佛祖統紀 29.40

29.40

Dharma Master Śubhakarasiṃha was a descendant of King Amṛtodana. Relinquishing the kingdom and leaving behind glory, he left the household to study the Way; wherever he went to preach the Dharma, miraculous signs invariably appeared. When he reached the kingdom of Oḍra to expound the *Vairocana-sūtra*, the assembly saw four golden characters reading 'Vairocana' in the sky, a xun or a zhang across (these must have been formed in the Sanskrit script of the Western lands). When he crossed the Dragon River, the camel bearing the scriptures walked straight into the water; Śubhakarasiṃha followed it, and the Dragon King invited him into the palace, where he lectured on the Dharma for three days. In the fourth year of Kaiyuan, he arrived in Chang'an. The Emperor had previously dreamed of an Indian monk coming for an audience, and upon waking had ordered an artisan to paint his likeness on the wall; when the Master entered for the audience, he was the very one seen in the dream. He was housed at Ximing Temple and acclaimed as the Lord of the Teaching. During an autumn drought, an edict ordered him to pray for rain; the Master regarded the predestined numbers as an obstacle, saying: 'If rain must be brought, I fear the dragon will harm things violently.' The imperial envoy instructed him, saying: 'The people have suffered from drought for a long time; violent wind and swift rain will be quite gratifying.' Thereupon, holding a bowl and grasping a small blade, he stirred it, reciting secret words a hundred times. Suddenly, an object like a small dragon raised its head and emerged from the bowl, its white vapor filling the sky. He told the envoy to return swiftly; looking back, the envoy saw dense clouds like white silk coiling upward into the sky from the lecture hall. Soon after, thunder pealed, and wind and rain tossed houses about, subsiding only after a full day. Furthermore, when prolonged rain would not cease, he kneaded mud into five old women, spoke to them in Sanskrit as if scolding them, and it cleared immediately. He translated more than ten sections of scriptures, including the *Vairocana* and *Susiddhikara*. His disciples Baoyue and Yixing were both fully capable of receiving the Way. He repeatedly requested to return to the west, but the Emperor consoled him and did not permit it. In the twenty-third year, he manifested extinction; his true body did not decay, and a stupa was built for him in the western mountains of Longmen (in the ninth year of the Qiande era of our present dynasty, Taizu visited Guanghua Temple on Longmen Mountain in Luoyang, inquired about the stupa of Tripiṭaka Master Śubhakarasiṃha, and gazed in reverent homage upon the true body).