Jingde Chuandeng Lu, Fascicle 2

諸佛最初求道為法忘形。汝今斷臂吾前。求亦可在。師遂因與易名曰慧可。光曰。諸佛法印可得聞乎。師曰諸佛法印匪從人得。光曰。我心未寧。乞師與安。師曰。將心來與汝安。曰覓心了不可得。師曰。我與汝安心竟。後孝明帝聞師異跡。遣使齎詔徵前後三至。師不下少林。帝彌加欽尚。就賜摩衲袈裟二領。金缽銀水瓶繒帛等。師牢讓三返。帝意彌堅。師乃受之。自爾緇白之眾倍加信向。迄九年已欲西返天竺。乃命門人曰。時將至矣。汝等蓋各言所得乎。時門人道副對曰。如我所見。不執文字不離文字而為道用。師曰。汝得吾皮。尼總持曰。我今所解如慶喜見阿閦佛國。一見更不再見。師曰。汝得吾肉。道育曰。四大本空五陰非有。而我見處無一法可得。師曰。汝得吾骨。最後慧可禮拜後依位而立。師曰。汝得吾髓。乃顧慧可而告之曰。昔如來以正法眼付迦葉大士。展轉囑累而至於我。我今付汝。汝當護持。並授汝袈裟以為法信。各有所表宜可知矣。可曰。請師指陳。師曰。內傳法印以契證心。外付袈裟以定宗旨。後代澆薄疑慮競生。雲吾西天之人。言汝此方之子。憑何得法以何證之。汝今受此衣法。卻後難生但出此衣並吾法偈。用以表明其化無礙。至吾滅後二百年。衣止不傳法周沙界。明道者多。行道者少。說理者多。通理者少。潛符密證千萬有餘。汝當闡揚勿輕未悟。一念迴機便同本得。聽吾偈曰。

(The Master continued:) "The Buddhas, when they first sought the Way, forgot their own bodies for the sake of the Dharma. Now you have cut off your arm before me; it may be that your seeking is genuine." The Master therefore changed his name to Huike. Guang said: "May I hear the Dharma seal of the Buddhas?" The Master said: "The Dharma seal of the Buddhas is not obtained from another person." Guang said: "My mind is not yet at peace; I beg the Master to pacify it." The Master said: "Bring me your mind, and I will pacify it for you." He said: "I have searched for my mind and cannot find it." The Master said: "I have finished pacifying your mind." Later Emperor Xiaoming heard of the Master's wondrous traces and sent envoys bearing an edict to summon him, three times in succession. The Master did not come down from Shaolin. The Emperor admired him all the more and bestowed two patched robes, a golden bowl, a silver water bottle, silk and so on. The Master firmly declined three times. The Emperor's intention grew only firmer, and only then did the Master accept. From then on the multitude of monks and laity redoubled their faith. When nine years were complete, he wished to return west to India, and so he called his disciples and said: "The time is near. Why do you not each say what you have attained?" At that time the disciple Daofu answered: "As I see it, one neither clings to words nor leaves words, and uses them for the Way." The Master said: "You have gained my skin." The nun Zongchi said: "What I understand now is like Ananda seeing the Buddha-land of Akshobhya: seen once, never seen again." The Master said: "You have gained my flesh." Daoyu said: "The four elements are originally empty and the five aggregates do not exist; and where I see, there is not a single thing to be obtained." The Master said: "You have gained my bones." Last, Huike bowed and stood in his place. The Master said: "You have gained my marrow." Then he looked at Huike and told him: "In the past the Tathagata entrusted the true Dharma eye to the great Kasyapa, and through successive transmissions it has reached me. Now I entrust it to you, and you should protect it. I also give you the robe as a token of faith in the Dharma. Each has its meaning, which you should know." Ke said: "Please explain it, Master." The Master said: "Inwardly I transmit the Dharma seal in order to accord with and certify the mind; outwardly I hand over the robe in order to settle the doctrine. In later ages, when the times are shallow, doubts will arise and compete, saying I am a man of the Western Heaven and you are a son of this land, by what right did you receive the Dharma, and what proves it. Now you receive this robe and Dharma; hereafter it will be hard to bring forth difficulties, so you need only bring out this robe and my Dharma verse to show that the teaching has no obstruction. Two hundred years after my extinction, the robe will stop being transmitted, and the Dharma will pervade the world of sands. Those who understand the Way will be many and those who practice it few; those who talk of principle will be many and those who penetrate it few. Those who tacitly accord and secretly realize it will number more than ten thousand times ten thousand. You should expound it, and not look down on those who have not yet awakened. A single thought turning back at the moment is the same as the original attainment. Listen to my verse:

吾本來茲土傳法救迷情

I came originally to this land, to transmit the Dharma and save the deluded,

一華開五葉結果自然成

One flower opens five petals, and the fruit will naturally form.

師又曰。吾有楞伽經四卷。亦用付汝(此蓋依寶林傳之說也。按宣律師續高僧傳。可大師傳云。初達磨以楞伽經授可曰。我觀漢地唯有此經。仁者依行自得度世。若如傳所言。則是二祖未得法時。達磨授楞伽使觀之耳。今傳燈乃於付法傳衣之後言。師又曰。吾有楞伽經四卷。亦用付汝。則恐誤也。兼言吾有。則似世間未有也。此但可依馬祖所言云。又引楞伽經文。以印眾生心地。則於理無害耳)。即是如來心地要門。令諸眾生開示悟入。吾自到此凡五度中毒。我常自出而試之。置石石裂。緣吾本離南印來此東土。見赤縣神州有大乘氣象。遂踰海越漠為法求人。際會未諧如愚若訥。今得汝傳授吾意已終(別記雲。師初居少林寺九年。為二祖說法秖教曰外息諸緣內心無喘。心如牆壁可以入道。慧可種種說心性理。道未契。師秖遮其非不為說無念心體。慧可曰。我已息諸緣。師曰。莫不成斷滅去否。可曰。不成斷滅。師曰。何以驗之雲不斷滅。可曰。了了常知故。言之不可及。師曰。此是諸佛所傳心體。更勿疑也)言已乃與徒眾往禹門千聖寺止三日。有期城太守揚衒之早慕佛乘。問師曰。西天五印師承為祖。其道如何。師曰。明佛心宗行解相應。名之曰祖。又問。此外如何。師曰。須明他心知其今古。不厭有無於法無取。不賢不愚無迷無悟。若能是解故稱為祖。又曰。弟子歸心三寶亦有年矣。而智慧昏蒙尚迷真理。適聽師言罔知收措。願師慈悲開示宗旨。師知懇到。即說偈曰。

