佛祖統紀 45.5

45.5

The second year [1024]. An edict granted the admission of the Tiantai doctrinal texts into the canon, bestowed one hundred ounces of silver, and provided a vegetarian feast for a thousand persons at Ling Shan. Ciyun composed the *Jiaocang suihan mulu* (Case-by-Case Catalogue of the Doctrinal Canon), explaining the main purports of the various works. ○ The celebrated Siming scholar Wei Kai traveled to Luoyang for study. He met the Daoist practitioner Li Shining at an inn, who said to Kai: "In your home prefecture, at the Jiexiang [nunnery], there is a mute girl who is the ancient Buddha Vipaśyin. If you return, you should go pay homage to her." When asked what she looked like, he replied: "The one sweeping the ground with a withered arm is she." When Kai returned, he hurriedly went to the nunnery to look for her. An old nun said: "The holy maid passed away seated over a year ago." She then showed him her portrait. He lit incense and paid homage, feeling ashamed and regretful that he had not seen her venerable countenance. The following year, while passing through Qiantang as a guest at the home of the clerk Chen Shi, he suddenly saw over ten small children surrounding a young nun entering the gate, noisily shouting: "Mute girl! Mute girl!" Kai was startled and turned to look; she promptly demanded paper and wrote a gāthā: "Whose are the great earth, the mountains, and rivers? / There is not a single phenomenon that can be conceived. / In the night, bells and drums sound everywhere; / They smash the skull, yet people know it not." Behind the gāthā she further wrote: "Neither coming nor going." Kai stepped forward and bowed at her feet, briefly relating his intention to venerate her surviving portrait at Jiexiang. She again wrote a gāthā: "Swinging a handbell atop Mount Sumeru; / Shaking a bell at the bottom of the great ocean. / If you ask the mute girl's family and personal name: / Just this is her true name." She went out the door and departed. Kai pursued the children and asked: "Who is the mute girl?" The children said: "She is Buddha Vipaśyin." When he asked who the children were, they said: "Ask the mute girl!" Suddenly they all disappeared.