出三藏記集 15.8

15.8

Shi Huiyuan, originally surnamed Jia, was a native of Loufan in Yanmen. From his youth he was fond of books, showing brilliance and excellence like jade tesserae and scepters. At the age of thirteen, he accompanied his maternal uncle of the Linghu clan to study as a wandering student in Xuchang and Luoyang. Thus in his youth he became a scholar, broadly mastering the Six Classics and being especially versed in Laozi and Zhuangzi. His nature and disposition were grand and imposing, his discernment and insight exceptionally sharp and outstanding. Even elder classicists and talented luminaries all deferred to his profound attainment. At the age of twenty-one, wishing to cross east of the Yangtze River to join Fan Xuanzi in a shared pledge to joyful reclusion, he encountered the blockage and turmoil of the imperial highways, so his intention could not be realized. Thereupon, west of the Pass, he met Master Dao'an. At their first meeting he paid him the utmost respect, regarding him as his true teacher. He then threw away his hairpins and cast off his secular attire, forgetting physical form to receive instruction. Once he entered the Path, he was stern and stood out from the crowd. He always wished to take comprehensive charge of the guiding principles, taking the great Dharma as his own duty. He concentrated his thinking, recited and upheld [the scriptures], continuing through the day into the night. The śramaṇa Tanyi frequently supplied him with the cost of lamps and candles. Master Dao'an, hearing of this, rejoiced and said: 'This practitioner of the Way truly knows men!' Huiyuan drew upon his discernment of wisdom from before, and had planted the basis of an exalted mind across vast kalpas; therefore his spiritual radiance was preeminent and his insight was far-reaching and deep. In the mystery of the unproduced true mark, the subtlety of the middle way of prajñā, the secret of wisdom seeing forms as empty, and the essentials of quiescent contemplation through the gateway of conditioned arising, there was no subtlety that he did not analyze and no obscurity that he did not elucidate. His intent merged in secret with principle; his words harmonized with the Way. Master Dao'an often sighed and said: 'If the Way is to flow into the Eastern Land, will it not depend on [Hui]yuan?' Later he followed Master Dao'an south to journey along the Fan and the River. In the beginning of the Taiyuan era of the Jin, Xiangyang fell. Master Dao'an entered the Pass, whereupon Huiyuan moved to Xunyang and built a dwelling on Mount Lu. The Regional Inspector of Jiangzhou, Huan Yi, built halls and chambers for him. This mountain forms the likeness of the Nine Rivers, towering steeply and cutting off from the heavens. Recluses and hermits roost and gather there; it breathes out spirit-like marvels. Huiyuan founded a vihāra, thoroughly exhausting the mountain's beauty. To its back it leaned against Incense Burner Peak; at its side it bordered the gorge of the waterfall. Relying on rocks, he piled up the foundations; adapting pines, he framed the structures. Clear springs circled the steps; white clouds filled the rooms. Further, within the monastery he separately established a meditation grove, where dense trees gathered in mist and rock mats lay together. All who gazed upon or stepped into it became clear in spirit and solemn in breath. Huiyuan heard that in North India there was the Buddha's Shadow. Joy and longing mingled in his heart. So, with the mountain behind and overlooking the stream, he constructed a niche-chamber. Devising a fine design for the painter, with light pigments it was depicted: its color condensed into gathered emptiness, looking from afar like light mist; its radiant marks were luminous yet dim, as though hidden yet apparent. Thereupon it was copied and transmitted to the capital, and none failed to sigh in admiration. Thereupon he led the assembly in practicing the Way without interruption from dusk to dawn; the remaining transformation of Śākyamuni was revived here. Soon after, men who observed the vinaya and quieted the mind, and guests who severed dust and were pure in faith, arrived without prior agreement, gathering from afar as they looked toward his influence. Liu Yimin of Pengcheng, Zhou Xuzhi of Yanmen, Bi Yingzhi of Xincai, and Zong Bing of Nanyang all cast aside the world and abandoned glory to follow Huiyuan and reside [there]. Huiyuan then held a fast before the statue of Amitāyus in the vihāra and made a vow to look toward the Western Land together. The text read: 'In the year of Sheti, in the autumn, the seventh month, on the twenty-eighth day, yiwei, the new moon being wuchen: The Dharma Master Shi Huiyuan, with pure devotion moving the unseen realm and his former aspiration especially stirring, invited one hundred and twenty-three like-minded gentlemen who quiet the mind and are pure in faith, to assemble on the northern slope of Mount Lu before the Amitābha statue in the Prajñā Terrace Vihāra. Leading them with incense and flowers, he respectfully offered them and swore an oath: Considering the assembly of this one gathering: once the principle of conditioned transformation is understood, the transmission across the three times becomes manifest; once the numbers of transmigration correspond, the recompense of good and evil becomes certain. Inferring the silent decline of those