The Master also said: "I have the Lankavatara Sutra in four fascicles, and I entrust it to you as well." (This probably follows the Baolin Zhuan. According to the biography of Dharma Master Ke in Vinaya Master Xuan's Continued Biographies of Eminent Monks: At first Bodhidharma gave the Lankavatara Sutra to Ke, saying: 'I observe that in the Han lands there is only this sutra. If you practice according to it, you will deliver yourself from the world.' If it is as the biography says, then this was when the Second Patriarch had not yet attained the Dharma, and Bodhidharma gave him the Lankavatara to contemplate. Now the Chuandeng places 'The Master also said: I have the Lankavatara Sutra in four fascicles, and I entrust it to you as well' after the transmission of the Dharma and robe, which is probably an error. Moreover, saying 'I have' makes it seem as if the world did not yet have it. Here one can only follow what Mazu said: he also cited the text of the Lankavatara Sutra to seal the mind-ground of beings, and so there is no harm in principle.) This is the essential gate of the Tathagata's mind-ground, by which all beings are shown, awakened and entered. Since I came here, I have been poisoned five times in all. I have often taken it out myself to test it, and when I put it on a stone, the stone split. Because I originally left southern India and came to this eastern land, seeing that the Land of the Red Province had the air of the Mahayana, I crossed the sea and the desert to seek people for the Dharma. The occasion has not yet been fulfilled, and I have been like a fool and a stammerer. Now that I have your transmission, my intention is complete. (A separate record says: The Master first lived at Shaolin Temple for nine years and preached the Dharma for the Second Patriarch, teaching only: 'Outwardly cease all conditions, inwardly have no panting of the mind, and with the mind like a wall, you can enter the Way.' Huike spoke in many ways about the principle of the nature of mind, but the Way had not yet accorded. The Master only blocked his errors and did not give him the mind-substance of no-thought. Huike said: 'I have already ceased all conditions.' The Master said: 'Is it not that you have fallen into annihilation?' Ke said: 'It is not annihilation.' The Master said: 'By what do you verify it, saying it is not annihilation?' Ke said: 'It is because it is clearly always knowing, and when spoken of it cannot be expressed.' The Master said: 'This is the mind-substance transmitted by all the Buddhas; do not doubt any more.') When he had finished speaking, he went with his disciples to Qianshengsi Temple at Yumen and stayed three days. The prefect of Qicheng, Yang Xuanzhi, had long admired the Buddha vehicle and asked the Master: "The five regions of India take the Master's succession as the patriarchs; what is that Way like?" The Master said: "One who clearly understands the Buddha-mind school and whose practice and understanding correspond is called a patriarch." He asked again: "Beyond that, what is it like?" The Master said: "One must understand others' minds, know past and present, not dislike existence or non-existence, take nothing in regard to the Dharma, be neither worthy nor foolish, with neither delusion nor awakening. If one can understand it so, he is therefore called a patriarch." He also said: "Your disciple has taken refuge in the Three Jewels for years, but my wisdom is dim and I am still deluded about true principle. Just now, hearing the Master's words, I do not know where to put it. May the Master compassionately show me the doctrine." The Master knew his earnestness and thoroughness, and spoke a verse:

亦不覩惡而生嫌亦不觀善而勤措

Neither giving rise to dislike on seeing evil, nor striving to act on seeing good,

亦不捨智而近愚亦不拋迷而就悟

Neither abandoning wisdom to approach folly, nor casting off delusion to take up awakening,

達大道兮過量通佛心兮出度

Reaching the great Way, one passes beyond measure; penetrating the Buddha-mind, one goes beyond limits,

不與凡聖同躔超然名之曰祖

Not sharing the tracks of ordinary and holy, transcending, he is called a patriarch.

衒之聞偈悲喜交並曰。願師久住世間化導群有。師曰。吾即逝矣不可久留。根性萬差多逢患難。衒之曰。未審何人。弟子為師除得。師曰。吾以傳佛秘密利益迷途。害彼自安必無此理。衒之曰。師若不言。何表通變觀照之力。師不獲已乃為讖曰。江槎分玉浪。管炬開金鎖。五口相共行。九十無彼我。衒之聞語。莫究其端。默記於懷禮辭而去。師之所讖。雖當時不測。而後皆符驗。時魏氏奉釋禪俊如林。光統律師流支三藏者乃僧中之鸞鳳也。覩師演道斥相指心。每與師論議是非鋒起。師遐振玄風普施法雨而偏局之量自不堪任。競起害心數加毒藥。至第六度。以化緣已畢傳法得人。遂不復救之端居而逝。即後魏孝明帝太和十九年丙辰歲十月五日也(依續法記。則十月五日乃孝莊帝永安元年。即梁大通二年戊申歲。其年即明帝武泰元年也。二月明帝崩。四月莊帝即位。改元建義。至九月又改永安也。後雲。汝主已厭世。謂是歲明帝崩也。據傳燈雲。丙辰歲即東魏文帝大統二年。西魏靜帝天平三年。梁大同二年。與厭世之說全乖也。又太和十九年。乃後魏文帝時。即南齊明帝建武二年乙亥歲。殊相遼邈耳)。其年十二月二十八日葬熊耳山。起塔於定林寺。後三歲魏宋雲奉使西域迴。遇師於蔥嶺。見手攜隻履翩翩獨逝。雲問。師何往。師曰。西天去。又謂雲曰。汝主已厭世。雲聞之茫然。別師東邁。暨復命。即明帝已登遐矣。而孝莊即位。雲具奏其事。帝令啟壙。唯空棺一隻革履存焉(若依續法記。則後三歲乃莊帝永安三年庚戌歲。當梁武中大通二年也。其年十二月莊帝方崩。奉使迴時帝尚在耳。若據傳燈。則後三歲乃已未歲。即西魏文帝大統五年。東魏靜帝興和元年。當梁武大同五年也。如此則豈復有孝莊帝耶。又稱宋雲遇師於蔥嶺。尤誤也。宋雲使西域迴時。已在魏明帝正光年中矣。然則遇師於蔥嶺者。

Having heard the verse, Xuanzhi was moved to sorrow and joy, and said: "I wish the Master would stay long in the world and teach and guide all beings." The Master said: "I am about to pass away and cannot remain long. People's natures differ by the ten thousand, and they often meet with difficulty." Xuanzhi said: "I do not know who it is; your disciple will remove him for you." The Master said: "I use this to transmit the Buddha's secret and benefit those who are lost on the road. To harm another to find peace for oneself is surely not reasonable." Xuanzhi said: "If the Master does not say it, how can you show the power of penetrating change and observation?" The Master, having no choice, made a prophecy for him: "A river raft parts the jade waves, a pipe-torch opens the golden lock; five mouths walk together, at ninety there is no other and no self." Xuanzhi heard the words, could not make out their meaning, silently kept them in mind, bowed and took leave. Though the Master's prophecy could not be fathomed at that time, it was all later fulfilled. At that time the Wei court honored Buddhism, and Chan eminences were as numerous as a forest. Vinaya master Guangtong and the Tripitaka master Liuzhi were phoenixes among the monks. Seeing the Master expound the Way, rejecting forms and pointing to the mind, they often debated with the Master, and disputes of right and wrong arose sharply. The Master spread the mysterious wind far and wide and gave the Dharma rain universally, but those of narrow capacity could not bear it, and they competed to raise harmful thoughts and poisoned him several times. At the sixth time, because the karmic conditions of teaching were complete and the Dharma had been transmitted to a worthy person, he no longer saved himself, but sat upright and passed away. This was on the fifth day of the tenth month of the bingchen year, the nineteenth year of the Taihe era of Emperor Xiaoming of the Later Wei (according to the Xufa Ji, the fifth day of the tenth month was in the first year of Yongan of Emperor Xiaozhuang, which is the wushen year, the second year of Datong of Liang. That year was the first year of Wutai of Emperor Ming. Emperor Ming died in the second month, Emperor Zhuang took the throne in the fourth month, changed the era name to Jianyi, and in the ninth month changed it again to Yongan. The later statement 'your lord has already tired of the world' refers to the death of Emperor Ming that year. According to the Chuandeng, the bingchen year would be the second year of Datong of Emperor Wen of Eastern Wei, the third year of Tianping of Emperor Jing of Western Wei, and the second year of Datong of Liang, which completely contradicts the statement about growing tired of the world. Also the nineteenth year of Taihe was in the time of Emperor Wen of the Later Wei, which is the yihai year, the second year of Jianwu of Emperor Ming of the Southern Qi, which is very far apart). On the twenty-eighth day of the twelfth month of that year he was buried at Mount Xiong'er, and a stupa was raised at Dinglin Temple. Three years later Song Yun of Wei, returning from a mission to the Western Regions, met the Master on the Pamir Range, and saw him carrying one shoe in his hand, going alone with a light step. Yun asked: "Where is the Master going?" The Master said: "To the Western Heaven." He also said to Yun: "Your lord has already tired of the world." Yun heard it in bewilderment, took leave of the Master and went east. When he reported back, Emperor Ming had already died and Xiaozhuang had taken the throne. Yun reported the matter in full. The Emperor ordered the tomb opened, and there was only an empty coffin with one leather shoe remaining. (If one follows the Xufa Ji, three years later would be the gengxu year, the third year of Yongan of Emperor Zhuang, which corresponds to the second year of Zhongdatong of Emperor Wu of Liang. Emperor Zhuang only died in the twelfth month of that year, and was still alive when the envoy returned. If one follows the Chuandeng, then three years later would be the jiwei year, which is the fifth year of Datong of Emperor Wen of Western Wei and the first year of Xinghe of Emperor Jing of Eastern Wei, corresponding to the fifth year of Datong of Emperor Wu of Liang. How then could there be Emperor Xiaozhuang? Also, to say that Song Yun met the Master on the Pamirs is a particular error. When Song Yun returned from the Western Regions, it was already in the Zhengguang years of Emperor Ming of Wei. So the one who met the Master on the Pamirs,

