天台九祖傳 1.5

1.5

二祖北齊尊者。諱慧文（德行未見本傳）當齊高之世（齊是國號。高謂高祖渤海人也。姓高氏。齊大夫高奚之後。高歡次洋方受魏禪。都鄴在相州。即北齊也）獨步河淮（無競化者。故云河北。淮謂南。行化於世）法門非世所知（明所證既深。非餘所知）履地戴天。莫知高厚（尊者法行於世。如履地不知地之厚。戴天不知天之高）尊者用心一依釋論。論是龍樹所說。準付法藏。龍樹是金口祖承第十三師。尊者橫承稟以為師也。故翰林梁肅曰。大雄示滅。學路派別。世既下衰。教亦陵遲。故龍樹大士病之。遂用權略制諸外道。乃括十二部經。發明宗極。微言東流。我北齊禪師得之。由文字中入不二法門。以授南嶽。斯言盡之。後學尊敬不敢正斥其諱。以北齊尊者稱焉。

The Second Patriarch, the Venerable of Beiqi, had the taboo name Huiwen. (His virtuous conduct is not seen in an original biography.) He lived during the era of Gao of Qi. (Qi was the state title. Gao refers to the High Ancestor, a man of Bohai with the surname Gao, a descendant of the Qi grand master Gao Xi. After Gao Huan, Gao Yang received the abdication from Wei. He established his capital at Ye in Xiangzhou, which was Northern Qi.) He strode unmatched between the Yellow and Huai Rivers. (There was no rival to his converting others; thus it is said of north of the Yellow River, and "Huai" refers to the south, where he walked and transformed in the world.) His Dharma-door was not something known to the world. (This clarifies that what he realized was so profound that it was not known to others.) Treading the earth and carrying the heavens, no one knew their height and depth. (The Venerable's Dharma moved in the world just as someone treading the earth does not know the earth's depth, or carrying the heavens does not know the heavens' height.) The Venerable applied his mind entirely in reliance on the Expository Treatise. The treatise was spoken by Nāgārjuna. According to the Transmission of the Dharma Treasury, Nāgārjuna was the thirteenth master in the ancestral transmission from the Golden Mouth [of the Buddha]. The Venerable received [the transmission] horizontally across time and took him as his master. Thus Hanlin Academician Liang Su said: "After the Great Hero manifested extinction, the paths of learning branched into schools. As the world declined, the teaching also deteriorated. Therefore the Great Being Nāgārjuna was grieved by this, and thereupon employed expedients to subdue the non-Buddhists. He then gathered together the twelve divisions of scriptures to elucidate the ultimate principle. When these subtle words flowed eastward, our Dhyāna Master of Beiqi attained them, entering the non-dual Dharma-door from within written words, and transmitted it to Nanyue." These words say it all. Later students, revering and honoring him, did not dare to refer to him directly by his taboo name, and so addressed him as the Venerable of Beiqi.