法華傳記 4.60

4.60

釋智聰。未詳何許人。昔住楊都白馬寺。後住止觀寺。陳平後度江。住揚州安樂寺。大業既崩。思歸無計。隱江萩中。誦法華經。七日不飢。恒有四虎。遶之而已不食。已來經今十日。聰曰。吾命須臾。卿須可食。虎曰。造立天地。無有此理。忽有一翁。年可八十。腋下挾船曰。師欲度江至栖霞住者。可即上船。四虎一時目中淚出。聰曰。救危扶難正在今日。可迎四虎。於是利涉往達南岸。船及老人。不知所在。聰領四虎。同往栖霞。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。每以常式。聰以山林出遠。糧粒艱岨。乃合卒揚州三百清信。以為米祐。人別一石。年別送之。由此山糧供繼。道俗乃至。禽獸通皆濟給。至貞觀二十三年四月八日。小食訖往止觀寺。禮大師靈像。執鑪遍禮。又往興皇墓所。禮拜還歸本房。安坐而卒。異香充溢。丹陽一郭受戒道俗三千餘人。奔走山服。哀慟林野。時年九十九矣。

Śramaṇa Zhicong's native place is unknown. Formerly he resided at Baima Temple in the capital Yang[zhou], and later at Zhiguan Temple. After the Chen fell, he crossed the Yangzi River and resided at Anle Temple in Yangzhou. After the Daye reign ended in collapse, having no way to return, he hid among the rushes by the river and recited the Lotus Sūtra, going for seven days without hunger. There were consistently four tigers circling him, yet they did not devour him; up to that point ten days had passed. Cong said, "My life hangs in the balance; if you need to, you may eat me." The tigers replied, "Since the creation of heaven and earth, there has never been such a principle." Suddenly an old man appeared, around eighty years old, carrying a boat under his arm, and said, "If the master wishes to cross the river to dwell at Qixia, you may board the boat at once." Tears fell from the eyes of the four tigers simultaneously. Cong said, "Rescuing from peril and assisting in distress is needed precisely today; please welcome the four tigers as well." Thereupon they crossed smoothly and reached the southern shore; the boat and the old man were gone without a trace. Cong led the four tigers and went together to Qixia. To the west of the śarīra stupa, he practiced walking and seated meditation, vowing never to lie down to sleep. His eighty disciples all remained within the monastery grounds. Whenever an ominous event was imminent, one tiger would enter the temple and make a loud roar to inform the assembly; alerted and alarmed by this, they took it as a regular sign. Because the mountain forest was remote and grains were difficult to obtain, Cong gathered three hundred lay believers in Yangzhou to provide rice charity: each person gave one picul, delivered annually. Due to this, provisions on the mountain were continuously supplied, benefiting all, from monastics and laity down to birds and beasts. On the eighth day of the fourth month of the twenty-third year of the Zhenguan reign period, after a light morning meal, he went to Zhiguan Temple, paid homage to the spiritual image of the Great Master, and holding an incense burner, made prostrations everywhere. He then went to the tomb of [Master] Xinghuang, made prostrations, and returned to his own room, where he passed away while sitting serenely. A wondrous fragrance filled the air. More than three thousand monastics and laity who had received the precepts in the single city of Danyang rushed in their mountain attire, weeping with grief in the forest and fields. He was ninety-nine years old at the time.