蓋是魏末別遣使往西域迴耳○但當雲。後三歲魏使有自西域迴者。遇師於蔥嶺。見手攜隻履翩翩獨逝。問師何往。曰西天去。又謂使曰。汝主已厭世。使聞之茫然別師東邁。暨復命即明帝已登遐矣。而孝莊即位。奉使具奏其事。帝令啟壙。唯空棺一隻革履存焉)。舉朝為之驚歎奉詔取遺履。於少林寺供養。至唐開元十五年丁卯歲。為信道者竊在五臺華嚴寺。今不知所在。初梁武遇師因緣未契。及聞化行魏邦。遂欲自撰師碑而未暇也。後聞宋雲事乃成之。代宗諡圓覺大師。塔曰空觀。師自魏丙辰歲告寂。迄皇宋景德元年甲辰。得四百六十七年矣(當雲自魏至庚子歲告寂。迄皇宋景德元年甲辰得四百七十五年矣。凡此年代之差。皆由寶林傳錯誤而楊文公不復考究耳)。

(The collation note continues:) was probably someone else sent as an envoy to the Western Regions at the end of Wei who returned. It should only say: Three years later an envoy of Wei returning from the Western Regions met the Master on the Pamirs, and saw him carrying one shoe in his hand, going alone with a light step. He asked where the Master was going. He said: 'To the Western Heaven.' He also said to the envoy: 'Your lord has already tired of the world.' The envoy heard it in bewilderment, took leave of the Master and went east. When he reported back, Emperor Ming had already died and Xiaozhuang had taken the throne. The envoy reported the matter in full. The Emperor ordered the tomb opened, and there was only an empty coffin with one leather shoe remaining.) The whole court was astonished, and by edict took the remaining shoe and had it enshrined at Shaolin Temple. In the fifteenth year of Kaiyuan of the Tang, the dingmao year, it was stolen by a believer in another way to Huayan Temple on Mount Wutai, and now it is not known where it is. At first Emperor Wu of Liang met the Master but the conditions had not accorded; when he heard that the teaching was spreading in the Wei state, he wanted to write the Master's stele himself, but did not yet have the time. Later when he heard of Song Yun's matter, he completed it. Emperor Daizong gave the posthumous title Great Master Yuanjue, and the stupa was called Kongguan. From the Master's passing in the bingchen year of Wei to the first year of Jingde of the present Song dynasty, the jiachen year, it was four hundred and sixty-seven years (it should say that from his passing in the gengzi year of Wei to the jiachen year of the first year of Jingde of the present Song dynasty, it was four hundred and seventy-five years. All these discrepancies in dates come from errors in the Baolin Zhuan, which Yang Wengong did not examine further).

第二十九祖慧可大師者武牢人也。姓姬氏。父寂未有子時。嘗自念言。我家崇善豈無令子。禱之既久。一夕感異光照室。其母因而懷妊。及長遂以照室之瑞。名之曰光。自幼志氣不群。博涉詩書尤精玄理。而不事家產好遊山水。後覽佛書超然自得。即抵洛陽龍門香山。依寶靜禪師出家受具。於永穆寺浮游講肆。遍學大小乘義。年三十二卻返香山。終日宴坐又經八載。於寂默中倏見一神人。謂曰。將欲受果何滯此耶。大道匪遙。汝其南矣。光知神助因改名神光。翌日覺頭痛如刺。其師欲治之。空中有聲曰。此乃換骨非常痛也。光遂以見神事白於師。師視其頂骨即如五峰秀出矣。乃曰。汝相吉祥當有所證。神令汝南者。斯則少林達磨大士必汝之師也。光受教造於少室。其得法傳衣事跡。達磨章具之矣。自少林託化西歸。大師繼闡玄風博求法嗣。至北齊天平二年(當作天保二年乃辛未歲也。天平東魏年號二年乙卯也)有一居士年踰四十不言名氏。聿來設禮而問師曰弟子身纏風恙。請和尚懺罪。師曰。將罪來與汝懺。居士良久雲。覓罪不可得。師曰。我與汝懺罪竟。宜依佛法僧住。曰今見和尚已知是僧。未審何名佛法。師曰。是心是佛。是心是法。法佛無二。僧寶亦然。曰今日始知罪性不在內不在外不在中間。如其心然佛法無二也。大師深器之。即為剃髮。雲是吾寶也。宜名僧璨。其年三月十八日於光福寺受具。自茲疾漸愈。執侍經二載。大師乃告曰。菩提達磨(舊本雲達磨菩提)遠自竺乾以正法眼藏密付於吾。吾今授汝並達磨信衣。汝當守護無令斷絕。聽吾偈曰。