who rub shoulders, we awaken to the urgency of this impermanence; examining how the three kinds of retribution urge each other on, we realize that the perilous destinies are hard to extricate oneself from. This is why these worthy companions are vigilant by evening and diligent by night, looking upward and thinking of how to be saved. For the spirit may be touched and traversed, but cannot be sought through traces. If what touches it has an object, the dark path is but a foot away; but if seeking it lacks a master, how can the vast expanse serve as a ford? Now, fortunately, without prior planning all minds unite toward the Western Realm; knocking open the text gives rise to faith, and pure feelings burst forth naturally. Thus our inner stirrings communicate in sleep and dreams; our joy and rejoicing are a hundredfold greater than children flocking to help. Thereupon the numinous image shows forth its radiance, its appearance rivaling spirit creation; the accomplishment is due to the harmony of principle, the matter is not driven by human effort. This is truly Heaven opening their sincerity, and the unseen numbers gathering here! How could one not fix one's mind, redouble one's essence, and pile up thoughts to concentrate one's meditation? Yet their radiant achievements are uneven, their merits and blessings are not uniform; though their morning prayers are said to be identical, their evening returns may be far apart. Regarding this bond of our teachers and friends, it is truly pitiable! Therefore, lamenting this, we jointly call upon one another to straighten our robes in the Dharma hall, equally bestow a single mind, and harbor serenity toward the dark ultimate, vowing that these companions shall together journey to the supreme realm. If there is one who startlingly surpasses the crowd and first ascends the divine realm, let him not cultivate solitary virtue on the cloudy crags and forget to help all in the dark valley! Let the earlier ascenders and the later risers be spared the thought of the way of flocking together. Thereafter, marvelously beholding the Great Form and opening the mind to pure illumination, our consciousness will be renewed by awakening and our bodies transformed by conversion. Resting upon lotuses in midstream, sheltered beneath boughs of jade to chant words, fluttering spiritual robes across the eight extremities, and drifting with fragrant breezes through endless years: our bodies will forget ease yet become ever more serene; our minds will transcend joy to delight themselves; looking upon the three paths we will bid them farewell from afar; looking down on the heavenly palaces we will take leave of them forever. Inheriting the tracks of all spirits, we take great rest as our goal. Penetrating this Way—is it not grand!' The Minister of Works Wang Mi, the Army Protector Wang Mo, and others all admired his moral character and paid homage to him as a master from afar. Mi wrote a letter saying: 'I am only forty-seven years old, yet my decline is already like one at sixty.' Huiyuan replied: 'The ancients did not begrudge a foot of jade disk, but treasured an inch of time. Examining what they preserved, it seems they did not preserve longevity. Since you, dānapati, wander in accord with compliance and ride the Buddha's principle to govern the mind, inferring from this, what is there to envy in long life? I think you have long attained this principle; I merely reply to your inquiry.' Earlier, when scriptures flowed east of the Yangtze River, many were incomplete; meditation methods were unheard of, and the Vinaya Pitaka was fragmentary and lacking. Huiyuan greatly cared for the roots of the teaching, grieving over the deficiencies of the Way; he ordered his disciple Fajing and others to seek various scriptures from afar. Traversing sands and snows, they returned only after many years, having obtained Hu manuscripts that could be translated. Whenever he met a guest from the Western Regions, he would earnestly consult and question him. He repeatedly sent envoys into the Pass to invite meditation masters, resolve their points of contention, and translate and issue meditation sūtras. He also invited the Kapiśa śramaṇa Saṃghadeva to translate several scriptures. Therefore, the meditation methods, sūtras, and precepts all issued from Mount Lu, nearly one hundred fascicles in all. Earlier, when the Daśādhyāya-vinaya was translated in the Pass, one remaining portion was unfinished when Puṇyatāra died. Huiyuan constantly lamented its incompleteness. When he heard that Dharmaruci had entered Qin, he sent a letter entreating him to translate the remaining portion in the Pass, so that the single work of the Daśādhyāya became complete without lack. The Jin land obtained the text, which has been handed down to the present day. That the marvelous scriptures beyond the Congling and the superior expositions in the Pass gathered in this land was entirely due to Huiyuan's efforts. The monks of foreign countries all declared that the Han land had a Mahāyāna practitioner of the Way; whenever they burned incense and prostrated, they always faced east to pay homage. The traces of his spiritual principle were indeed unfathomable. He constantly considered that the old interpretations of Zhi [Qian] and Zhu [Fahu] had not exhausted the marvelous reality, so he composed the Treatise on Dharmatā (Faxing lun). Its principle was