景德傳燈錄 4.10

4.10

第四世法持禪師者。潤州江寧人也。姓張氏。幼歲出家。年三十遊黃梅忍大師坐下。聞法心開。後復遇方禪師為之印可。乃繼迹山門。作牛頭宗祖。及黃梅謝世。謂弟子玄賾曰。後傳吾法者可有十人。金陵法持是其一也。後以法眼付智威禪師。於唐長安二年九月五日。終於金陵延祚寺無常院。遺囑令露骸松下飼諸鳥獸。迎出日空中有神幡。從西而來繞山數匝。所居故院竹林變白七日而止。壽六十有八。臘四十一。

The fourth generation, Chan Master Fachi, was a native of Jiangning in Runzhou with the surname Zhang. He left householder life at an early age. At the age of thirty he traveled to study under Great Master Hongren of Huangmei, and upon hearing the Dharma, his mind opened. Later he again met Chan Master Fang, who gave him the seal of approval. He thereupon succeeded to the mountain monastery and became an ancestral master of the Niutou school. When Master Huangmei was about to depart this world, he said to his disciple Xuanze, “Among those who will transmit my Dharma in the future, there will probably be ten people; Fachi of Jinling is one of them.” Later, he entrusted the Dharma eye to Chan Master Zhiwei. On the fifth day of the ninth month in the second year of the Chang’an era of the Tang, he passed away in the Impermanence Hall of Yanzuo Monastery in Jinling. His testament instructed that his remains be left exposed beneath the pines to feed the birds and beasts. On the day his body was carried forth, there were divine banners in the sky, coming from the west and circling the mountain several times. The bamboo grove of the old courtyard where he lived turned white, ceasing after seven days. He lived sixty-eight years and had been a monk for forty-one years.