The Twenty-ninth Patriarch, Great Master Huike, was a man of Wulao. His surname was Ji. His father was named Ji, and when he still had no son, he once thought to himself: "My family honors goodness, how can it have no good son?" He prayed for a long time. One night he sensed a strange light filling his room, and his mother became pregnant because of it. When he grew up, he was named Guang for the auspicious sign of the light that filled the room. From childhood he had an uncommon spirit, read widely in the Odes and Documents, and was especially versed in profound principles, but he did not manage family property and liked to wander among mountains and streams. Later he read Buddhist books and found himself transcendently content, so he went to Xiangshan at Longmen in Luoyang, left home and received full ordination under Chan Master Baojing, drifted about the lecture halls of Yongmu Temple, and studied all the meanings of the Great and Small Vehicles. At thirty-two he returned to Xiangshan, sat in meditation all day, and spent another eight years. In stillness he suddenly saw a divine person who said to him: "You are about to receive the fruit; why remain here? The Great Way is not far; go south." Guang knew it was divine help and therefore changed his name to Shenguang. The next day he felt a headache like stabbing. His teacher wanted to treat it, but a voice in the air said: "This is the changing of the bone, not an ordinary pain." Guang told his teacher of seeing the spirit. His teacher looked at the bone of his crown, which stood up like five peaks. He said: "Your features are auspicious and you will have a realization. The spirit told you to go south, so the great sage Bodhidharma at Shaolin must be your teacher." Guang accepted the instruction and visited Shaoshi. The traces of his receiving the Dharma and robe are all in the Bodhidharma chapter. After Bodhidharma entrusted his transformation and returned west, the Great Master continued to spread the mysterious wind and widely sought a Dharma heir. In the second year of Tianping of the Northern Qi (it should be the second year of Tianbao, the xinwei year; Tianping is an Eastern Wei era name and its second year is yimao), a lay person over forty years old, who did not give his name, came and paid his respects and asked the Master: "Your disciple is entangled in a wind disease; I beg the Venerable to repent my sins for me." The Master said: "Bring your sins and I will repent them for you." The layman, after a long while, said: "I search for my sins, and cannot find them." The Master said: "I have finished repenting your sins. You should abide in the Buddha, the Dharma and the Sangha." He said: "Now that I see the Venerable, I already know he is the Sangha. But I do not know what is called Buddha and Dharma." The Master said: "This mind is Buddha, this mind is Dharma. Dharma and Buddha are not two, and the Sangha Jewel is the same." He said: "Today I know that the nature of sin is not inside, not outside, and not in between. Like that mind, Buddha and Dharma are not two." The Great Master valued him deeply and at once shaved his head, saying: "This is my jewel; he should be named Sengcan." On the eighteenth day of the third month of that year he received full ordination at Guangfu Temple. From then on his illness gradually healed. After attending for two years, the Great Master told him: "Bodhidharma (an old text says Damo Puti) came far from India and secretly entrusted the true Dharma eye treasury to me. Now I give it to you, together with Bodhidharma's robe of faith. You should guard it and not let it be cut off. Listen to my verse:

本來緣有地因地種華生

Originally because there is ground, from the ground flowers are planted and grow,

本來無有種華亦不曾生

If originally there were no seed, flowers would never have grown.

大師付衣法已。又曰。汝受吾教宜處深山。未可行化當有國難。璨曰。師既預知。願垂示誨。師曰。非吾知也。斯乃達磨傳般若多羅懸記雲。心中雖吉外頭兇是也。吾校年代正在於茲。當諦思前言勿罹世難。然吾亦有宿累。今要酬之。善去善行俟時傳付。大師付囑已。即於鄴都隨宜說法。一音演暢四眾歸依。如是積三十四載。遂韜光混跡變易儀相。或入諸酒肆。或過於屠門。或習街談。或隨廝役。人問之曰。師是道人何故如是。師曰。我自調心何關汝事。又於筦城縣匡救寺三門下。談無上道聽者林會。時有辯和法師者。於寺中講涅槃經。學徒聞師闡法稍稍引去。辯和不勝其憤。興謗於邑宰翟仲侃。仲侃惑其邪說。加師以非法。師怡然委順。識真者謂之償債。時年一百七歲。即隋文帝開皇十三年癸丑歲三月十六日也(皓月供奉。問長沙岑和尚。古德雲。了即業障本來空。未了應須償宿債。只如師子尊者二祖大師。為什麼得償債去。長沙雲。大德不識本來空。彼雲。如何是本來空。長沙雲。業障是。又問。如何是業障。長沙雲。本來空是。彼無語。長沙便示一偈雲。假有元非有。假滅亦非無。涅槃償債義。一性更無殊)後葬於磁州滏陽縣東北七十里。唐德宗諡大祖禪師。自師之化至皇宋景德元年甲辰。得四百一十三年(當作一十二年)。

When the Great Master had finished entrusting the robe and Dharma, he also said: "You have received my teaching and should live in the deep mountains, and not yet go out to teach, for there will be national troubles." Can said: "Since the Master already foresees it, I hope you will give instruction." The Master said: "It is not that I know it. It is Bodhidharma's prophecy transmitted to Prajnatara, saying 'Though the mind is auspicious, the outside is inauspicious.' I checked the years, and they are right here. You should think carefully about the earlier words and not suffer the troubles of the age. But I too have an old debt, which I now must repay. Go well, act well, and wait for the time to transmit." When the Great Master had finished his charge, he preached the Dharma at Yedu as occasion allowed, with one voice spreading freely, and the four assemblies took refuge. After accumulating thirty-four years like this, he hid his light and mingled his traces, changing his appearance: sometimes entering wine shops, sometimes passing butchers' doors, sometimes taking up street talk, sometimes following menial servants. People asked him: "Master, you are a man of the Way, why do you do this?" The Master said: "I am regulating my own mind, what is it to you?" He also spoke of the unsurpassed Way beneath the three gates of Kuangjiu Temple in Guancheng County, and the listeners gathered like a forest. At that time Dharma Master Bianhe was lecturing on the Nirvana Sutra in the temple. His students heard the Master expound the Dharma and gradually drifted away. Bianhe, unable to bear his anger, slandered him to the district magistrate Zhai Zhongkan. Zhongkan was deluded by his heterodox words and applied unlawful treatment to the Master. The Master accepted it calmly. Those who knew the truth said he was repaying a debt. At that time he was a hundred and seven years old, which was the sixteenth day of the third month of the guichou year, the thirteenth year of Kaihuang of Emperor Wen of Sui. (The court attendant Haoyue asked Venerable Cen of Changsha: 'The ancient worthy said: When understood, karmic obstructions are originally empty; when not understood, one must repay old debts. Then why did Venerable Simha and the Second Patriarch have to go repay debts?' Changsha said: 'Great Virtue, you do not know the originally empty.' He asked: 'What is the originally empty?' Changsha said: 'Karmic obstruction is.' He asked again: 'What is karmic obstruction?' Changsha said: 'The originally empty is.' He had no words. Changsha then showed him a verse: 'Provisional existence is originally not existence, provisional extinction is also not non-existence. The meaning of repaying debts in nirvana, one nature, no further difference.') He was later buried seventy li northeast of Fuyang County in Cizhou. Emperor Dezong of Tang gave him the posthumous title Chan Master Dazu. From the Master's transformation to the first year of Jingde of the present Song, the jiachen year, was four hundred and thirteen years (it should be twelve years).

