法華傳記 4.52

4.52

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.)