法華傳記 4.52

4.52

釋慧銓。姓蕭氏。今特進宋公瑀之兄子也。父仕隋為梁公祖。即梁明帝矣。性度恢簡。志用冲粹。姑即隋煬之后也。自幼及長。恒在宮闕。慕樂超世。無因自達。年既冠成。帝乃尚以秦孝王女為妻。非其願也。事不獲已。時行侁儷及妻終後方遂夙心。以鄭氏東都。預茲剃落。及武德初歲。方還京輦。住莊嚴寺。廣聽眾部。而以法華攝論為心。頗懷篇什。尤能草隷。隨筆所被。用為摸揩。故經題寺額。咸推仰之。又弟智證出家同住。誦通法華。即宋公之兄太府卿之子也。證與兄銓相次而卒。以家世信奉。偏弘法華。同族尊卑。咸所成誦。故蕭氏法華皂素稱富特進撰疏。總集十有餘家。採掇菁華。揉以胸臆。勒成卷數。常自敷弘。時召京輦名僧。指摘瑕累。或集親屬僧尼數將二十。給慧以時。四事無怠故。封祿所及惟存通濟太府。情好讀誦為先故。生至終誦盈萬遍。雇人抄寫總有千部。每日朝參。必使儐者執經在前。至於公事微隙。便就轉讀。朝伍仰屬。以為絕倫。自釋化東傳流味彌遠。承受讀誦世罕。伊人蕭氏一門。可為天下摸楷矣（已上十緣續高僧傳第二十八）。

Śramaṇa Huiquan, surnamed Xiao, was a nephew of the current Specially Promoted Duke of Song, [Xiao] Yu. His father served under the Sui as the Duke of Liang, and his grandfather was Emperor Ming of Liang. By nature he was magnanimous and simple, with an intent and bearing that were serene and pure. His paternal aunt was Empress [Xiao] of Emperor Yang of the Sui. From his youth through adulthood he was constantly in the palace, yearning for transcendence from the worldly realm, but having no means to achieve it himself. Once he had capped his hair upon coming of age, the Emperor had him marry the daughter of Prince Xiao of Qin; this was not according to his wish, yet having no choice in the matter, he lived for a time as a couple. Only after his wife passed away was he finally able to fulfill his longtime aspiration: taking tonsure beforehand in the Eastern Capital under Zheng's [regime]. In the early years of the Wude reign period, he returned to the capital and took up residence at Zhuangyan Temple. He listened widely to the various Piṭakas, yet took the Lotus Sūtra and the Mahāyānasaṃgraha as his heart. He composed a fair number of literary pieces and was especially skilled in cursive and clerical scripts; whatever flowed from his brush was adopted as a model. Consequently, for temple nameboards and sūtra inscriptions, everyone looked up to him. Furthermore, his younger brother Zhizheng left household life to dwell with him, and recited the Lotus Sūtra fluently; he was the son of the Minister of the Court of the National Granaries, the elder brother of the Duke of Song. Zheng passed away soon after his elder brother Quan. Because their household had believed in and revered [the teaching] for generations, they devoted themselves especially to propagating the Lotus Sūtra, and both the venerable and lowly of the clan were able to recite it from memory. Thus, among the monastics and laity of the Xiao family, knowledge of the Lotus was acclaimed as profound. The Specially Promoted [Duke Xiao Yu] composed a commentary, gathering together more than ten different masters; picking out the essential points and blending them with his own understanding, he compiled it into several fascicles and regularly expounded it himself. From time to time, he would summon famous monks of the capital to point out its flaws and shortcomings. Alternatively, he would assemble monastics from among his relatives, nearly twenty in number, and supply them with wisdom in due season, never flagging in providing the four necessities. Thus, whatever his fief and stipends reached was dedicated solely to broad relief. As for the Minister of the Court of the National Granaries, he prioritized reading and recitation by inclination; thus, from birth until the end of his life, his recitations exceeded ten thousand times, and he hired people to copy out a total of a thousand sets. Every day at morning court audience, he invariably had an attendant hold the sūtra in front of him; whenever there was a brief pause in official duties, he would turn to revolving and reciting it. His peers at court looked up to him, regarding him as peerless. Ever since the transformation of Śākyamuni spread east, its nourishing flavor has reached ever further, yet those in the world who receive, uphold, read, and recite it are rare indeed. The single house of the Xiao family may truly serve as a model for the entire realm! (The ten accounts above are from the Continued Biographies of Eminent Monks, fascicle 28.)