廬山記 3.38

3.38

道敬瑯琊王氏。從祖凝之剌江州。太元十六年。入山出家。為遠公弟子。博覽儒書。兼明至典。年十七。通大乘經論。所誦日過萬言。才學幽深。時賢敬伏。每嘆戒律終身難全。願淨六根。但稟一戒。師亦聽之。氷霜瑩然。德望尤著。遠公歸寂入若耶山。永初元年庚申終。春秋五十一。

Daojing was of the Wang clan of Langya. His great-uncle Ningzhi was Regional Inspector of Jiangzhou. In the sixteenth year of the Taiyuan reign-period, he entered the mountain and left home, becoming a disciple of Master Yuan. He read Confucian books extensively and simultaneously comprehended the ultimate scriptures. At the age of seventeen, he was proficient in the Mahāyāna sūtras and treatises, reciting more than ten thousand words a day. His talent and learning were secluded and deep, and the worthy of his time respectfully submitted to him. He often lamented that it was difficult to keep the vinaya precepts intact for one's whole life; he wished to purify the six sense faculties and receive only a single precept, and the master also permitted it. Pure as ice and frost, his virtuous renown was especially eminent. After Master Yuan entered quiescent extinction, he entered Mount Ruoye. He died in the first year of the Yongchu reign-period, a gengshen year (420 CE), at the age of fifty-one.