卷四傳十閑居寺僧述尼

僧述。本姓懷。彭城人也。父僧珍僑居建康。述幼而志道。八歲蔬食。及年十九。以宋元嘉二十四年從禪林寺淨秀尼出家。節行清苦法檢不虧。遊心經律靡不遍覽。後偏功十誦文義優洽。復從隱審二法師。諮受祕觀遍三昧門。移住禪林寺為禪學所宗。去來投集更成囂動。述因有隱居之志。宋臨川王母張貴嬪聞之。捨所居宅欲為立寺。時制不許輒造。到元徽二年九月一日。汝南王母吳充華啟。敕即就締構。堂殿房宇五十餘間。率其同志二十人以禪寂為樂。名曰閑居。

述動靜守貞不斆浮飾。宋齊之季世道紛喧。且禪且寂風塵不擾。齊文帝竟陵文宣王大相禮遇。修飾一寺事事光奇。四時供養未曾休息。及大梁開泰天下有道。白黑敬仰四遠雲萃。而述不蓄私財隨得隨散。或賬濟四眾。或放生。乞施造金像五軀。並皆壯麗。寫經及律一千餘卷。縹帙帶軸寶飾新嚴。

年八十四。梁天監十四年而卒。葬于鍾山之陽也

4.10 (Tsai no.61) Seng-shu

The nun Seng-shu (Transmitter for the Sangha) (430-513) of Solitude Convent

Seng-shu's secular surname was Huai. Her family was originally from [the northeastern city of] P'eng-ch'eng, but her father Huai Seng-chen had moved to [the capital city of] Chien-k'ang.

When Seng-shu was a child, she set her mind on the practice of religion and at age 8 undertook a vegetarian diet. When she was nineteen, in the twenty-fourth year of the yüan-chia reign period (447) of Sung, she left the secular life under the direction of the nun Ching-hsiu (no. 52) of Meditation Grove Convent. She was extremely rigorous in her practice of morality, keeping all the regulations without fail. She widely read both the scriptures and the texts of monastic precepts, carefully perusing them all, and later made a particular study of the Sarvāstivāda Monastic Rules in Ten Recitations, whose meaning she thoroughly comprehended. Further, under the direction of the two masters of meditation, Fa-yin and Seng-shen (416-490), she received instruction in all the many abstruse methods of meditation.

Seng-shu then took up residence in Meditation Grove Convent as the head of meditation studies, but, because the hubbub of all the people coming, going, and gathering together became too great, she resolved to live in seclusion. When Lady Chang, mother of the prince of Lin-ch'uan, heard about this she gave up her own residence, intending to convert it into a convent for Seng-shu, but at that time regulations forbid her to do this. It was not until the first day of the ninth month of the second year of the yüan-hui reign period (474), when Wu Ch'ung-hua, the mother of the prince of Ju-nan, requested an imperial decree, that the convent was allowed to be built. There were altogether over fifty units of halls, shrines, and cells. Seng-shu, together with her companions, twenty women in all, delighting in the quiet of meditation, named their new convent Solitude.

In all circumstances Seng-shu held fast to her own sense of propriety and did not encourage any outward ostentation. At the close of both the Sung and Ch'i dynasties the world was in turmoil, but Seng-shu, sitting in the quietude of meditation, was not at all vexed by the clamor of worldly affairs.

The Ch'i heir apparent, Wen-hui (458-493), and the prince of Ching-ling, Wen-hsüan (460-494), treated her with great courtesy and respect. They refurbished and adorned the entire convent, giving everything remarkable splendor. They provided for her necessities throughout the four seasons without cease.

When the great Liang dynasty came to power, and the empire once again was established in order and good principles, both religious and laity paid her great respect, gathering like clouds from the four directions, but Seng-shu did not store up any of the material goods offered to her. Rather, she distributed them as soon as she received them. Sometimes she used the wealth she received to help the Buddhists of the four groups—the monks, nuns, laymen, and lay-women. Sometimes she used it to buy freedom for captured animals. She begged for donations to commission five golden images, all of which were of magnificent beauty. She also commissioned the copying of more than a thousand scrolls of Buddhist scriptures and texts of monastic precepts, the cases and rollers of which were adorned with precious ornaments.

Seng-shu died in the twelfth year of the t'ien-chien reign period (513) at the age of eighty-four and was buried on the south side of Bell Mountain [close to the northeast outskirts of the capital].