續傳燈錄 7.6

7.6

Chan Master Huanglong Nan, whose secular surname was Zhang, was named Huinan. His ancestors were from Yushan in Xinzhou. In his childhood he was deep and reserved, having the bearing of a great man. He did not eat meat, nor did he play games. At the age of eleven, he left home and served Zhiluan of Dingshui Cloister on Mount Huaiyu as his teacher. Once, following Zhiluan along a road, he saw a local shrine; he immediately struck it with his staff, destroyed it with fire, and went away. At nineteen, he shaved his head and received the full ordination. Traveling far, he reached Guizong on Mount Lu. The venerable elder Zibao assembled the community to sit, and the Master [Huinan] leaned back instead. Bao frequently cast glances at him. From then on, whenever the Master sat, he necessarily sat cross-legged; whenever he walked, he necessarily looked straight ahead. When he reached Qixian, he relied on Chan Master Zhi. Zhi presided over the assembly with discipline and order in his advancing and halting; the Master modeled himself after this for three years. Taking his leave, he crossed the Huai River and relied on Chan Master Sanjiao Cheng. Cheng had a contemporary reputation; upon seeing him once, he recognized his capacity. When Cheng moved his residence to Letan, the Master also went with him. Cheng had him share the seat to receive followers. But Wenxue of Nanchang, seeing him, would every time return to his bed, sigh, and say: 'Nan is a vessel of the Way. It is only a pity that he has not undergone the hammering and tongs of genuine capability.' Meeting to travel together in the Western Hills, their nighttime conversation reached the Dharma style of Yunmen. Yue said: 'Although Master Cheng is a successor of Yunmen, his Dharma style is nonetheless different.' The Master asked how it was different. Yue said: 'Yunmen is like nine-times-refined cinnabar: point it at iron and it becomes gold. Master Cheng's [teaching] is mercury silver: it is merely fit for play; put into the forge, it immediately runs off.' The Master was angered and threw his pillow at him. The next day Yue apologized, and further said: 'Yunmen's bearing was like that of a king. Would he be willing to die under words? Master Cheng has a teaching to impart to people, but it is dead words. How can dead words bring a person to life?' Thereupon he turned his back and walked away. The Master pulled him back and said: 'If it is like this, who can meet your approval?' Yue said: 'Shishuang Chuyuan's methods surpass all regions. If you wish to see him, you should not delay.' The Master secretly considered it, saying: 'This is the great matter of an itinerant pilgrimage. Yue's teacher is Cuiyan, yet he sends me to see Shishuang. If I see him and gain something, what does that do for Yue?' That very day he packed his baggage. Midway, he heard that Ciming [Chuyuan] did not attend to affairs and looked down upon small monasteries; he then regretted it, wished not to go, and remained in Pingxiang for several days. Joining companions from You County, he climbed Mount Heng and lodged at Fuyan. The venerable elder called 'Xian Who Clasps the Hands' was the heir of Dayang Ming'an; he ordered the Master to take charge as recorder. Letan's Dharma companions, hearing that the Master was not going to Shishuang, sent a messenger to inquire after him. Soon Xian passed away. The prefecture appointed Ciming to take charge of Fuyan. The Master rejoiced in his heart and wished to observe the man so as to verify Yue's words. Once Ciming arrived, the Master caught sight of him, and his heart and countenance were alike solemn. Hearing his discourses, most of them criticized and stripped bare the various quarters; and the matters he enumerated one by one as false understandings were all the secret instructions and maxims entrusted by Letan. Dispirited, he returned, recollecting Yue's everyday words. Changing his mind completely, he said: 'Within the mind and core of a great man, how could one cause doubt and hindrance to oneself?' Hurrying to Ciming's room, he said: 'Huinan, being dull and shortsighted, looked toward the Way but did not see it. Lately, hearing the evening instruction was like getting a south-pointing chariot when lost on the road. I only pray that out of great compassion you will further bestow the Dharma gift so that my remaining doubts may be exhausted.' Ciming smiled and said: 'The recorder has already led disciples, traveled to various quarters, and his name is famed in the monasteries. Even if you have doubts, do not, on account of my aged unworthiness, hold me in contempt; let us sit and discuss it. Would that not be fine?' He called an attendant to bring forward a couch and had him sit. The Master firmly declined, his earnest pleading growing ever more fervent. Ciming said: 'The recorder studies Yunmen's Chan and must be good at its tenets. For instance, when it says [Yunmen] spared Dongshan three hits with the stick, did Dongshan at that time deserve to be struck or not?' The Master said: 'He deserved to be struck.' Ciming took on a stern expression and said: 'If hearing the sound of three hits of the stick is just taking a beating, then from morning to night when you hear crows cawing, magpies chattering, and the sounds of bells, wooden fish, drums, and clappers, you should also take a beating. When would the beatings ever end?' The Master stared wide-eyed and drew back. Ciming said: 'At first I doubted that I was fit to be your teacher; now I am fit.' Thereupon he made him bow. The Master bowed and rose. Ciming took up the former words again, saying: 'Supposing you understand Yunmen's intended meaning, Zhaozhou once said: "I have investigated and exposed the old woman of Mount