續傳燈錄 5.8

5.8

Chan Master Qisong of Fori in Hangzhou was a son of the Li family of Tanjut in Tengzhou. At age seven he left home, and at thirteen he was ordained. At nineteen he traveled around visiting kalyāṇamitras everywhere, and attained the Dharma under Dongshan. At night the master would wear an image of Guanyin on his head and recite her name, invariably completing one hundred thousand repetitions before going to sleep as his regular practice. From then on, worldly classics, books, chapters, and sentences he could master without studying. He composed the Treatise on the Origin of the Teaching (Yuanjiao lun) in over one hundred thousand words, elucidating that the ways of Confucianism and Buddhism are joined by a single thread, so as to counter the anti-Buddhist arguments of Han Yu’s school; those who read it were awed into submission. Later he lived at the Yongan Hermitage, where he wrote the Chart of the Fixed Patriarchs of the Chan School (Chanmen dingzu tu), the Record of the True Lineage of Dharma Transmission (Chuanfa zhengzong ji), and the Collection for Assisting the Teaching (Fujiao bian). He presented them to Emperor Renzong, who examined them with deep admiration, and sent orders to the Dharma Transmission Academy to edit and incorporate them into the Canon, issuing an edict bestowing praise and honor and conferring the title Mingjiao. The Grand Councilor Han Qi and Participant in Determining Governmental Affairs Ouyang Xiu both invited him for audience and treated him with reverence. When he returned east, at dawn on the fourth day of the sixth month in the fourth year of the Xining reign era, he wrote a verse: ‘Later in the night the moon begins to shine bright; / Today I gladly walk alone. / I will not follow old Damei, / Coveting to hear the sound of the flying squirrel.’ At midnight he passed away. There were five parts that did not decay during cremation: the crown of the head, the ears, the tongue, the virile member, and the rosary. The skull bone yielded crystalline, pure red and white relics. Monastics and laypeople combined the indestructible parts and buried them to the left of his former dwelling at Yongan. Later, Beijian Jujian, who resided at Jingci, once wrote a Eulogy on the Five Indestructible Things. The master had a collected works in twenty fascicles, titled Tanjin, which circulated widely in the world. Xu Shi, the Prefect of Hongzhou, studied under Dongshan and attained the correct Dharma eye. One day, while he was seated with Letan Cheng and Shanglan Pu, Letan asked, “I hear that you said, Official, ‘Sitting at night on the stone connected to the clouds; / Planting in spring the pine bringing rain.’ At that time, what words did you reply to Dongshan?” The prefect said, “Today government business was dismissed early.” Letan said, “I hear you replied that the Great Saint of Sizhou appeared in Yangzhou—is that so or not?” The prefect said, “Serve some different tea.” Letan said, “Your reputation is not falsely spread.” The prefect said, “When does the Upādhyāya return to the mountain?” Letan said, “Today I was seen through by Shanglan.” Lan then shouted. Letan said, “It had to be you to manage it.” The prefect said, “Unable to do anything about the boat, one smashes the bailer.”