高僧傳 8.83

8.83

On the tenth day of the sixth month of the eleventh year of the Tianjian era he felt unwell, and said to his disciples: "I will only last until around the twentieth day of the ninth month." When the fourteenth day of the ninth month arrived, he saw two laymen, both holding white chowries, come before his bed and then leave one after the other. On the seventeenth day, he suddenly spoke at random: "I do not know you, dānapati; from where have you come?" His disciple Tanzhi asked what he meant, and he replied: "There is a person dressed in vermilion robes wearing a cap, holding a wooden tray before my bed." On the twentieth day, he saw images of the Buddha arriving in two rows; Tong joined his palms for a long time. Those attending his illness smelled only an extraordinary fragrance, completely unable to fathom the meaning. Tong then secretly told his like-minded companion Huimi about it. On the twenty-first day, he asked for fragrant warm water, bathed, and having finished, made obeisance and returned to lie down; with hands crossed over his chest, he died exactly at noon, at the age of seventy. He was buried south of the temple. His disciple Jingshen and others erected a stele beside the tomb, and Xie Ju of Chen Commandery and Xiao Ziyun of Lanling both composed texts, which were carved on the two sides.