佛祖歷代通載 10.80

10.80

（三十三）　神僧法喜者貌寢陋。年若四十許。嶺表父老咸言。兒時見之。談晉宋間事。歷歷可聽。又自言。甞從東林遠公游。語默不常。然皆為吉凶之兆。煬帝幸維楊。聞其有異召之。俄一日繞宮中遍索羊頭。帝惡之以付廷尉。手足銀鐺禁衛嚴甚。喜日丐于市飲食自若。有司以聞。帝命按視封鑰如故。及啟戶視之。唯見袈裟覆黃金骨。骨皆連鎖。遽以白帝。勅長安王怛覈實如狀。詔以香泥樹骨塑之。是夕喜以泥像起行。言笑如故。遂釋其禁。未幾示疾。命甞所善者。去其薦置身簀上。下以熾炭炙之數日。半身紅爛即死。葬之香山寺側。後數歲有自海南歸者。見喜無恙其人發塚視之。唯空棺爾。計是時喜已三百餘歲矣。及煬帝於江都遇弑。方悟喜索羊頭之驗云。

(33) The divine monk Faxi had an ugly and vulgar appearance, looking about forty years old. The elders south of the Ridges all said that they had seen him when they were children, and he spoke clearly and audibly of events during the Jin and Song dynasties. He also said of himself that he had once travelled with Master Yuan of Donglin. His speech and silence were irregular, yet they were all omens of good and ill fortune. When Emperor Yang visited Weiyang, he heard of his extraordinary nature and summoned him. Suddenly one day, he walked around the palace searching everywhere for sheep heads. The Emperor detested this and committed him to the judicial officials; his hands and feet were bound with silver fetters, and the guard was very strict. Xi begged daily in the market, eating and drinking as if nothing were amiss. The officials reported this. The Emperor ordered an inspection, and the seals and locks were as before. When they opened the door to look, they saw only a kāṣāya covering golden bones, the bones all linked together in chains. They hurriedly reported this to the Emperor. He ordered Wang Dan of Chang'an to verify the truth according to the report. An edict ordered that fragrant clay be used to set up the bones and model a statue. That evening, Xi got up and walked as the clay image, talking and laughing as before. Thereupon his confinement was released. Soon after, he manifested illness. He ordered those with whom he was usually close to remove his mat and place his body on a bed frame, roasting it from below with blazing charcoal for several days. Half his body was red and rotten, and then he died. They buried him beside Xiangshan Temple. Several years later, someone returning from south of the sea saw Xi unharmed. That person opened the tomb to look, and there was only an empty coffin. Calculating at that time, Xi was already over three hundred years old. When Emperor Yang met assassination at Jiangdu, they only then realised the verification of Xi's searching for sheep heads.