釋氏稽古略 4.246

4.246

In winter, the Song dynasty constructed the Tailin Mausoleum. The magistrate of Dengfeng County, Lou Bing, requested that the leftover labor be utilized to repair the bodhimaṇḍa of Shaolin on Mount Song, which was the residence of the First Patriarch, Bodhidharma. From the surveillance offices, prefectures, and counties down to all functionaries, gentry, commoners, artisans, and merchants, without being coerced, they united together. In a single morning it was completed, and named the Wall-Facing Hermitage. The forest produced twelve stems of magical mushrooms, each blossom having a different color. Sweet dew rained down upon the pool, and at night lights arose on all four sides reaching the sky, uniting into a vast expanse extending several tens of li from east to west. Layman Houshan, Chen Shidao, recorded it, saying: "Among the gate of Master Kong, Yan, Min, and Ran left no transmissions; after Zhonggong there was Xun Qing; after Zeng Yu there was Meng Ke; after Duanmu Ci there was Zhuang Zhou; but after Xun, Meng, and Zhuang, nothing further was heard of. Li's [Laozi's] transmission reached Yin Xi the Guardian of the Pass, and after Yin Xi's transmission, again nothing further was heard of. As for the Śākya, from the Capable and Benevolent One (Śākyamuni) it was twenty-eight generations to Bodhidharma, and another six generations to Caoxi, and up to the present day it has been another fifteen generations. Yet the followers of the Confucians and Laozi wish to compare their origins and developments—how mistaken they are!" (Collected Works of Houshan).