續傳燈錄 35.9

35.9

杭州府淨慈北磵禪師。名居簡。字敬叟。蜀之潼川王氏子。以其寓北磵之日久故。人不名字之稱北磵云。先出世天台報恩光孝寺。退居杭飛來峯之陰。張公誠子與旴江刺史走書。以唐僧紹隆所開山處之。師高臥不起。而江東部使者以東林雲居力致之。亦復不起。後遷至淨慈。師頌世尊初生話云。一聲哇地便吒哩。突出如斯大闡提。此土西天起殃害。堂堂洗土不成泥。又頌楞嚴經六解。一亡云。六用無功信不通。一時分付與春風。篆煙一縷間清晝。百鳥不來花自紅。嘗闢一室以居名曰[盾*(又/韭)]室。作賦以自見。其略曰。進則面牆退則坐井。柱忽不支壁忽就殞。豁然而虛漠然而冏。如蒙之擊如震而警。又曰。如無盡藏。如大圓鏡。前山送青若壯士之排闥。後山回闖擬良工之御駿。撫鴻鵠而晚眺。入冥冥而遠引。笑雲煙之輕去。漫悠悠而無定。駐落日於西崦。延初蟾於東嶺。是皆中所得也。有北磵集十九卷行世。旴江張公誠子序之曰。讀其文宗密未知其伯仲。誦其詩合參寥覺范為一。人不能當也。北磵於人不苟合。合亦不苟暌。取舍去就之際潔如也。龍泉葉公水心酬師詩曰。簡公詩語特驚人。六反掀騰不動身。說與東家小兒女。塗青染綠未禁春。師居天台委羽。有二姓爭竹山竭產不肯已。仙居丞王君懌來囑。師諷之乃作種竹賦一首示二姓。而訟遂止。

Chan Master Beijian of Jingci in Hangzhou Prefecture was named Jujian, styled Jingsou. He was a son of the Wang family of Tongchuan in Shu. Because he resided at Beijian (North Stream) for a long time, people did not call him by his name or style, but called him Beijian. He first opened the Dharma hall at Bao'en Guangxiao Temple in Tiantai, and then retired to live on the north side of Feilai Peak in Hangzhou. Duke Zhang Chengzi and the Prefect of Xujiang sent a letter, offering him the site where the Tang monk Shaolong had opened a monastery. The Master lay high and would not rise. The fiscal commissioner of Jiangdong also tried with all his might to summon him to Donglin and Yunju, but he still would not rise. Later he moved to Jingci. The Master wrote a verse on the Bhagavat's first birth:
'With a single wail of "wa," there he is—
Springing forth as such a great icchantika!
In this land and the Western Heaven, he brings calamity and harm;
Dignified and grand, washing the dirt makes no mud.'
He also wrote a verse on the 'six unravelings and one vanishing' in the Śūraṅgama Sūtra:
'When the six functions bear no fruit, messages do not get through;
Entrust them all at once to the spring breeze.
A thread of seal-script incense smoke lingers through the clear day;
Not a single bird comes, and the flowers turn red of themselves.'
He once cleared out a room to live in, naming it the Bian Room, and composed a rhapsody to express his own mind. In brief, it said: 'Advancing, one faces a wall; retreating, one sits in a well. Suddenly the pillars give no support, and the walls immediately crumble. Spaciously empty, serenely bright; like the striking of ignorance, like the alarm of thunder.' It also said: 'Like the inexhaustible treasury, like the great round mirror. The front mountains bring green, like a valiant warrior bursting open the gates; the rear mountains wind in view, like a skilled horseman driving a fine steed. Gazing upon the wild swan in the evening view, soaring into the dark distance; laughing at the clouds and mists drifting lightly away, lingering endlessly without fixed abode. Halting the setting sun at the western ridge, welcoming the early moon at the eastern peaks.' These were all things he realized within himself. He had the Beijian Collection in nineteen fascicles circulating in the world. Duke Zhang Chengzi of Xujiang wrote a preface for it, saying, 'Reading his prose, one cannot tell whether Zongmi is the elder or younger brother; chanting his poetry, it unites Canliao and Juefan into one, beyond the match of ordinary men.' Beijian did not improperly accommodate people; nor when accommodating them did he improperly part from them. In matters of choosing and rejecting, leaving and staying, he was completely pure. Duke Ye Shuixin of Longquan presented a poem in response to the Master, saying:
'Elder Jian's poetic words are extraordinarily striking;
Tossing and turning six times, his body remains unmoved.
Say this to the little boys and girls of the eastern house:
Their daubing green and dyeing red cannot hold back the spring.'
When the Master resided at Weiyu in Tiantai, two clans were disputing over a bamboo mountain, exhausting their estates without yielding. The assistant magistrate of Xianju, Lord Wang Yi, came to request his help. The Master remonstrated with them, composing a rhapsody on planting bamboo and showing it to the two clans, whereupon the lawsuit ceased.