續傳燈錄 36.10

36.10

徑山佛智晦機禪師諱元熙。族豫章唐氏世業儒。西山明覺院明公廼師之族叔。父聚其宗族子弟。教之世典。師與兄元齡俱從進士業。元齡既登第。師年十九遂從明公祝髮。將遊方。其母憐之。私具白金為裝。師謂財足喪忘。即善辭母不持一錢以行。至吳。一時名宿皆欲出已座下不顧也。聞物初觀禪師闡化玉几往依之。物初與語大驚異之。留侍左右朝夕咨扣盡發其祕。字之曰晦機。為偈以勉焉。後至錢塘謁東叟穎公于南屏。延師掌記。至元中總統楊璉真加奉旨取育王舍利塔進入供養。乃親詣師求記述舍利始末。因招與俱。師辭曰。我有老母兵後存亡不可知。遂歸江西。則元齡先以臨江通判從文丞相起兵死。獨母在堂。師奉之。以孝聞。隱居里之灊山。元貞二年出世應百丈之請。居十二載而法席振興。至大初應淨慈之請。入寺之日行中書省行宣政院官屬俯伏迎請發揚宗旨。四方英衲一時輻湊。上堂曰。雲門道。箇普字盡大地人不奈何。殊不知雲門四稜塌地。當時若與震威一喝待此老惡發徐徐打。箇問訊道。莫怪觸忤好。非徒扶起此老。管取話行天下。居七載還徑山。閱三月師杖策歸南山之下。復起之不往也。江西學者聞師退閑。咸傾誠法味以致。百丈大仰之徒爭來請師。師辭不獲已遂返仰山。居三年將示寂。手書所與往來作偈示眾。擲筆化去。延祐六年閏八月十有七日也。壽八十二。大仰之下有金雞石者。應馬大師懸讖故葬焉。而其徒之在杭者。又建塔于淨慈之西隱。以存詹敬之所。嗣法者有笑隱訢石室瑛仲芳倫云。

Chan Master Huiji Yuanxi of Jingshan, [bestowed the title] Foyuan, was from the Tang family of Yuzhang; his family had been literati for generations. Master Ming of the Mingjue Cloister on Xishan was the Master's clan uncle. His father gathered the youths of the clan and taught them the worldly classics. The Master and his elder brother, Yuanling, both pursued the jinshi examination curriculum. After Yuanling passed the examination, the Master, at age nineteen, followed Master Ming to shave his head. When he was about to set out on itinerant pilgrimage, his mother felt pity for him and secretly prepared silver as travel funds. The Master considered that when wealth is abundant, one loses one's aspiration; he immediately took proper leave of his mother, traveling without carrying a single coin. When he arrived in Wu, the renowned elders of the time all wanted him to emerge from beneath their seats, but he paid them no heed. Hearing that Chan Master Wuchu Guan was propagating the teachings at Yuji, he went to take refuge with him. Wuchu conversed with him and was greatly astonished, keeping him by his side as an attendant; morning and evening he inquired and probed, revealing all his secrets. He gave him the courtesy name Huiji and composed a verse to encourage him. Later he arrived in Qiantang and paid his respects to Master Dongsou [Zhong]ying at Nanping, who invited the Master to serve as recorder. During the Zhiyuan era, the Chief of Buddhist Affairs, Yanglian Zhenjia, received an imperial decree to retrieve the relics pagoda of Yuwang and bring it forward for offerings; he personally visited the Master to request an account of the origins and circumstances of the relics, and thereupon invited him to go along. The Master declined, saying: "I have an elderly mother; after the war, whether she lives or has perished is unknown." He then returned to Jiangxi; Yuanling had previously died as vice-prefect of Linjiang following Chancellor Wen [Tianxiang] to raise troops, and his mother alone remained at home. The Master attended to her, renowned for his filial piety. He lived in seclusion at Qian Mountain in his native village. In the second year of the Yuanzhen era (1296), he appeared in the world to accept an invitation to Baizhang; he resided there for twelve years, and the Dharma seat was revived. At the beginning of the Zhida era, he accepted an invitation to Jingci. On the day he entered the monastery, the officials and subordinates of the Branch Secretariat and the Branch Bureau of Buddhist and Tibetan Affairs prostrated to welcome and invite him to elucidate the lineage tenets; the outstanding patch-robed monks of the four quarters gathered like spokes at a hub. Ascending the hall, he said: "Yunmen said: 'As for the single word "universal," the people of the whole earth can do nothing about it.' Little did he realize that Yunmen had collapsed flat to the earth on all four sides. If at that time one had given him a thunderous shout, waited for this old fellow's fury to erupt, and slowly bowed with hands clasped, saying: 'Please do not take offense at my transgression,' not only would one have supported this old fellow, but one would certainly have made the story circulate throughout the world!" After residing there for seven years, he returned to Jingshan. After three months had passed, the Master leaned on his staff and returned to the foot of Nanshan; when they tried to raise him up again, he would not go. When students from Jiangxi heard that the Master had retired to leisure, they all inclined their sincerity toward the Dharma flavor to summon him; the disciples of Baizhang and Dayang competed to invite the Master. The Master had no choice but to decline, and returned to Yangshan. After residing there for three years, he was about to show nirvana; he personally wrote farewell letters to his correspondents, composed a verse to show the assembly, threw down the brush, and passed away. It was the seventeenth day of the intercalary eighth month of the sixth year of the Yanyou era (1319); his age was eighty-two. Beneath Dayang there is a Golden Rooster Rock; corresponding to Great Master Ma's prophecy, he was buried there. His disciples who were in Hangzhou also erected a stūpa at the Xiyin of Jingci as a place to preserve their reverence. Among those who inherited his Dharma were Xiaoyin Xin, Shishi Ying, and Zhongfang Lun.