灌頂

「釋灌頂。字法雲。俗姓吳氏。常州義興人也」〔T50n2060 0584a25〕，「祖世避地東甌。因而不返。今為臨海之章安焉」〔T50n2060 0584a26〕——後世稱「章安」，本於此。父早亡，母親鞠養。生甫三月而思審物類未知所目，「母夜稱佛法僧名。頂仍口斆。音句清辯同共驚異」〔T50n2060 0584a28〕；攝靜寺慧拯法師聞而歎曰：「此子非凡。即以非凡為字」〔T50n2060 0584b01〕。三寶之名是他口中第一句話，一生所守亦不出此。

"Shi Guanding, styled Fayun, of the lay surname Wu, was a man of Yixing in Changzhou" 〔T50n2060 0584a25〕; "his forebears had taken refuge in Dong'ou and never returned, so that the family now belongs to Zhang'an in Linhai" 〔T50n2060 0584a26〕 — and from this the later name Zhang'an comes. His father died early and his mother raised him. He was barely three months old, and while they were still weighing what to call him, "his mother in the night pronounced the names of Buddha, Dharma and Sangha, and Guanding at once imitated her with his mouth, the sounds and phrases clear and distinct, so that all were astonished together" 〔T50n2060 0584a28〕. The Dharma master Huizheng of Shejing Monastery heard of it and said: "This child is no ordinary one — and so let 'no ordinary one' be his style" 〔T50n2060 0584b01〕. The names of the three jewels were the first words in his mouth, and what he kept to for a lifetime did not go outside them.

「洎拯師厭世。沐道天台。承習定綱罔有虧緒」〔T50n2060 0584b04〕；「陳至德元年。從智顗禪主出居光宅。研繹觀門頻蒙印可」〔T50n2060 0584b06〕。晚出稱心精舍開講《法華》，時「有吉藏法師。興皇入室。嘉祥結肆獨擅浙東」〔T50n2060 0584b14〕，求借義記尋閱淺深，乃知體解心醉有所從，遂「因癈講散眾投足天台餐稟法華發誓弘演」〔T50n2060 0584b17〕。「至十七年智者現疾。瞻侍曉夕艱劬盡心。爰及滅度親承遺旨」〔T50n2060 0584b18〕，「乃奉留書并諸信物。哀泣跪授」〔T50n2060 0584b20〕晉王；王後遣使「送頂還山為智者設千僧齋置國清寺」〔T50n2060 0584b22〕。

"When master Huizheng wearied of the world, he bathed in the Way at Tiantai, taking up the discipline of concentration in succession without any break in the thread" 〔T50n2060 0584b04〕; "in the first year of Zhide of the Chen he followed the meditation lord Zhiyi out to reside at Guangzhai, working through the gate of contemplation and repeatedly receiving his seal of approval" 〔T50n2060 0584b06〕. Later he came out to the Chenxin retreat and began to lecture on the Lotus. At that time "there was the Dharma master Jizang, who had entered the inner room at Xinghuang and had set up his seat at Jiaxiang, holding the east of Zhe alone" 〔T50n2060 0584b14〕; Jizang asked to borrow Guanding's notes on the meaning and read them to see how deep they ran, and knowing then that his own understanding had found where it belonged, "he thereupon broke off his lectures, dismissed his assembly, set his foot at Tiantai, took in the Lotus at its source and vowed to spread and expound it" 〔T50n2060 0584b17〕. "In the seventeenth year, when the Wise One showed his illness, Guanding attended him morning and night, spending himself utterly; and when the passing came he received the final instructions in person" 〔T50n2060 0584b18〕, and "then bore the letter left behind together with the tokens, weeping as he knelt to hand them over" 〔T50n2060 0584b20〕 to Prince Jin. The prince afterwards sent an officer to "escort Guanding back to the mountain, hold a feast of a thousand monks for the Wise One, and establish Guoqing Monastery" 〔T50n2060 0584b22〕.

「自頂受業天台又稟道衡岳。思顗三世宗歸莫二。若觀若講常依法華」〔T50n2060 0585b02〕。傳末一語，道出他在此宗中不可代之位：「且智者辯才雲行雨施。或同天網乍擬瓔珞。能持能領唯頂一人」〔T50n2060 0585b05〕；「其私記智者詞旨。及自製義記。并雜文等題目。並勒于碑陰」〔T50n2060 0585b07〕。今傳《法華玄義》《法華文句》《摩訶止觀》三書之得存於世，皆繫於此一人之能持能領。

"From the time Guanding received his training at Tiantai and further took the Way from Mount Heng, through Huisi and Zhiyi and himself in three generations the school returned to no second thing; whether contemplating or lecturing he always relied on the Lotus" 〔T50n2060 0585b02〕. One line at the close of the biography states the place in this school that no one else could have filled: "Moreover the eloquence of the Wise One went like moving cloud and falling rain, at times like a net cast over heaven, at times set out like a string of jewels — and the one man who could hold it and take it in was Guanding alone" 〔T50n2060 0585b05〕; "his private records of the Wise One's words and purport, together with the treatises on meaning he composed himself and his miscellaneous pieces, were listed by title on the reverse of the stele" 〔T50n2060 0585b07〕. That the Profound Meaning of the Lotus, the Words and Phrases of the Lotus and the Great Calming and Contemplation survive at all hangs upon this one man's holding and taking in.