Wutai." Try to point out where she could be investigated and exposed.' The Master's face grew hot and sweat poured down; not knowing how to reply, he hurried out. The next day he went to him, and again suffered abuse and scolding. The Master, ashamed to see those around him, at once said: 'It was precisely because I did not understand that I sought a resolution. How is scolding a model of compassionate Dharma giving?' Ciming smiled and said: 'Is this scolding?' Thereupon the Master silently awakened to his tenet. He cried out aloud: 'Letan's indeed were dead words!' He presented a verse: / 'Eminent throughout the monasteries is Zhaozhou; / The place where the old woman was investigated had no rhyme or reason. / Now the four seas are as clear as a mirror; / Let wayfarers not make an enemy of the road.' / Ciming pointed with his hand at the word 'no' [in 'no rhyme or reason'] and looked at the Master; the Master immediately changed it, and in his heart submitted to its marvelous subtlety. He stayed for over a month and then took his leave. At that time he was thirty-five years of age. Traveling behind Guangji, in a cave he made the acquaintance of Quan Dadao and spent the summer retreat together. Quan was unfathomable to the ordinary and the holy, and his dynamic eloquence surpassed the crowd. Patting the Master on the back, he said: 'You are just like Fenzhou; cherish yourself greatly.' The next year, traveling to Jingzhou, he then met with Yue at Jinluan. Looking at each other with a smile, [the Master] said: 'Had I not met you, my elder brother, and Guquan, how could I have known Ciming?' That autumn, returning north, he entered Letan alone; his former bond with Master Cheng was entirely broken. From Yunju he traveled to Tong'an. An elder named Shenli observed that the Master was weary of journeying and said to him: 'I have dwelt in the mountains for a long time without benefiting the ancestral teaching; I venture to burden you with the monastery's affairs.' And the leaders, who had long known the Master's name, went along with Li's request. Having no alternative, he accepted it. Letan sent a monk to scrutinize his instructional discourse, in which it was said: 'The ocean of wisdom has no nature; by becoming aware of delusion, one becomes an ordinary being. Awareness of delusion is originally empty; right in the ordinary mind, one sees the Buddha. Immediately rest like this!' It meant that Tong'an has no compromises; according to your upside-down wishes, the Southern Dipper has seven stars, the Northern Dipper eight. The monk returned and related it to Cheng; Cheng was displeased. Soon it was heard that he was the heir to Shishuang, and many of Letan's Dharma companions deserted him. Dwelling at Guizong, a fire reduced it to ashes in a single night. Held liable, he was thrown into prison. The officials sought faults in him in a hundred ways. The Master peacefully took the blame upon himself, not burdening others; he only went without food. Only after a long time was he released. Throughout his life, the Master never spoke of the officials' perverse abuse. Crossing Mount Huangbo, he built a hermitage by a stream, naming it Jicui. Soon thereafter, he retired, saying: 'I shall grow old here.' At that time, people from the rivers and lakes, Min, and Yue, heard of his style; and those who were around there hastened along the roads with hurried steps, fearing only to be left behind. Even those who had wandered at leisure and were satiated, originally considering themselves to have a surplus, upon arriving were dismayed and at a loss, joining the ranks of disciples. The eminent scholar of the southern region Pan Xingsi, who was named Yanzhi, once asked him the reason. The Master said: 'When a father is strict, the son is filial; today's instruction is tomorrow's model. It is like the earth: lower what is elevated and level what is sunken. If they are about to ascend above a thousand fathoms, I also go with them. If they are exhausted and reach the extreme beneath the nine abysses, I also go with them. When tricks are exhausted, delusion is ended and they release themselves.' He also said: 'Warming them and brooding over them is how spring and summer give birth and nurture; frosting them and snowing on them is how autumn and winter mature. Could I wish to be without words?' He questioned students with three phrases: 'Buddha's hand,' 'donkey's foot,' and 'the conditions of one's birth'; none could tally with his tenet. The monasteries under heaven regarded them as the 'Three Gates.' If there was someone who replied, the Master gave neither approval nor disapproval, but closed his eyes and sat erect; no one could fathom his intention. Yanzhi again asked him the reason. The Master said: 'One who has already passed the checkpoint swings his arms and goes straight on; how would he know there is a checkpoint official? To ask the official for approval or disapproval—this is one who has not yet penetrated the checkpoint.' When he resided at Huanglong, the grandeur of his Dharma assembly rivaled Letan, Mazu, and Baizhang Dazhi. On the seventeenth day of the third month in the second year of Xining, he gave a meal to two special envoys from Sizhou and Huiri. When the gathering ended, he arose and sat cross-legged in front of the sleeping chamber. The great assembly surrounded him. After a long while, he passed away. On the previous day he had spoken a verse. After another seven days, the cremation yielded five-colored relics; a stūpa was erected on the mountain's front ridge. He lived sixty-eight years and sat for fifty summer retreats. In the spring of the fourth year of Daguan, he was posthumously granted by imperial decree the title 'Pujue' [Universal Awakening].