廬山記 3.20

3.20

The Grand Master's taboo name was Huiyong. His surname was Fan, and he was a native of Henei. At the age of twelve, he served the śramaṇa Zhu Tanxian. Endowed with innate awakening and past-life habituation, there was not a single inner or outer canonical text that he did not thoroughly penetrate. Among Buddhist practices, he took delight in practicing dhyāna. Earlier, together with Master Yuan, he had relied on Dao'an at Mount Heng, and they also agreed to build a hermitage together on Luofu. Master Yong first stayed in Xunyang, in the early Taiyuan era of the Jin. The regional inspector Tao Fan held his spiritual demeanor in high esteem, as if they had a bond from a past life. Thereupon [Yong] stayed and rested at Lushan, and [Tao Fan] relinquished his residence for him to dwell in. The Master was steadfast and plain by nature, pure of mind and self-restrained; his speech was always smiling, and his words never harmed any creature. Moreover, he separately established a park chamber on the ridge, and whenever he wished to engage in meditative reflection, he would go and dwell there. Where he dwelt, there was often an abundant fragrance, and so it was called the Incense Valley. In his room there was once a tiger; whenever visitors feared it, he would drive it up the mountain, and once the visitors left, it would return and be tame and submissive. Later, as Master Yuan's disciples at Longquan gradually multiplied, the Master invited them to rest together in the Incense Valley; furthermore, moving wonders occurred in spiritual dreams. When Huan Yi founded a temple at Donglin, this was consequently called Xilin. Whenever the General Who Quells the State, He Wuji, garrisoned Xunyang, he would visit to pay homage with the utmost sincerity and respect. The Master devoted his mind to the practice of the Pure Land. In the tenth year of the Yixi era of the Jin, the jiayin year, he fell gravely ill. One day, he suddenly rose, adjusted his robes, joined his palms, and sought his shoes wishing to stand, as if seeing something. The assembly was all startled and asked him, to which he replied, 'The Buddha has come.' As his words ended, he passed away. His age was eighty-three. Throughout the mountain, people smelled an unbroken fragrance for seven days. His entire body was reverently interred two hundred paces west of the temple. In the Southern Tang, Yuanzong rebuilt the stūpa pavilion and soon after sent down the burnt imperial proclamation, posthumously conferring on him the title Grand Master Jueji and naming it the Stūpa of Actual Wisdom.