佛祖統紀 28.77

28.77

Lady Zhu, [styled] Ruyi, was a niece of Empress Qincheng Zhu. She married Gentleman Xue of Siming. She embroidered a complete set of the Lotus Sūtra, completing it after ten years. When she reached the chapter on the 'Parable of the Conjured City,' [she found that] the tip of the needle accumulated relics like millet grains, obtaining several tens of them consecutively. Bowing once for every character, she performed prostrations to the Lotus Sūtra three times; and to the title at the opening of the sūtra she offered an additional eighty-four thousand prostrations. She memorized and chanted the Lotus Sūtra, mastering it in three months. She carved broad-character charts to exhort people to recite the Buddha's name; each completed one hundred thousand recitations, and those she converted reached two hundred thousand people. Lady Zhu alone recited it day and night beyond count. In the fourth year of Shaoxi (1193 CE), in order to enshrine the embroidered sūtra in a precious banner treasury, she welcomed it back to Nanhu, offering a vegetarian feast for a thousand monks in celebration and praise. That year she fell mildly ill. She invited monks to recite the Buddha's name, then suddenly sat up with her legs crossed. Gentleman Xue said, 'Our family has no such custom.' Thereupon she reclined on her right side in auspicious posture and passed away. Her family dreamt that she rode colorful clouds departing toward the west.