丹陽一郭。受戒道俗。三千餘人。奔走登山。哀慟林野。時年九十九矣。

Śramaṇa Zhicong's origins are unknown. He always recited the Lotus Sūtra while also listening to the Three Treatises. After the pacification of the Chen dynasty, he crossed the Yangtze River and lived at Anle Monastery in Yangzhou. After the fall of the Daye reign era, with no way to return home, he concealed himself among the river reeds and recited the Lotus Sūtra, which moved four tigers to encircle him without harming him. Cong went without food for more than ten days, feeling neither hunger nor thirst from the start. He said to the tigers, "My life is at its end; you should eat me." The tigers suddenly spoke in human words, "Since heaven and earth were established, there has never been such a principle." Shortly thereafter, an old man about eighty years of age appeared, carrying a boat under his arm, and approached Cong, saying, "Master, if you wish to cross the river and live at Qixia, you may board the boat immediately." The four tigers wept tears simultaneously. Cong said to the old man, "Rescuing those in danger and delivering those from distress is meant for today; please receive the four tigers as well." Thereupon they crossed smoothly to the southern bank, whereupon the boat and the old man disappeared without a trace. Leading the four tigers, Cong arrived west of the Śarīra Stūpa at Qixia, where he practiced walking meditation and seated meditation, vowing never to lie down to sleep. His eighty disciples did not leave the monastery grounds. Whenever an unlucky event arose, one tiger would enter the monastery and roar loudly to inform the assembly, who were thereby alerted and awakened. On the eighth day of the fourth month in the twenty-third year of Zhenguan [649 CE], after finishing his morning meal, he went to Xinghuang Monastery of the Zhiguan tradition to pay homage to the great master's image, returned to his room, and died peacefully while seated. An extraordinary fragrance permeated the place. In the city of Danyang, more than three thousand monastics and laypeople who had received the precepts rushed up the mountain, their mourning echoing through the forests and wilderness. At that time, his age was ninety-nine.