景德傳燈錄 27.18

27.18

Shide of Tiantai did not state his name or surname. Chan Master Fenggan was once walking in the mountains, and upon reaching the roadside of Chicheng, he heard the cry of a child. Following the sound, he found a boy about a few years old. At first he thought he was a cowherd's child, but when asked, [the boy] said he had been orphaned and abandoned there. Fenggan then named him Shide ('Found') and brought him to Guoqing Temple, handing him over to the monastery's prior, saying, "If someone comes to claim him, you must return him." Later, the śramaṇa Lingyi took charge of him and appointed him to attend to the incense and lamps in the dining hall. Suddenly, one day, he audaciously mounted the seat, placed his dish opposite the Buddha statue, and began eating. Furthermore, standing before the sculpted image of the sthavira Kauṇḍinya, he called out, "Small-fruit śrāvaka!" The monks expelled him. Infuriated, Lingyi informed the elders and relieved him of his duties, assigning him to wash dishes in the kitchen. Usually, when the midday meal was over, he strained the food scraps, stored them in a bamboo tube, and when Hanshan arrived, [Hanshan] carried them off on his back. One day he was sweeping the ground. The temple director asked, "Your name is Shide; Fenggan found you and brought you back. But what in the world is your surname, and where do you dwell?" Shide laid down his broom, crossed his hands, and stood still. The temple director could not comprehend. Hanshan beat his chest, saying, "Heaven above! Heaven above!" Shide then asked, "What are you doing?" [Hanshan] said, "Have you not heard it said: 'When someone dies in the eastern house, the western house joins in mourning'?" The two began dancing, crying and laughing as they walked out. There was a shrine to the deity guarding the saṅghārāma. Every day, the food laid out in the monks' kitchen was eaten by crows. Shide struck [the deity] with a staff, saying, "You cannot even protect your own food; how could you protect the saṅghārāma?" That night, the deity appeared in the dreams of all the monks of the temple, saying, "Shide beat me." At dawn, the monks recounted their dreams and found they were identical. The whole temple was in an uproar and reported the matter to the prefecture and county. An official warrant from the prefecture arrived, stating: "A worthy living in seclusion, a responsive manifestation of a bodhisattva; he should be honored." They gave Shide the title 'Worthy' (xianshi). (His vanishing into the rock at his passing is recorded in the chapter on Hanshan.) At that time, Daoqiao compiled Hanshan's writings and appended Shide's gāthās to them. A few pieces are now briefly recorded here, appearing in a separate fascicle.