釋氏稽古略 3.196

3.196

In the ninth month, the Grand Defender and Secretariat Director Wei Gao passed away. Gao had governed Shu for twenty-one years and was enfeoffed as King Zhongwu of Nankang. The people of Sichuan offered sacrifices to him as an earth deity. He deeply revered the Dharma of the Śākya lineage. When the stone Buddha statue carved into the mountain at Jiazhou was completed, Gao composed an inscription for it, which stated: 'Its head is one thousand cubits in circumference; its eyes are two rods wide; the rest of the marks and signs correspond perfectly.' He also once trained a parrot to recite the Buddha's name. When the parrot died, Gao said, 'This was a reciter of the Buddha's name,' and officials cremated it according to the rites for a śramaṇa. They indeed obtained two relics (śarīra). Gao composed an inscription, which briefly stated: 'The primordial essence confers the five pneumas upon the myriad kinds [of beings]. Even among those with scales, shells, fur, and feathers, there must be some that receive what is pure, bright, and unadulterated. Behold, this feathered creature trained until it was able to speak; it comprehended the mark of emptiness in non-recollection and left behind true bones after death. Surely this was an incarnation of the primordial sage to awaken the hearts of humankind.'