profound and its prose polished. When Kumārajīva saw it, he sighed and said: 'A man of a border country, not having seen the scriptures, yet dark accords with principle—how marvelous!' Huiyuan diligently propagated the Way and was awe-inspiringly strict for the sake of the Dharma. He frequently sent letters to Kumārajīva to investigate and verify the scriptures; Kumārajīva also esteemed his lofty mind, resonating with him across ten thousand li. Yao Xing admired his renown from afar and sighed at his talents and thoughts; he sent letters attentively, and messages and gifts arrived year after year. He presented him with a stone statue intricately carved with various transformations from Kucha to express his sincerity. He also ordered Yao Song to offer a pearl statue. When the Exegesis on the Great [Prajñāpāramitā-sūtra] was first produced, Yao Xing sent the treatise together with a letter saying: 'The Mahāprajñāpāramitopadeśa has just been completed. Since this was composed by Nāgārjuna and is the ultimate purport of the vaipulya teachings, a preface should be written to proclaim the author's intention. However, these practitioners of the Way all defer to one another, none daring to set their hand to it. Dharma Master, you may write a preface for it to bequeath to later scholars.' Huiyuan replied: 'You wish for me to write a preface to the Mahāprajñāpāramitopadeśa to express the author's intention. This poor monk has heard that what holds great waters cannot be accommodated by a small islet; drawing from the deep cannot be measured by a short rope. Reading and examining it today, I feel ashamed before your lofty command. Moreover, my body is frail and plagued by illness, and I have neglected various matters; it has been a long time since I applied my mind. Because your message is weighty, I have roughly stitched together my thoughts. As for the beauty of deep investigation, that must be entrusted again to illustrious virtues.' His renown was lofty in distant lands like this. Huiyuan often remarked that the sentences and phrases of the Mahāprajñāpāramitopadeśa were numerous and cumbersome, difficult for beginners to study. So he eliminated redundancies and clipped the disorder, giving form to its substance and literary style, compiling it into twenty fascicles. The preface was profound and far-reaching, to bequeath to scholars. Later, Huan Xuan, with his authority that shook the ruler, urgently summoned him; he sent letters and spoke in person, urging him to take office. Huiyuan's words of reply were firm and resolute, unshakeable. His resolve surpassed cinnabar and stone, and in the end he could not be bent. Soon after, Huan Xuan wished to purge the saṃgha, and issued an instruction to his subordinates saying: 'Śramaṇas who are able to explain the scriptures and declarations and fluently expound doctrine, or whose disciplinary practice is disciplined and proper, sufficient to declare and entrust the great transformation—those who violate this shall all be dismissed and sent away. Only Mount Lu, where virtue resides, is not subject to searching and selection.' Earlier, in the time of Emperor Cheng, Yu Bing was assisting in governing; he considered that śramaṇas ought to pay homage to the ruler. The Prefect of the Masters of Writing He Chong submitted a memorial stating that they should not pay homage, and the court deliberations all agreed. Chong's subordinates, following Bing's intention, refuted this; differences were entangled, and in the end nothing could be decided. When Huan Xuan was in Gushu, wishing to make them pay full homage, he wrote to Huiyuan detailing his intention. Huiyuan feared the Great Dharma would fall, and his reply was earnest and incisive, maintaining that the kāṣāya was not attire for court audiences, and the alms bowl was not a vessel for ancestral halls and palaces. He also composed the Treatise on Śramaṇas Not Paying Homage to Rulers (Shamen bu jing wangzhe lun), its phrasing and principles subtle and rigorous. Huan Xuan was moved to realization and in the end did not carry it out. His upholding of the burden of the Dharma was always of this sort. Xie Lingyun, Governor of Linchuan, took pride in his talent and was haughty toward worldly conventions, revering few people; but upon meeting him once, he was awestruck and submissive in heart. From the time Huiyuan settled on Mount Lu for more than thirty years, his shadow never left the mountain and his footsteps never entered worldly realms. Thus when seeing off traveling guests, he always took Tiger Brook as the boundary. In the late Yixi era he died in the Mount Lu vihāra, at the age of eighty-three. His testamentary order was to expose his corpse beneath the pines to be like grass and trees; afterwards his disciples collected and buried him. Xie Lingyun erected a stele beside the tomb, inscribing his bequeathed virtue. Earlier, Huiyuan was skilled at literary composition; his words and bearing were clear and outstanding. In discussions upon his seat, his subtle meanings were succinct and essential. Added to this, his demeanor was dignified and graceful, and his bearing free and easy. Therefore his portrait was painted in the monastery, gazed upon as a model far and wide. The treatises, prefaces, inscriptions, eulogies, poems, and letters he wrote were collected into ten fascicles and more than fifty pieces, and were all valued by the world.