---
title: "指月錄 · 五祖弘忍大師"
description: "指月录是明代瞿汝稷编纂的一部重要佛教典籍，成书于万历年间。该书以禅宗公案为核心，收录了从佛祖释迦牟尼到宋代高僧的六百余则禅门语录和典故，系统梳理了禅宗传承脉络。瞿汝稷作为晚明著名居士，以指月为喻，强调文字只是指向真理的工具而非真理本身，体现了禅宗不立文字、直指人心的宗旨。这部著作不仅保存了大量珍贵禅宗史料，更以其精要的选编和独到的评点，成为研究中国禅宗思想发展的重要文献，在佛教史上具有承前启后的地位，至今仍是禅学研究者必读经典。"
url: "https://rushiwowen.co/en/r/cma8x2fez00cwl404vuty7o9t"
---

### ▲五祖弘忍大師者

> Fifth Patriarch Master Hongren

蘄州黃梅人也。先為破頭山中栽松道者。甞請於四祖曰。法道可得聞乎。祖曰。汝已老。脫有聞。其能廣化耶。儻若再來。吾尚可遲汝。乃去行水邊。見一女子浣衣。揖曰。寄宿得否。女曰。我有父兄。可往求之。曰諾。我即敢行。女首肯之。即回策而去。女周氏季子也。歸輒孕。父母大惡逐之。女無所歸。日傭紡里中。夕止於眾舘之下。已而生一子。以為不祥。因拋濁港中。明日見之。泝流而上。氣體鮮明。大驚遂舉之。成童隨母乞食。里人呼為無姓兒。逢一智者。歎曰。此子缺七種相。不逮如來。後遇信大師得法。嗣化於破頭山　咸亨中。有居士姓盧。名慧能。自新州來參謁。祖問曰。汝自何來。盧曰嶺南。祖曰。欲須何事。盧曰。唯求作佛。祖曰。嶺南人無佛性。若為得佛。盧曰。人即有南北。佛性豈然。祖令隨眾作務。盧曰。弟子自心常生智慧。不離自性。即是福田。未審和尚教作何務。祖曰。這獦獠。根性太利。著槽廠去。盧禮足而退。便入碓坊。服勞於杵臼。晝夜不息。經八月。祖知付授時至。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。咸推稱曰。若非尊秀。疇敢當之。神秀竊聆眾譽。不復思惟。乃於廊壁書一偈曰。身是菩提樹。心如明鏡臺。時時勤拂拭。莫使惹塵埃。祖因經行。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。遂止不畵。各令念誦。盧在碓坊。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。盧曰。其偈云何。同學為誦。盧良久曰。美則美矣。了則未了。同學訶曰。庸流何知。勿發狂言。盧曰。子不信耶。願以一偈和之。同學不答。相視而笑。盧至夜密告一童子。引至廊下。盧自秉燭。請別駕張日用。於秀偈之側。寫一偈曰。菩提本無樹。明鏡亦非臺。本來無一物。何處惹塵埃。祖後見此偈曰。此是誰作。亦未見性。眾聞祖語。遂不之顧。逮夜祖潛詣碓坊。問曰。米白也未。盧曰白也未有篩。祖以杖三擊其碓。盧即以三鼓入室。祖告曰。諸佛出世。為一大事故。隨機大小而引導之。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。居于此土。得可大師。承襲以至於今。以法寶及所傳袈裟。用付於汝。善自保護。無令斷絕。聽吾偈曰。有情來下種。因地果還生。無情既無種。無性亦無生。盧跪受訖問。法則既受。衣付何人。祖曰。昔達磨初至。人未之信。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。所謂受衣之人。命如懸絲也。盧曰。當隱何所。祖曰。逢懷即止。遇會且藏。盧禮足已。捧衣而出。是夜南邁。大眾莫知。五祖自後不復上堂。大眾疑怪致問。祖曰。吾道行矣。何更詢之。復問衣法誰得耶。祖曰。能者得。於是眾議。盧行者名能。即共奔逐。祖既付衣法。復經四載。至上元二年。忽告眾曰。吾今事畢。時可行矣。即入室安坐而逝。壽七十有四。塔於黃梅東山。

