法華傳記 3.34

3.34

Shi Zhiyue's secular surname was Zheng; he was a native of Nanyang. When young he cherished the resolve to leave the dust [of the world]. His father sought a marriage for him, but he tactfully pleaded to stop it. As he grew up, he was brave, capable, pure, and handsome. At that time, His Highness the Prince of Leyang was governing Jingzhou and summoned him to a very high post, but it was not what he desired; his only heartfelt wish was to leave home. The Prince was moved by his simple sincerity and accordingly fulfilled his longstanding wish. After he was tonsured, he sought the Way in all directions, and proceeding to Jinling, he met the Wise One [Zhiyi]. Facing north, he requested instruction. [Zhiyi] taught him dhyāna methods, and he thereupon penetrated the five gates and thoroughly mastered the six wondrous [doors]. His precept conduct was pure, and his monastic comportment genuine and unalloyed. He also recited the Lotus Sūtra more than ten thousand times; that the water pitcher filled by itself was the power of the sūtra. Although the disciples were numerous, he ranked at their head. In Linhai was the Lushan Hermitage, built by a foreign monk, which was immensely endowed with numinous anomalies. Whenever the Wise One arrived, he commanded Yue to respond and harmonize with it. After [Zhiyi] hid his traces, the assembly on the ridge of Mount Tiantai was unified under him. Entrusted with this for twenty years, he patiently and skillfully guided them, never contravening what had been bequeathed to him. He thus became the refuge of the two assemblies [of monks and nuns], revered and honoured by the fourfold assembly. His demeanor was imposing, and his virtue moved the hearts of beings; he was quite devoted to attracting and guiding others. On every anniversary of his master's death, an imperial order decreed an official vegetarian feast for a thousand monks; Yue used what remained from his robes and bowl to provide grand gifts. On the day Empress Xian, consort of Emperor Wen of the Sui, died, he conducted a vegetarian feast and recited prayers of blessing; each time he received a hundred bolts [of cloth], but never retained them. Zheng Xibo, the governor of Kuazhou, and Yang Shenggui, the garrison commander of Linhai, regarded him with deep righteousness as teacher and friend, treating him with no light esteem. On the twenty-third day of the eleventh month in the twelfth year of the Daye era, he fell ill in bed. After ten days, lying on his right side, he passed away in his old room at Guoqing [Temple], at the age of seventy-four. At the time of his passing, mountains crumbled and the earth shook; the monastics and laity within the territory all saw and heard it. The Wise One had very many disciples, so only a few are narrated here (Continued Biographies of Eminent Monks, fascicle 17).