弘贊法華傳 8.17

8.17

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.