出三藏記集 15.16

15.16

釋智嚴。不知何許人。弱冠出家。便以精勤著名。納衣宴坐蔬食永歲。志欲廣求經法。遂周流西域。進到罽賓遇禪師佛馱跋陀。志欲傳法中國。乃竭誠要請。跋陀嘉其懇至。遂共東行。於是踰涉雪山寒苦嶮絕飲氷茹木頻於危殆。綿歷數載方達關中。常依隨跋陀止於長安大寺。頃者跋陀橫為秦僧所擯。嚴與西來徒眾並分散出關。仍憩山東精舍。坐禪誦經力精修學。晉義熙十二年。宋武帝西伐長安。剋捷旋旆塗出山東。時始興公王恢從駕。遊觀山川至嚴精舍。見其同志二僧各坐繩床禪思湛然。恢至良久不覺。於是彈指三人開眼。俄而還閉不與交言。恢心敬其奇。訪諸耆老。皆云此三僧隱居積年。未曾出山。恢即啟宋武延請還都。莫肯行者。屢請既至。二人推嚴隨行。恢道懷素篤禮事甚備。還都即住始興寺。嚴性虛靜志避囂塵。恢乃於東郊之際更起精舍。即枳園寺也。嚴前還於西域得胡本眾經。未及譯寫到宋元嘉四年。乃共沙門寶雲譯出普耀廣博嚴淨及四天王凡三部經。在寺不受別請。遠近道俗敬而服之。其未出家時。常受五戒。有所虧犯。後入道受具足。常疑不得戒。每以為懼。積年禪觀而不能自了。遂更汎海重到天竺諮諸明達。值羅漢比丘。具以事問羅漢。羅漢不敢判決。乃為嚴入定。往兜率宮諮彌勒。彌勒答稱得戒。嚴大喜躍。於是步歸行至罽賓。無疾而卒。時年七十八。外國之法。得道僧無常與凡僧別葬一處。嚴雖苦行絕倫。而時眾未判其得道信不。欲葬凡僧之墓。抗舉嚴喪永不肯起。又益人眾不動如初。眾咸驚怪。試改向得道墓所。於是四人輿之行駃如風。遂得窆葬。後嚴弟子智羽智達。遠從西域還報此消息訖。俱還外國。

Shi Zhiyan's origins are unknown. He left home in his youth and immediately became renowned for his vigor and diligence. Wearing patched robes, sitting in quiet contemplation, and eating a vegetarian diet throughout the year, he was resolved to seek widely for the sūtras and Dharma. Thereupon he traveled through the Western Regions, progressing to Kapiśa, where he met the meditation master Buddhabhadra. Resolving to transmit the Dharma to China, he extended an earnest invitation to him. Buddhabhadra appreciated his sincere devotion, and so they traveled east together. Thus traversing the Snow Mountains through bitter cold and treacherous isolation, drinking melted ice and eating plant bark, they repeatedly faced mortal danger. After many years, they finally reached Guanzhong. He constantly accompanied Buddhabhadra, residing in the Great Monastery of Chang'an. Soon after, Buddhabhadra was unjustly expelled by the Qin monks. Zhiyan, together with the disciples who had come from the west, dispersed and left the pass, coming to rest at a monastery east of the mountains, where he practiced meditation, recited sūtras, and exerted himself in spiritual cultivation. In the twelfth year of the Yixi era of the Jin dynasty, Emperor Wu of the Song campaigned west against Chang'an; victorious, he marched back by way of the region east of the mountains. At that time, the Duke of Shixing, Wang Hui, was accompanying the imperial retinue. While touring the mountains and streams, he came upon Zhiyan's monastery and saw him with two fellow monks each sitting on a corded seat in serene meditative contemplation. Wang Hui stood there for a long time, yet they did not notice. He then snapped his fingers; the three monks opened their eyes, but closed them again shortly after without conversing with him. In his heart Hui revered their extraordinary conduct and inquired of the local elders, who all said that these three monks had lived in seclusion for years and had never left the mountain. Hui immediately reported to Emperor Wu of the Song, inviting them to return to the capital, but none was willing to go. When repeated requests arrived, the two pushed Zhiyan to accompany him. Hui's devotion to the Path was deeply sincere, and he served him with full decorum. Arriving at the capital, Zhiyan resided in Shixing Monastery. Zhiyan’s nature was tranquil and calm, and he wished to shun noisy worldly dust; Hui therefore built another hermitage on the outskirts of the eastern suburbs, which became the Zhiyuan Monastery. When Zhiyan previously returned from the Western Regions, he had obtained many Hu texts of sūtras, but had not yet had the chance to translate or transcribe them. By the fourth year of the Yuanjia era of the Song dynasty, together with the śramaṇa Baoyun, he translated the *Puyao guangbo yanjing jing* and the *Sūtra of the Four Heavenly Kings*, three works in all. While at the monastery, he accepted no private invitations; monastics and laypeople far and wide revered and admired him. Before he left home, he had once received the five precepts and committed an infraction; after entering the Path and receiving full ordination, he constantly doubted whether he had truly obtained the precepts and was perpetually anxious about it. Though he practiced meditation for years, he was unable to resolve the matter on his own. Consequently, he set out to sea again to travel back to India and consult wise masters. Encountering an arhat monk, he questioned him fully on the matter. The arhat did not dare make a determination himself, so he entered samādhi on Zhiyan's behalf and went up to Tuṣita Heaven to inquire of Maitreya. Maitreya answered that he had indeed obtained the precepts. Zhiyan leaped with great joy. Thereupon he returned on foot, and reaching Kapiśa, he died without illness at the age of seventy-eight. According to the customs of foreign countries, monks who have attained the Path are buried separately from ordinary monks upon their death. Although Zhiyan's austerities were peerless, the assembly at the time could not determine whether he had truly attained the Path or not. Intending to bury him in the cemetery of ordinary monks, when they tried to raise Zhiyan’s bier, it would not budge. Even when they added more men, it remained unmoved as before. The assembly was astonished, and tried redirecting it toward the cemetery for those who had attained the Path; thereupon four men carried it, moving as swiftly as the wind, and they were able to inter him. Later, Zhiyan's disciples Zhiyu and Zhida returned from the Western Regions to report this news, after which they both went back to the foreign lands.