法華傳記 3.4

3.4

Shi Guanding, styled Fayun, whose secular surname was Wu, was a native of Yixing in Changzhou. His ancestors fled to Dong'ou and never returned; thus he became a native of Zhang'an in Linhai. His father died early, and his mother raised him. When he was barely three months old, in the night she called upon the names of the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha; Ding repeated them after her mouth, his pronunciation and phrases clear and articulate, which astonished everyone. She reported this to Dharma Master Huizheng of Shejing Monastery. Hearing it, he sighed and said, "This child is extraordinary (feifan)"; he immediately gave him the courtesy name Feifan. When he reached seven years of age, he returned to become Master Zheng's disciple, advancing to receive the full precepts and observing the deportment. In the eleventh year of the Kaihuang era, when the Prince of Jin was garrisoning Yangzhou, [Guanding] accompanied the Master of Wisdom when he arrived at the regional ditch. He resided at Chanzhong Monastery as the foremost general of the Dharma, investigating the subtle and seeking out the obscure daily. Soon after, he followed the Master of Wisdom on his eastward return to reside on Mount Tiantai. Later he went out to the Chengxin Hermitage to lecture on the Lotus Sūtra. Flowers rained down resembling lotuses, descending like snow, with an extraordinary fragrance. He surpassed Lang, Long, and Ji, and excelled beyond Yun, Yin, and Liu. As a senior disciple of the Master of Wisdom, he fully recorded the Profound Meaning, Mohe zhiguan, and other teachings delivered by his master. Whenever the doctrinal teachings of the Mountain School spread and transformed the world, were translated upon request from India, or brought benefit to the Eastern Xia, it was entirely through the efforts of Dharma Master Guanding. (Drawn from the Continued Biographies of Eminent Monks, separate biographies, records of Dharma lectures, etc.)