景德傳燈錄 4.30

4.30

Chan Master Daoqin of Mount Jing in Hangzhou was a native of Kunshan in Suzhou surnamed Zhu. Initially he dedicated himself to Confucian teachings. When he was twenty-eight, Chan Master Xuansu met him and consequently said to him, "Looking at your bearing, it is warm and pure—truly a jewel of the Dharma." The Master was moved to awakening and therefore asked to become his disciple. Xuansu personally shaved his head and admonished him, saying, "Ride with the current and go; when you encounter a path (jing), then stop." The Master thereupon went south and reached Lin'an. Seeing a mountain to the northeast, he inquired of a woodcutter, who said, "This is Mount Jing (Path Mountain)." He then planted his staff there. A monk asked, "What is the Way?" The Master said, "On the mountain there is a carp; at the bottom of the water there is airborne dust." Mazu sent someone with a letter in which he had drawn a circular figure. The Master opened the seal, made a single stroke across the circular figure, and then sealed it and returned it. (National Master Zhong, hearing of this, said, "Master Qin was still misled by Master Ma.") A monk asked, "What is the ancestral master's meaning of coming from the West?" The Master said, "Your question is not fitting." [The monk] said, "How could it be fitting?" The Master said, "Wait until after my passing, and then I will explain it to you." Mazu had his disciple Zhizang come and ask, "Throughout the twelve periods of the day, what is taken as the realm?" The Master said, "Wait until you go back, and there will be a message." Zang said, "I am going back right now." The Master said, "For conveying the message, you must go ask Caoxi." In the third year of the Dali era of the Tang, Emperor Daizong summoned him to the imperial palace to personally pay reverent homage. One day the Master stood up upon seeing the Emperor in the inner courtyard. The Emperor said, "Why does the Master rise?" The Master said, "How could the Dānapati see this poor monk within the four postures?" The Emperor was delighted and said to National Master Zhong, "I wish to bestow an honorific name upon Master Qin." Zhong joyfully accepted the edict, and the title "Guoyi" (State Number One) was bestowed. Later, he took leave to return to his own mountain. In the twelfth month of the eighth year of the Zhenyuan era, he manifested illness, expounded the Dharma, and passed away. His age was seventy-nine. An imperial decree conferred the posthumous title "Chan Master Dajue."