僧那禪師姓馬氏。少而神俊通究墳典。年二十一講禮易於東海。聽者如市。暨南徂相部學眾隨至。會二祖說法。與同志十人投祖出家。自爾手不執筆永捐世典。唯一衣一缽一坐一食奉頭陀行。既久侍於祖後謂門人慧滿曰。祖師心印非專苦行。但助道耳。若契本心發隨意真光之用。則苦行如握土成金。若唯務苦行。而不明本心。為憎愛所縛。則苦行如黑月夜履於險道。汝欲明本心者。當審諦推察。遇色遇聲。未起覺觀時心何所之。是無耶是有耶。既不墮有無處所。則心珠獨朗常照世間。而無一塵許間隔。未嘗有一剎那頃斷續之相。故我初祖兼付楞伽經四卷。謂我師二祖曰。吾觀震旦唯有此經可以印心。仁者依行自得度世。又二祖凡說法竟。乃曰。此經四世之後變成名相。深可悲哉。我今付汝宜善護持。非人慎勿傳之。付囑已師乃遊方。莫知其終。

Chan Master Sengna, whose surname was Ma, was gifted from youth and thoroughly versed in the ancient classics. At twenty-one he lectured on the Rites and the Changes in Donghai, and the listeners were like a market. When he went south to Xiangbu, his students followed him there. He met the Second Patriarch preaching the Dharma and, with ten companions, joined the Patriarch and left home. From then on his hand never held a brush and he permanently abandoned worldly books, with only one robe and one bowl, one seat and one meal, observing the dhuta practices. After he had served the Patriarch for a long time, he later said to his disciple Huiman: "The Patriarch's mind seal does not rely exclusively on ascetic practice; it is only an aid to the Way. If one accords with the original mind and brings forth the function of free and true light, then ascetic practice is like grasping earth and making it gold. If one only works at ascetic practice without understanding the original mind, and is bound by hatred and love, then ascetic practice is like walking a dangerous road on a dark moonless night. If you want to understand the original mind, you should examine and reflect carefully: when meeting form and sound, before awareness and discursive thought have arisen, where does the mind go? Is it nothing, or is it something? Since it does not fall into any place of existence or non-existence, the mind pearl shines alone and constantly illuminates the world without the separation of a speck of dust, and has never had a moment of interruption or continuation. So the First Patriarch also entrusted the Lankavatara Sutra in four fascicles and said to my teacher, the Second Patriarch: 'I observe that in Zhendan only this sutra can seal the mind. If you practice according to it, you will deliver yourself from the world.' Also, whenever the Second Patriarch finished preaching the Dharma, he said: 'This sutra, after four generations, will turn into names and forms; it is deeply lamentable.' Now I entrust it to you; you should protect it well, and not transmit it to the wrong person under any circumstances." After finishing his charge, the Master wandered about, and where he ended is not known.

向居士。幽棲林野木食㵎飲。北齊天保初。聞二祖盛化乃致書通好曰。影由形起響逐聲來。弄影勞形不識形為影本。揚聲止響不知聲是響根。除煩惱而趣涅槃。喻去形而覓影。離眾生而求佛果。喻默聲而尋響。故知迷悟一途愚智非別。無名作名。因其名則是非生矣。無理作理。因其理則爭論起矣。幻化非真誰是誰非。虛妄無實何空何有。將知得無所得失無所失。未及造謁聊申此意。伏望答之(弄影當作棄影。唯恐當時筆誤耳。蓋第三十卷鎮國大師答皇太子問心要雲。若求真去妄。猶棄影勞形。若體妄即真。似處陰休影。此用莊子之說。勞形謂走而避影也)。二祖大師命筆迴示曰。備觀來意皆如實。真幽之理竟不殊。本迷摩尼謂瓦礫。豁然自覺是真珠。無明智慧等無異。當知萬法即皆如。愍此二見之徒輩。申辭措筆作斯書。觀身與佛不差別。何須更覓彼無餘。居士捧披祖偈乃伸禮覲。密承印記。

The layman Xiang lived in seclusion in the woods and fields, eating from trees and drinking from streams. In the early years of Tianbao of the Northern Qi, he heard that the Second Patriarch's teaching was flourishing and wrote a letter to establish friendly relations, saying: "The shadow arises from the form, and the echo follows the sound. To play with the shadow is to toil the form, not knowing the form is the root of the shadow; to raise one's voice to stop the echo is not to know that the sound is the root of the echo. To remove afflictions and head for nirvana is like removing the form to look for the shadow; to leave sentient beings to seek the Buddha fruit is like silencing the sound to look for the echo. So know that delusion and awakening are one road, and the foolish and the wise are not two. When there is no name and one makes a name, from that name right and wrong arise; when there is no principle and one makes a principle, from that principle disputes arise. Illusion is not real, so who is right and who is wrong; delusion has no substance, so what is empty and what is existent. I have come to know that to attain is to attain nothing, and to lose is to lose nothing. Before I had the chance to visit you in person, I have set out this idea for the moment, and hope for your reply." ("Playing with the shadow" should be "abandoning the shadow"; I fear it was a slip of the brush at that time. For in fascicle 30, Great Master Zhenguo's answer to the Crown Prince's question about the essentials of mind says: If one seeks the true and removes the false, it is like abandoning the shadow and toiling the body; if one embodies the false as the true, it is like sitting in the shade and ceasing the shadow. This uses Zhuangzi's way of speaking, and 'toiling the body' means running to avoid the shadow.) The Great Master of the Second Patriarch took up the brush and replied: "I have read your whole meaning and it is all true; the principle of the truly secluded is in the end not different. Originally one was deluded about the mani jewel and took it for a tile; with sudden self-awakening, it is a true pearl. Ignorance and wisdom are equal and without difference; know that the ten thousand dharmas are all thusness. Pitying those of these two views, I wrote this letter with words and brush. Observing the body and the Buddha are not different; why seek further for the remainderless?" The layman, receiving the Patriarch's verse, expressed his respects and had an audience, and secretly received the seal.

相州隆化寺慧滿禪師。滎陽人也。姓張氏。始於本寺遇僧那禪師開示。志存儉約唯蓄二針。冬則乞補夏乃捨之。自言一生心無怯怖身無蚤蝨睡而不夢。常行乞食住無再宿。所至伽藍則破柴製履。貞觀十六年於洛陽會善寺側。宿古墓中遇大雪。旦入寺見曇曠法師。曠怪所從來。師曰。法有來耶。曠遣尋來處。四邊雪積五尺許。曠曰。不可測也。尋聞有括錄事。諸僧逃隱。師持缽周行聚落無所滯礙。隨得隨散索爾虛閑。有請宿齋者。師曰。天下無僧方受斯請也。又嘗示人曰。諸佛說心令知心。相是虛妄。今乃重加心相。深違佛意。又增論議殊乖大理。故常齎楞伽經四卷。以為心要。如說而行。蓋遵歷世之遺付也。後於陶冶中無疾坐化。壽七十許。

Chan Master Huiman of Longhua Temple in Xiangzhou was a man of Xingyang. His surname was Zhang. At first he met Chan Master Sengna at his home temple and received instruction; his aim was frugality, and he kept only two needles, asking others to mend his clothes in winter and giving them up in summer. He said of himself that in his whole life his mind had no fear, his body had no lice, and he slept without dreaming. He always went begging for food and did not stay two nights in one place. At every monastery he reached, he split firewood and made sandals. In the sixteenth year of Zhenguan, he spent the night in an old tomb beside Huishan Temple in Luoyang when heavy snow fell. In the morning he entered the temple and saw Dharma Master Tankuang. Kuang was surprised and asked where he had come from. The Master said: "Does the Dharma have a coming?" Kuang sent someone to look for where he had come from, and snow had piled up five feet high on all sides. Kuang said: "He is unfathomable." Afterward, hearing there was an enrollment of monks, the monks fled and hid. The Master carried his bowl around the villages without obstruction, giving away whatever he received, empty and at leisure. Someone invited him to stay for a vegetarian meal, and the Master said: "Only when there are no monks in the world will I accept such an invitation." He also once instructed people: "The Buddhas speak of mind in order to make you know the mind. Form is illusory. Now to add more mind-forms is deeply contrary to the Buddha's intent, and adding discussion further departs from the great principle." So he always carried the Lankavatara Sutra in four fascicles as the essence of mind, and practiced as it taught, probably following the bequest handed down through the generations. Later he died seated, without illness, in a pottery workshop, at about seventy years old.