> A native of Huangmei in Qizhou, he first worked as a pine planter at Potou Mountain. He once asked the Fourth Patriarch, "May I hear the Dharma?" The Patriarch said, "You are already old. Even if you heard it, could you spread it widely? If you were to come again, I could still wait for you." He then left and went along a stream, where he saw a woman washing clothes. He bowed and said, "May I lodge here?" The woman replied, "I have a father and brothers—you can go ask them." He said, "Yes, I will go." The woman nodded, and he left with his staff. This woman was the youngest daughter of the Zhou family. She returned home and became pregnant, and her parents, greatly angered, drove her out. With nowhere to go, she worked daily spinning for hire in the village and lodged at night in the public hall. In time she gave birth to a son and, thinking him unlucky, threw him into a muddy ditch. The next day she saw him floating upstream, his body and spirit fresh and bright. Greatly astonished, she took him back and raised him. When he grew into a boy, he followed his mother begging for food, and the villagers called him "the child without a surname." He once met a wise man who sighed, "This child lacks seven of the marks—he falls short of the Tathagata." Later he met Master Xin and attained the Dharma, then continued teaching at Potou Mountain. During the Xianheng era, a layman surnamed Lu, named Huineng, came from Xinzhou to pay respects. The Patriarch asked, "Where do you come from?" Lu replied, "Lingnan." The Patriarch asked, "What do you seek?" Lu replied, "Only to become a Buddha." The Patriarch said, "People of Lingnan have no Buddha-nature—how could you attain Buddhahood?" Lu replied, "People may be north or south, but how could Buddha-nature be so?" The Patriarch told him to work with the assembly. Lu said, "Your disciple's mind constantly gives rise to wisdom, never apart from self-nature—this is my field of merit. May I ask what work you would have me do?" The Patriarch said, "This barbarian—too sharp in nature! Go to the mill." Lu bowed at his feet and withdrew, entering the pestle hut, toiling at the mortar and pestle day and night without rest. After eight months, the Patriarch knew the time for transmission had come. He told the assembly, "The true Dharma is hard to comprehend—do not merely memorize my words and claim them as your own. Each of you, according to your understanding, write a verse. If your words secretly match the meaning, I will entrust both robe and Dharma." At the time, there were over seven hundred monks in the assembly. The senior monk Shenxiu was learned in both inner and outer teachings, revered by all. They all said, "Except for the venerable Shenxiu, who could dare undertake this?" Shenxiu, secretly hearing this praise, no longer pondered, but wrote a verse on the corridor wall: The body is the Bodhi tree, The mind a clear mirror stand. Diligently wipe it from moment to moment— Let no dust alight upon it. When the Patriarch, walking along, suddenly saw this verse, he knew Shenxiu had written it. He praised it, saying, "Future generations who cultivate according to this will also attain superior fruit." The wall had been intended for the painter Lu Zhen to depict the Lankavatara scene, but seeing the verse on the wall, the plan was halted, and everyone was told to recite it. Meanwhile, in the pestle hut, Lu suddenly heard the verse being recited and asked a fellow student, "What verse is this?" The student said, "Don’t you know? The Master seeks a Dharma heir and has asked each of us to write a verse on the mind. This is the verse of Senior Shenxiu— the Master has praised it deeply and will surely pass on the robe and Dharma." Lu said, "What does the verse say?" The student recited it for him. After a long pause, Lu said, "Fine as it is, it is not yet fully realized." The student scolded him: "What would a common laborer know? Don’t utter wild words." Lu said, "You don’t believe me? Let me offer a verse in response." The student did not reply, and they exchanged smiles. That night, Lu secretly told a lad to lead him to the corridor. Holding a candle himself, he asked the assistant magistrate Zhang Riyong to write a verse beside Shenxiu’s: The Bodhi tree was never a tree, The mirror stand never a stand. Originally not a single thing— Where could any dust alight? When the Patriarch later saw this verse, he said, "Who wrote this? He too has not yet seen his nature." Hearing this, the assembly paid it no more attention. That night, the Patriarch secretly came to the pestle hut and asked, "Is the rice white yet?" Lu replied, "It is white—but it has not yet been sifted." The Patriarch struck the pestle three times with his staff. Lu understood the three beats as a sign to enter the chamber at the third watch. The Patriarch said to him, "The Buddhas appear in the world for one great matter. They guide beings according to their capacities, great or small, and thus have set forth the teachings of the ten stages, the three vehicles, sudden and gradual awakening, as so many gates of the path. But the unsurpassed, subtle, secret, round, luminous, true eye of the Dharma was entrusted to the foremost elder, the Venerable Mahakashyapa. It was transmitted down through twenty-eight generations to Bodhidharma, who came to this land. He found the Great Master Ke, and the robe and Dharma have come down to me. Now I hand both this Dharma treasure and the transmitted robe over to you. Protect them well and let them not be cut off. Hear my verse: Sentient beings plant the seed— From the ground, the fruit arises again. Without feeling, there is no seed; Without nature, there is no birth. Lu knelt, received it, and asked, "Since I have received the Dharma, to whom should the robe be given?" The Patriarch said, "When Bodhidharma first came, people did not yet believe, so the robe was transmitted to prove attainment of the Dharma. Now trust has matured—the robe has become a source of contention. It will stop with you and not be passed on. Moreover, you must hide far away, and wait for the right time to teach. One who receives the robe has his life hanging by a thread." Lu asked, "Where should I hide?" The Patriarch replied, "Stop when you reach Huai; hide when you meet Hui." Lu bowed at his feet, took up the robe, and left. That night he journeyed south—none of the assembly knew. From then on, the Fifth Patriarch no longer ascended the hall. The assembly, puzzled, asked why. The Patriarch said, "My way has gone forth—why ask further?" They asked again, "Who has received the robe and Dharma?" The Patriarch said, "The one who can—he has gained it." At this, the assembly reasoned that because the layman Lu was called "Neng," meaning able, it was he, and together they gave chase. After the Patriarch had thus transmitted the robe and Dharma, four more years passed, until, in the second year of Shangyuan, he suddenly told the assembly, "My work here is done—the time has come for me to go." Then he entered his chamber, sat quietly, and passed away. He was seventy-four years old. A stupa was built for him at East Mountain in Huangmei.

代宗諡曰大滿。塔曰法雨。及宋遣師將平江南。祖肉身出血如淚珠。識者知李氏必亡也。

> Emperor Daizong posthumously named him "Great Perfection," and his stupa was called "Dharma Rain." Later, when the Song dynasty sent troops to pacify the Jiangnan region, the ancestral master's physical body shed blood like teardrops. Those who understood knew that the Li family was destined to fall.