出三藏記集 15.16

15.16

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.