第三十祖僧璨大師者。不知何許人也。初以白衣謁二祖。既受度傳法。隱於舒州之皖公山。屬後周武帝破滅佛法。師往來太湖縣司空山。居無常處積十餘載。時人無能知者。至隋開皇十二年壬子歲。有沙彌道信。年始十四。來禮師曰。願和尚慈悲乞與解脫法門。師曰。誰縛汝。曰無人縛。師曰。何更求解脫乎。信於言下大悟服勞九載。後於吉州受戒侍奉尤謹。師屢試以玄微。知其緣熟乃付衣法。偈曰。

The Thirtieth Patriarch, Great Master Sengcan, is not known to have come from any particular place. At first he visited the Second Patriarch as a lay person, and after being ordained and receiving the Dharma, he hid on Wangong Mountain in Shuzhou. When Emperor Wu of the Later Zhou destroyed Buddhism, the Master went back and forth to Sikong Mountain in Taihu County, with no fixed residence, for more than ten years, and the people of the time could not know of him. In the renzi year, the twelfth year of Kaihuang of Sui, the novice Daoxin, only fourteen years old, came to bow to the Master and said: "I beg the Venerable out of compassion to give me the Dharma gate of liberation." The Master said: "Who binds you?" He said: "No one binds me." The Master said: "Why then seek liberation?" Xin was greatly awakened at those words and served him for nine years. Later he received the precepts in Jizhou and served all the more respectfully. The Master tested him several times with the profound and subtle, and knowing that the conditions were ripe, he then entrusted him with the robe and Dharma. The verse says:

華種雖因地從地種華生

Although flower seeds depend on the ground, from the ground flowers are planted and grow,

若無人下種華地盡無生

If no one sows the seed, then flower and ground are both without birth.

師又曰。昔可大師付吾法。後往鄴都行化三十年方終。今吾得汝何滯此乎。即適羅浮山優遊二載。卻旋舊址逾月。士民奔趨大設檀供。師為四眾廣宣心要訖。於法會大樹下合掌立終。即隋煬帝大業二年丙寅十月十五日也。唐玄宗諡鑑智禪師覺寂之塔。至皇宋景德元年甲辰歲。凡四百載矣。初唐河南尹李常。素仰祖風深得玄旨天寶乙酉歲。遇荷澤神會問曰。三祖大師葬在何處。或聞入羅浮不迴。或說終於山谷。未知孰是。會曰。璨大師自羅浮歸山谷。得月餘方示滅。今舒州見有三祖墓。常未之信也。會謫為舒州別駕。因詢問山谷寺眾僧曰。聞寺後有三祖墓是否。時上坐慧觀對曰。有之。常欣然與寮佐同往瞻禮。又啟壙取真儀闍維之。得五色舍利三百粒。以百粒出己俸建塔焉。百粒寄荷澤神會。以徵前言。百粒隨身。後於洛中私第設齋以慶之。時有西域三藏犍那等在會中。常問三藏。天竺禪門祖師多少。犍那答曰。自迦葉至般若多羅。有二十七祖。若敘師子尊者傍出達磨達四世。二十二人。總有四十九祖。若從七佛至此璨大師。不括橫枝凡三十七世。常又問。會中耆德曰。嘗見祖圖。或引五十餘祖。至於支派差殊宗族不定。或但有空名者。以何為驗。時有智本禪師者。六祖門人也。答曰。斯乃後魏初佛法淪替。有沙門曇曜。於紛紜中以素絹單錄。得諸祖名字。或忘失次第。藏衣領中隱於巖穴。經三十五載。至文成帝即位。法門中興。曇曜名行俱崇。遂為僧統。乃集諸沙門重議結集目。為付法藏傳。其間小有差互。即曇曜抄錄時怖懼所致。又經一十三年。帝令國子博士黃元真與北天竺三藏佛陀扇多吉弗煙等。重究梵文甄別宗旨次敘師承。得無𧘱謬也。

The Master also said: "In the past Great Master Ke entrusted the Dharma to me, and afterward went to Yedu to teach for thirty years before he passed away. Now that I have gotten you, why should I linger here?" He went to Mount Luofu to roam for two years, then returned to the old site, and after a month, the gentry and commoners hurried to him and held great offering ceremonies. After widely proclaiming the essentials of mind for the four assemblies, the Master stood with palms joined beneath the great tree of the Dharma assembly and passed away. This was the fifteenth day of the tenth month of the bingyin year, the second year of Daye of Emperor Yang of Sui. Emperor Xuanzong of Tang gave him the posthumous title Chan Master Jianzhi, with the stupa Juejishi. By the jiachen year, the first year of Jingde of the present Song, it was four hundred years in all. At first, Li Chang, governor of Henan under the Tang, had always admired the Patriarch's way and deeply understood the profound meaning. In the yiyou year of Tianbao, he met Heze Shenhui and asked: "Where is Great Master the Third Patriarch buried? Some say he entered Luofu and did not return, some say he ended in a mountain valley; I do not know which is right." Hui said: "Great Master Can returned from Luofu to the mountain valley and only after more than a month showed extinction. Now in Shuzhou there is indeed the tomb of the Third Patriarch." Chang still did not believe it. Hui was demoted to be assistant prefect of Shuzhou, and so he asked the monks of Shangu Temple: "I hear there is a tomb of the Third Patriarch behind the temple; is it so?" At that time the senior monk Huiguan answered: "There is." Chang gladly went with his colleagues to pay respects, and also opened the tomb, took the true remains and had them cremated, obtaining three hundred grains of five-colored relics. He used his own salary to build a stupa for a hundred grains; sent a hundred to Heze Shenhui to verify his earlier words; and kept a hundred with him. Later he held a vegetarian feast at his private residence in Luoyang to celebrate. At that time the Western Region Tripitaka master Jianna and others were at the meeting. Chang asked the Tripitaka master: "How many Chan patriarchs are there in India?" Jianna answered: "From Kasyapa to Prajnatara there are twenty-seven patriarchs. If one counts the twenty-two people in four generations in the collateral line from Venerable Simha through Dharmadatta, there are forty-nine patriarchs in all. If from the Seven Buddhas to this Great Master Can, not counting branch lines, there are thirty-seven generations." Chang also asked the elders at the meeting: "I once saw a patriarch chart which cited more than fifty patriarchs, with differing branches and uncertain lineages, or only empty names; by what can this be verified?" At that time there was Chan Master Zhiben, a disciple of the Sixth Patriarch, who answered: "This is because in the early Later Wei the Buddha Dharma declined, and the monk Tanyao, amid the turmoil, recorded on a single piece of plain silk the names of the patriarchs, sometimes forgetting the order, and hid it in the collar of his robe, concealed in a cave. After thirty-five years, when Emperor Wencheng took the throne, the Dharma gate revived. Tanyao was high in both name and conduct and became Sangha Supervisor, and so gathered the monks to discuss again the collation, titling it the Transmission of the Dharma Treasury. There are small discrepancies in it, which came from fear at the time Tanyao copied it down. After another thirteen years, the Emperor ordered the Doctor of the Imperial Academy Huang Yuanzhen together with the Tripitaka masters of northern India Buddhasanta, Jifuyan and others to re-examine the Sanskrit texts, distinguish the doctrines, and narrate the successions in order, so that they were without error (the original text here has a variant character, meaning 'error').

