續傳燈錄 35.46

35.46

杭州徑山無準禪師諱師範。生於蜀之梓潼雍氏。九歲依陰平山僧道欽出家。經書過目成誦。紹熙五年冬登具戒。明年次成都坐夏正法。遇老宿名堯者。師請益坐禪之法。堯曰。禪是何物坐底是誰。師受其語晝夜體究。一日如廁提前話有省。明年辭去謁佛照于育王。佛照問師曰。何處人。師曰。劍州人。佛照曰。帶得劍來麼。師隨聲便喝。佛照笑曰。者烏頭子也亂做。貧甚無資薙髮故。佛照室中常以烏頭子目之。久之復還靈隱。破庵居第一座。齋餘同遊石筍庵。庵之道者請益胡孫子話。破庵答之語在破庵傳中。師於侍傍有省。破菴過天童掃密菴塔師偕往。逮破菴赴穹窿。未幾以台雁未到拉月石溪同遊至瑞岩時雲巢領住持事。留分座。忽夜夢偉衣冠者持把茅見授。翌日明州清涼專使至。師受請入院。見所謂伽藍神。茅其姓。衣冠與疇昔所夢無異。陞堂開法一香供破菴三年遷焦山。期年遷雪竇。三年被旨移育王。又三年嵩少林散席。徑山朝命以師補處。明年寺燬。師逆知其數。不動容經意。是年十月有旨入內。上御修政殿引見。師奏對詳明。上為之動色。賜金襴僧伽黎。仍宣詣慈明殿陞座。上垂簾而聽。乃賜佛鑑禪師號。三年寺成。閱六年復燬。師不驚不變。而多助雲至。不數年寺宇崇成。去寺四十里築室數百楹接待雲水。額曰萬年正續。正續西數百步結菴一區為歸藏所。上建重閣祕藏後先所賜御翰。敝室東西偏奉祖師與先世香火。遇始生日為飯僧佛事。以贊冥福。蓋蜀亂師之先祀遂絕。故茲祠奉以旌孝慕云。上聞而嘉歎。賜扁圓照。淳祐戊申秋師築室明月池上。榜曰退耕。乞老于朝而舊疾適作。三月旦升堂示眾曰。山僧既老且病。無力得與諸人東語西話。今日勉強出來。從前所說不到底。盡情向諸人面前抖擻去也。遂起身抖衣云。是多少。十五日集兩班區畫後事。親書遺表及遺書十數。言笑諧謔如平時。其徒以遺偈為請。乃執筆疾書云。來時空索索。去也赤條條。更要問端的。天台有石橋。移頃而逝。停龕二七日。遺表上聞。上遣中使降香賜幣。奉全身塔于圓照菴。稟法分化。有雪岩欽斷橋倫西岩惠焉。

