續傳燈錄 36.6

36.6

徑山癡絕禪師諱道冲。武信長江荀氏子。母郭氏。生而豐上短下資性絕人。少長以進士業應詔不利。受釋氏學於梓州妙音院禮修證為落髮師。遊成都習經論。紹熙壬子出峽。回翔荊楚間。時松源岳唱密菴之道于饒之薦福。徑造其廬。以歲饑不受。會曹源生出世妙果。師聽入門語。有省。參堂俾侍香。朝從夕遊。老拳痛棒不少貸。平生知見至是多無影響。曹源徙龜峯侍行。又三年以偈辭游浙。其言有曰。尚餘窮相一雙手。要向諸方痒處爬。至京師松源主靈隱。師依焉。嘉定己卯由徑山第一座應嘉禾光孝請嗣曹源。是時菴元覺菴即逢菴原無相範石谿月。皆在會中道聞于朝。忠獻衛王以堂帖除蔣山。瀕江易澇下田多無秋。師忍饑鳴道行乞養士。居十三年無倦色。嘉熙己亥侍郎東畎曹公豳帥閩。聞師道望以鼓山來聘。未行雪峯牒至。領事半年而天童詔下。眾集如海法度修明。雖宏智盛時殆不之過。育王虛席攝住持事。往來說法兩山間上堂曰。天童用底來育王用不著。育王用底歸天童用不著。雖然如是用不著處用有餘。一箭雙鵰隨手落。又結夏上堂云。圓覺伽藍塵塵有路。坐斷去來頓空今古。那裏十三這邊十五。後先不差毫髮許。可笑黃面瞿曇。至今不知落處。二年淳祐甲辰有旨移靈隱。而世故有不滿其意者。伐鼓告眾歸隱金陵。京兆尹遣屬官追挽至蘇臺不可。朝命以虎丘俾養老不就。留守虛齋趙公以蔣山起之不應。戊申春育王笑翁堪散席。朝論以大覺故家不輕畀付。召師隱所。使者三。返卒不奉。詔明年升徑山。未幾膈間疾作涉春不瘳。然陞堂說法不廢。二月末始不出。然說偈書贊嬉笑言論如平時。侍僧以遺偈請。麾斥不顧。已而笑謂侍者曰。末後一句。無可商量。只要箇人。直下承當。自是屏却醫藥謝絕外事。至十四夜分起坐移頃而逝。歸葬于金陵山中。

Chan Master Chijue of Jingshan was named Daochong. He was a son of the Xun family of Changjiang in Wuxin; his mother was of the Guo family. When born, he had a broad upper body and short legs, and his natural disposition surpassed other men. As he grew up, he sat for the imperial examination in the jinshi curriculum, but was unsuccessful. He took up the Buddhist teachings at Miaoyin Cloister in Zizhou, bowing to Xiuzheng as the master who tonsured him. He traveled to Chengdu to study the sūtras and treatises. In the renshen year of the Shaoxi era (1192), he went out through the Gorges, roaming about the region of Jing and Chu. At that time, Songyuan [Chong]yue was promulgating the path of Mi'an at Jianfu in Raozhou; the Master went straight to his lodging, but because of a famine that year, he was not accepted. It happened that Caoyuan [Dao]sheng was appearing in the world at Miaoguo; hearing his words upon entering the gate, the Master had an awakening. He entered the hall and was made an incense attendant. Following him from morning to evening, old fists and painful blows were not spared at all; his lifelong knowledge and views were from then on largely left without a trace. Caoyuan moved to Guifeng, and the Master accompanied him as attendant. After three more years, he took his leave with a verse to travel through Zhejiang, in which he said: "I still have a pair of impoverished hands; / I want to scratch where it itches in all quarters." When he arrived at the capital, Songyuan was presiding over Lingyin, and the Master took refuge with him. In the jimao year of the Jiading era, while serving as the foremost seat at Jingshan, he accepted an invitation from Guangxiao in Jiahe to succeed Caoyuan. At that time, Wuyuan of Miaozhi, Xiji of Yuhu, Wuxiang of Yuanwu, and Shixi of Wanshou were all in the assembly; his renown reached the court. The Senior Grand Preceptor and Prince of Wei [Shi Miyuan], by an official departmental directive, appointed him to Jiangshan. Near the river, it was prone to flooding, and the low-lying fields mostly produced no autumn harvest; the Master endured hunger, sounded the Dharma, and went begging on foot to sustain the scholars. Living there for thirteen years, he showed no weariness. In the jihai year of the Jiaxi era, the Vice Minister of East Qu, Master Cao Bin, became military commissioner of Min; hearing of the Master’s spiritual reputation, he sent an invitation to him to take Gushan. Before he set off, a dispatch from Xuefeng arrived; after he had managed its affairs for half a year, an imperial edict summoned him to Tiantong. The congregation gathered like an ocean, and the monastic regulations were polished and clear; even in the flourishing days of Hongzhi, it was hardly surpassed. When the seat at Yuwang fell vacant, he also took charge of its abbotship. Moving back and forth to preach the Dharma between the two mountains, he ascended the hall and said: "What is applied at Tiantong cannot be applied when brought to Yuwang; what is applied at Yuwang cannot be applied when returning to Tiantong. Even though it is like this, in the place where it cannot be applied, there is application to spare: with one arrow, two eagles fall to hand." He also ascended the hall at the summer retreat and said: "In the monastery of perfect awakening, every dust mote has a road; cutting off coming and going, it suddenly empties past and present. That side thirteen, this side fifteen—before and after they do not differ by a hair’s breadth. How laughable that yellow-faced Gautama, who even today does not know where it drops." In the second year, the jiachen year of the Chunyou era (1244), an imperial decree ordered him to move to Lingyin. But when some worldly affairs did not satisfy his wishes, he beat the drum, announced it to the assembly, and retired into seclusion in Jinling. The Prefect of the Capital sent a subordinate officer to pursue and detain him as far as Sutai, but he refused. An imperial order assigned him to Huqiu to care for his old age, but he did not accept; the Regent of the Capital, Master Zhao Xuzhai, tried to call him back to Jiangshan, but he did not respond. In the spring of the wushen year, Xiaoweng [Fa]kan of Yuwang dismissed his assembly; the imperial court, considering that the lineage home of Dajue should not be lightly entrusted, summoned the Master from his seclusion. The envoy went back and forth three times, but in the end he did not comply with the edict. The following year, he ascended Jingshan. Before long, an illness developed in his diaphragm, and through the spring it did not heal; yet his ascending the hall to preach the Dharma was not abandoned. It was only at the end of the second month that he stopped coming out; yet his reciting verses, writing eulogies, and laughing and chatting were just as usual. The attendant monks asked for his farewell verse; he waved them away and paid no heed. Soon after, he smiled and said to his attendant: "As for the very last sentence, / there is nothing to discuss; / one only needs a person / to directly take it on." From then on, he pushed aside medicine and declined external matters. In the middle of the night on the fourteenth, he sat up for a short while and passed away. He was buried back in the mountains of Jinling.