第三十一祖道信大師者。姓司馬氏世居河內。後徙於蘄州之廣濟縣。師生而超異。幼慕空宗諸解脫門。宛如宿習既嗣祖風。攝心無寐脇不至席者。僅六十年。隋大業十三載。領徒眾抵吉州。值群盜圍城七旬不解。萬眾惶怖。師愍之教令念摩訶般若。時賊眾望雉堞間。若有神兵。乃相謂曰。城內必有異人。不可攻矣。稍稍引去。唐武德甲申歲。師卻返蘄春住破頭山。學侶雲臻。一日往黃梅縣路逢一小兒。骨相奇秀異乎常童。師問曰。子何姓。答曰姓即有不是常姓。師曰。是何姓。答曰。是佛性。師曰。汝無性耶。答曰。性空故。師默識其法器。即俾侍者至其家。於父母所乞令出家。父母以宿緣故殊無難色。遂捨為弟子。名曰弘忍(舊本無名曰弘忍四字。今此添入。若不言名。以至付法傳衣者。是何人耶。兼後有忍曰二字。亦自不明耳)以至付法傳衣。偈曰。

The Thirty-first Patriarch, Great Master Daoxin, was surnamed Sima and his family lived for generations in Henei, later moving to Guangji County in Qizhou. The Master was extraordinary from birth, and in childhood he admired the various gates of liberation of the emptiness school as if from past habit. After inheriting the Patriarch's way, for nearly sixty years he gathered his mind and did not sleep, his ribs never touching the mat. In the thirteenth year of Daye of Sui he led his followers to Jizhou, where bandits besieged the city for seventy days without relief and ten thousand people were terrified. The Master pitied them and taught them to recite the Maha-prajna. At that time the bandits saw what looked like divine soldiers among the battlements and said to each other: "There must be an extraordinary person in the city, and it must not be attacked." They gradually withdrew. In the jiashen year of Wude of Tang, the Master returned to Qichun and lived on Potou Mountain, where students gathered like clouds. One day he went to Huangmei County and met a small child on the road with a remarkable, elegant bearing unlike an ordinary child. The Master asked: "What is your surname?" He answered: "I have a surname, but it is not an ordinary surname." The Master said: "What surname is it?" He answered: "Buddha-nature." The Master said: "Do you not have a nature?" He answered: "Because nature is empty." The Master silently recognized him as a vessel of the Dharma, and had his attendant go to his house to ask his parents to let him leave home. His parents, because of past karmic ties, showed no difficulty at all, and so gave him up as a disciple, named Hongren (the old text lacks the four characters 'named Hongren'; they are added now. If the name is not given, who is the person to whom the Dharma and robe are transmitted? Moreover the later words 'Ren said' would also be unclear). He was transmitted the Dharma and robe. The verse says:

華種有生性因地華生生

The flower seed has the nature of birth, from the ground flowers arise again,

大緣與信合當生生不生

When great conditions join with faith, one is born; born, yet unborn.

遂以學徒委之。一日告眾曰。吾武德中遊廬山。登絕頂望破頭山。見紫雲如蓋下有白氣橫分六道。汝等會否。眾皆默然。忍曰。莫是和尚他後橫出一枝佛法否。師曰善。後貞觀癸卯歲。太宗嚮師道味欲瞻風彩。詔赴京師。上表遜謝前後三返。竟以疾辭。第四度命使曰。如果不起即取首來。使至山諭旨。師乃引頸就刃神色儼然。使異之迴以狀聞。帝彌加歎慕。就賜珍繒以遂其志。迄高宗永徽辛亥歲閏九月四日。忽垂誡門人曰。一切諸法悉皆解脫。汝等各自護念流化未來。言訖安坐而逝壽七十有二。塔於本山。明年四月八日塔戶無故自開。儀相如生。爾後門人不敢復閉。代宗諡大醫禪師慈雲之塔。自圓寂至皇宋景德元年甲辰。凡三百五十六載(當雲三百五十四載)。

He then entrusted the students to him. One day he told the assembly: "During Wude I traveled to Mount Lu, climbed to the summit and looked toward Potou Mountain, and saw purple clouds like a canopy, below which white vapor divided horizontally into six paths. Do you understand?" The assembly was silent. Ren said: "Is it not that the Venerable will later send out a branch of the Buddha Dharma sideways?" The Master said: "Good." Later, in the guimao year of Zhenguan, Emperor Taizong, longing for the Master's taste of the Way and wishing to see his demeanor, ordered him to the capital by edict. He declined by memorial three times, in the end excusing himself by illness. The fourth time the Emperor ordered the envoy: "If he truly will not rise, bring back his head." The envoy went up the mountain and conveyed the decree. The Master stretched out his neck to the blade with composed expression. The envoy was astonished, returned and reported by memorandum. The Emperor admired him all the more and bestowed precious silks to fulfill his wish. In the xinhai year of Yonghui of Emperor Gaozong, on the fourth day of the intercalary ninth month, he suddenly admonished his disciples: "All dharmas are entirely liberation. Each of you protect and bear in mind, and spread it to the future." Having spoken, he sat in peace and passed away at seventy-two. His stupa is on this mountain. On the eighth day of the fourth month of the next year, the stupa door opened of itself without cause, and his appearance was as if alive. After that his disciples did not dare close it again. Emperor Daizong gave him the posthumous title Chan Master Dayi, with the stupa Ciyun. From his perfect rest to the first year of Jingde of the present Song, the jiachen year, was three hundred and fifty-six years in all (it should say three hundred and fifty-four years).

第三十二祖弘忍大師者蘄州黃梅人也。姓周氏。生而岐嶷。童遊時逢一智者。歎曰。此子闕七種相不逮如來。後遇信大師得法嗣化。於破頭山咸亨中有一居士。姓盧名慧能。自新(舊本誤作鄿字)州來參謁師。問曰。汝自何來曰嶺南師曰。欲須何事。曰唯求作佛。師曰。嶺南人無佛性。若為得佛。曰人即有南北佛性豈然。師知是異人。乃訶曰。著槽厰去。能禮足而退。便入碓坊服勞於杵臼之間。晝夜不息經八月。師知付授時至。遂告眾曰。正法難解不可徒記吾言持為己任。汝等各自隨意述一偈。若語意冥符。則衣法皆付。時會下七百餘僧。上座神秀者。學通內外眾所宗仰。鹹共推稱雲。若非尊秀疇敢當之。神秀竊聆眾譽不復思惟。乃於廊壁書一偈雲。

