The Administration of Buddhism in China: A Study and Translation ...

time, members of the [ruling] Qian family and the class of public officials, such as King Zhongyi so and so, Military Commissioner of Manifest Virtue Qi,¹²³ Military General Supporter of State Yi, Regional Chief of Yuezhou Yi, Surveillance Commissioner of Jinzhou Yan, and Vice Minister of the Ministry of Works Yu, learned¹²⁴ the meaning of literary culture (wen) with the Great Master. At the time, scholar officials in the Zhe region, such as Chief Minister of the Court of Imperial Regalia Cui Renji, Vice Minister of the Ministry of Works Shen Zhili, and Retired Palace Attendant Yang Dan, engaged in rhythmic verse exchanges in miscellaneous poetic styles with the Great Master. Moreover, he obtained his literary style from Great Master who Illuminates Wen, Huizheng,¹²⁵ and received his poetic technique from advanced jinshi awardee, [Long] Gonglin.¹²⁶ From this time on, [the master] greatly influenced his contemporaries. At the time, the famous monks of Qiantang, such as Qie(?) and Ning(?), circulated his name as the top of their class, and referred to him as “the tiger of discourse” (lun hu). Owing to his superior talent in constantly [explaining] the meaning of literary works, he was referred to as “the tiger of literature” (wen hu). As the Great Master often provided explanations of the vinaya, and was referred to as “the tiger of the vinaya” (lü hu). Because of this, he was known at the time as “the threefold tiger” (san hu).

(7) He was installed as Ordination Supervisor in his native land (i.e., Wuyue), and in addition was made Buddhist Controller of Both [the Eastern and Western] Districts of Zhe[jiang] province. For decades he provided clarification of [Buddhist teaching] during the period of the semblance dharma¹²⁷ and managed the black robed (i.e., Buddhist) monks in an orderly fashion.

(8) In the third year of the taiping xingguo era (978), when King Zhongyi ceded his territory to the country (i.e., the Song dynasty), the Great Master entered the capital offering stūpa relics of the true body [of Śākyamuni]. The silk-robed Emperor Taizong learned of his fame, and in a face-to-face meeting in the Hall of Abundant Blessings, extended his interview with [Zanning] for an entire day. When they parted,