釋氏稽古略 4.197

4.197

夏六月。歐陽公脩以觀文殿學士太子少師致仕居頴州。公以文章道德為儒者宗。心雖一貫言必排佛氏。仁宗嘉祐五年為樞密副使。六年閏八月參知政事兼譯經潤文使。既登二府。多病。甞夢至一所。十人冠冕環坐。一人曰。參政安得至此。宜速反舍。公出門數步。復往問之。君等豈非釋氏所謂十王者乎。曰然。因問世人飯僧造經果有益乎。曰安得無。既寤病良已。自是深信佛法。丹陽葛勝仲得此說於簡齋陳與義。與義得於公之孫恕昭然也（吳充作歐公行狀。又韻語陽秋）。

In the sixth month, summer, Duke Ouyang Xiu retired to reside in Yingzhou as Academician of the Guanwen Hall and Junior Preceptor of the Crown Prince. With his literary writings and moral virtue, the Duke was revered as an exemplar of Confucians. Although his mind was consistently upright, his words always rejected Buddhism. In the fifth year of Jiayou of Emperor Renzong, he served as Assistant Bureau Director of Military Affairs, and in the intercalary eighth month of the sixth year, as Vice Grand Councilor and concurrently as Translator-Polisher of Scriptures. After ascending to the two administrations, he was often ill. He once dreamed that he arrived at a place where ten people wearing crowns sat in a circle. One person said, 'How could the Vice Grand Councilor come here? You should return home quickly.' The Duke walked out the gate a few steps, then went back to ask them, 'Are not you gentlemen what the Śākya lineage calls the Ten Kings?' They said, 'Yes.' He then asked, 'Does the worldly practice of feeding monks and creating scriptures truly bring benefit?' They said, 'How could it not?' Upon waking, his illness had largely cleared. From then on he had deep faith in the Buddha-Dharma. Ge Shengzhong of Danyang obtained this account from Jianzhai Chen Yuyi, and Yuyi obtained it from the Duke's grandson Shu, so it is clearly verifiable (Wu Chong's Conduct Record of Duke Ouyang, and also Yunyu yangqiu).