Chan Master Wuzhun Shifan of Jingshan in Hangzhou was named Shifan. He was born to the Yong clan of Zitong in Shu. At the age of nine, he went to monk Daoqin of Mount Yinping to leave home. Classics and scriptures, once seen, were committed to memory. In the winter of the fifth year of the Shaoxi era, he received full ordination. The following year, he went to Chengdu to spend the summer retreat at Zhengfa. He met an elder named Yao, from whom he requested guidance on the practice of seated meditation (zuochan). Yao said, 'What thing is Chan? Who is the one sitting?' The Master received his words and investigated them day and night. One day, while using the privy, he brought up the previous topic and had an awakening. The next year, he took his leave and went to visit Fozhao at Yuwang. Fozhao asked the Master, 'Where are you from?' The Master said, 'A man of Jianzhou.' Fozhao said, 'Did you bring your sword along?' Following the sound, the Master gave a shout. Fozhao laughed and said, 'This black-headed boy is also making a fuss!' Because he was destitute and had no means to shave his head, Fozhao often called him 'the black-headed boy' in the abbot's room. After some time, he returned to Lingyin. Po'an resided there as the head monk. After the mid-day meal, they went together to Shisun Hermitage. A practitioner at the hermitage asked for instruction regarding the 'monkey' topic. Po'an answered him—the words are recorded in the biography of Po'an. The Master, standing in attendance by his side, had an awakening. When Po'an went to Tiantong to sweep the stūpa of Mi'an, the Master went with him. When Po'an assumed duties at Qionglong, soon afterwards, because they had not yet been to Tiantai and Yandang, he brought along Yue Shixi to travel together to Ruiyan. At that time, Yunchao was serving as the abbot; he retained the Master to share the seat. Suddenly one night, the Master dreamed of a man in magnificent robes and a cap holding a clump of thatch, which he presented to him. The next day, a special envoy from Qingliang in Mingzhou arrived, and the Master accepted the invitation to enter the monastery. He saw the so-called saṅghārāma deity, whose surname was Mao (Thatch), and whose robes and cap were no different from what he had seen in the dream the night before. Ascending the hall to open the Dharma, he dedicated an incense offering to Po'an. After three years, he moved to Jiaoshan. After one full year, he moved to Xuedou. After three years, he was ordered by imperial decree to move to Yuwang. Another three years later, Song Shaolin dissolved his assembly, and the imperial court ordered the Master to take his place at Jingshan. The following year, the monastery burned down. The Master foresaw that this was destined, and his countenance did not shift nor was his mind troubled. In the tenth month of that year, an imperial decree summoned him to the palace. The Emperor received him in the Xiuzheng Hall. The Master's memorial in response was detailed and clear, and the Emperor was visibly moved. He bestowed a golden brocade saṅghāṭī and further commanded him to ascend the seat in the Ciming Hall. The Emperor listened behind a lowered screen. Thereupon, he bestowed the title Chan Master Fojian upon him. Three years later, the monastery was completed. After six years, it burned down again. The Master was neither startled nor altered; help arrived like gathering clouds, and within a few years, the monastery buildings were magnificently reconstructed. Forty li from the monastery, he constructed several hundred bays of rooms to receive itinerant monks, naming it Wannian Zhengxu (Ten-Thousand Years of Orthodox Continuity). Several hundred paces to the west of Zhengxu, he built a hermitage to serve as the place for his final interment. Above, he built a multistoried pavilion to secretly store the imperial writings bestowed on him over time. On the east and west sides of his humble chambers, he maintained incense offerings for the Patriarchs and his ancestors. On his birthdays, he held meals for the monks and Buddhist rites to foster their unseen blessings. Because his ancestral offerings had been severed during the rebellions in Shu, he established this shrine to display his filial longing. When the Emperor heard of it, he praised and admired him, bestowing a plaque reading 'Yuanzhao' (Perfect Illumination). In the autumn of the wushen year of the Chunyou era, the Master built a chamber by the Mingyue Pool, with a plaque reading 'Tuigeng' (Retiring from Plowing). He petitioned the court to retire due to old age, and an old illness flared up just then. On the first day of the third month, he ascended the hall and instructed the assembly, saying: 'This mountain monk is old and sick; I have no strength left to converse this way and that with you. Today I have forced myself to come forth; what I have left unsaid from the past, I shake out completely before you.' He then stood up, shook his robes, and said: 'How much is it?' On the fifteenth day, he assembled the two ranks to arrange his final affairs, personally writing his posthumous memorial and more than ten final letters, laughing and joking as usual. His disciples requested a farewell verse; taking up the brush, he wrote swiftly: 'At the time of coming, completely empty; / at the time of going, stark naked. / If you still want to know the truth of the matter: / there is a stone bridge on Mount Tiantai.' After a short while, he passed away. His coffin was kept for two weeks. When his posthumous memorial was reported to the throne, the Emperor dispatched an inner envoy to offer incense and bestow silk fabrics. His whole body was enshrined in a stūpa at Yuanzhao Hermitage. Among those who received his Dharma and spread the teachings were Xueyan Qin, Duanqiao Lun, and Xiyan Hui.