The Thirty-second Patriarch, Great Master Hongren, was a man of Huangmei in Qizhou. His surname was Zhou. He was precocious from birth. When he was playing as a child he met a wise man, who sighed and said: "This child lacks seven marks and cannot match the Tathagata." Later he met Great Master Xin, received the Dharma and succeeded to the teaching at Potou Mountain. In the Xianheng years a layman named Lu Huineng came from Xinzhou (the old text mistakenly writes it with a different character) to visit him. The Master asked: "Where do you come from?" He said: "From Lingnan." The Master said: "What do you want?" He said: "I seek only to become a Buddha." The Master said: "People of Lingnan have no Buddha-nature; how can you attain Buddhahood?" He said: "People may be of the south or north, but how could Buddha-nature be so?" The Master knew he was an extraordinary person and scolded him, saying: "Go to the stable." Neng bowed at his feet and withdrew, and went into the pounding room, where he labored among the pestle and mortar day and night without rest, for eight months. When the Master knew that the time to transmit had come, he told the assembly: "The true Dharma is hard to understand, and you must not simply record my words and take them as your own task. Each of you, as you wish, compose a verse. If the words and meaning silently accord, I will entrust both the robe and Dharma." At that time there were more than seven hundred monks in the assembly. The head monk Shenxiu, learned in both Buddhist and outside teachings, was looked up to by the multitude, and they all together named him, saying: "If not the Venerable Xiu, who would dare?" Shenxiu privately heard the praise of the multitude, did not think further, and wrote a verse on the corridor wall, saying:

身是菩提樹心如明鏡臺

The body is the Bodhi tree, the mind is like a bright mirror stand,

時時勤拂拭莫遣有塵埃

Always diligently wipe it, let no dust alight.

師因經行忽見此偈。知是神秀所述。乃讚歎曰。後代依此修行亦得勝果。其壁本欲令處士盧珍繪楞伽變相。及見題偈在壁。遂止不畫各令誦念。能在碓坊忽聆誦偈。乃問同學。是何章句。同學曰。汝不知和尚求法嗣。令各述心偈。此則秀上座所述。和尚深加歎賞。必將付法傳衣也能曰。其偈云何。同學為誦。能良久曰。美則美矣。了則未了。同學訶曰。庸流何知勿發狂言。能曰。子不信耶。願以一偈和之。同學不答相視而笑。能至夜密告一童子引至廊下。能自秉燭。令童子於秀偈之側寫一偈雲。

The Master, while doing walking meditation, suddenly saw this verse, knew it was written by Shenxiu, and praised it, saying: "Later generations who practice by this will also gain a superior fruit." That wall had been intended for the scholar Lu Zhen to paint a transformation scene of the Lankavatara, but when he saw the verse inscribed on the wall, he stopped painting and had each of them recite it. Neng, in the pounding room, suddenly heard the verse being recited and asked his fellow students: "What passage is this?" The students said: "Do you not know that the Venerable is seeking a Dharma heir and has told each of us to compose a mind-verse? This is what Head Monk Xiu composed. The Venerable praised it deeply, and will surely entrust him with the Dharma and robe." Neng said: "How does the verse go?" A fellow student recited it for him. After a long while Neng said: "It is beautiful, beautiful, but not yet complete." The students scolded him: "What does a common man know? Do not speak wildly." Neng said: "Do you not believe me? I wish to match it with a verse." The students did not answer but looked at each other and smiled. At night Neng secretly spoke to a boy and was led to the corridor. Neng held a candle himself and had the boy write beside Xiu's verse a verse saying:

菩提本非樹心鏡亦非臺

Bodhi is originally not a tree, the mirror of mind is also not a stand,

本來無一物何假拂塵埃

Originally there is not a single thing; where would dust alight to be wiped?

大師後見此偈雲。此是誰作亦未見性。眾聞師語遂不之顧。逮夜乃潛令人自碓坊召能行者入室。告曰。諸佛出世為一大事故。隨機小大而引導之。遂有十地三乘頓漸等旨。以為教門。然以無上微妙秘密圓明真實正法眼藏。付於上首大迦葉尊者。展轉傳授二十八世。至達磨屆於此土。得可大師。承襲以至於吾。今以法寶及所傳袈裟用付於汝。善自保護無令斷絕。聽吾偈曰。

The Great Master later saw this verse and said: "Who wrote this? He has still not seen his nature." The multitude, hearing the Master's words, did not go to look. When night came, the Master secretly sent someone from the pounding room to summon the lay brother Neng into his chamber and told him: "The Buddhas appear in the world for one great matter, and guide according to the large and small capacities of beings, hence the doctrines of the ten stages, the three vehicles, and the sudden and gradual, as teaching gates. But the unsurpassed, subtle, secret, perfectly bright, true and real treasury of the Dharma eye was entrusted to the senior great Kasyapa and transmitted successively through twenty-eight generations. When Bodhidharma came to this land, he got Great Master Ke, and the succession reached me. Now I entrust the Dharma treasure and the robe that has been transmitted to you. Take good care of it and do not let it be cut off. Listen to my verse:

有情來下種因地果還生

Sentient beings come to plant the seed, from the ground the fruit grows again,

無情既無種無性亦無生

The insentient have no seed, no nature, and no birth.

能居士跪受衣法。啟曰。法則既授衣付何人。師曰。昔達磨初至人未知信。故傳衣以明得法。今信心已熟。衣乃爭端止於汝身不復傳也。且當遠隱俟時行化。所謂授衣之人命如懸絲也。能曰。當隱何所。師曰。逢懷即止。遇會且藏。能禮足已捧衣而出。是夜南邁大眾莫知。忍大師自此不復上堂凡三日。大眾疑怪致問。祖曰。吾道行矣。何更詢之。復問衣法誰得耶。師曰。能者得。於是眾議盧行者名能。尋訪既失。懸知彼得即共奔逐。忍大師既付衣法。復經四載。至上元二年(乙亥歲乃唐高宗時也。至肅宗時復有上元年號。其二年歲在辛丑也)。忽告眾曰。吾今事畢時可行矣。即入室安坐而逝。壽七十有四。建塔於黃梅之東山。代宗皇帝諡大滿禪師法雨之塔。自大師滅度至皇宋景德元年甲辰。凡三百三十年。

The layman Neng knelt to receive the robe and Dharma and asked: "The Dharma rule has been given; to whom shall the robe be given?" The Master said: "In the past, when Bodhidharma first came, people did not yet know to trust, so the robe was transmitted to show that the Dharma had been obtained. Now faith is already ripe, and the robe is a source of disputes; let it end with you and not be transmitted further. Also you should go into distant seclusion and wait for the time to teach. The one who receives the robe has a life hanging by a thread." Neng said: "Where should I hide?" The Master said: "Stop when you meet Huai, and hide when you meet Hui." Neng, having bowed at his feet, carried the robe out. That night he went south, and the assembly did not know. After that the Great Master Ren did not ascend the hall for three days in all. The assembly doubted and asked. The Patriarch said: "My Way has been carried out; why ask again?" They asked again who had received the robe and Dharma. The Master said: "The able one got it." Then the assembly discussed that the lay brother Lu was named Neng, and when they searched and had lost him, they knew he had it, and rushed to chase him together. After Great Master Ren had entrusted the robe and Dharma, four more years passed, until the second year of Shangyuan (the yihai year, in the time of Emperor Gaozong of Tang; in the time of Emperor Suzong there was also a Shangyuan era, and its second year falls in the xinchou year). He suddenly told the assembly: "My work is now done and the time has come to go." He entered his chamber, sat in peace and passed away. He was seventy-four. A stupa was built at Dongshan in Huangmei. Emperor Daizong gave the posthumous title Chan Master Daman, with the stupa Fayu. From the Great Master's extinction to the first year of Jingde of the present Song, the jiachen year, was three hundred and thirty years in all.