四明尊者教行錄 1.141

1.141

予到任，依《普賢觀經》，不令人捕池沼江湖內魚（城外難禁）。景德四年孟冬，奉詔還闕。十月十日夜忽夢，江湖中魚約計數萬，悉號泣云：長者去矣，吾眾烹矣。哭聲沸天，所不忍聞。然而是耶非耶？真耶妄耶？復焉知後來宰邑者非長者乎？所嗟者人何故而為魚，魚何故通人，而知人之去留，一何靈也。君子鑒之，何忍烹之乎。予悶其有情，故特記之云。

Upon arriving at my post, following the Sūtra on the Contemplation of Samantabhadra, I did not allow people to catch fish in the ponds, lakes, and rivers (it being difficult to prohibit outside the city). In the early winter of the fourth year of the Jingde era, I received an imperial edict to return to the palace. On the night of the tenth day of the tenth month, I suddenly dreamed of fish in the rivers and lakes, numbering some tens of thousands, all wailing and saying: 'The elder is leaving, and our kind will be cooked!' The sound of their crying boiled up to the heavens, unbearable to hear. Yet is this so or not? Is it real or illusory? Moreover, how can one know whether the later magistrate will not also be an elder? What is lamentable is why humans become fish, and why fish communicate with humans and know of a human's departure or staying—how extraordinary a spiritual sensitivity! When gentlemen examine this, how could they bear to cook them? Feeling sorrow over their possessing sentience, I have specially recorded this.