高僧傳 9.41

9.41

Shan Daokai, surnamed Meng, was a native of Dunhuang. From his youth he cherished seclusion, and chanted sūtras amounting to more than four hundred thousand words. He abstained from grains and fed on cypress seeds. When cypress seeds were difficult to obtain, he also ingested pine resin, and later ingested fine gravel. He swallowed several stones at a time, once every few days, occasionally eating some ginger or pepper; he did this for seven years. Thereafter he was not afraid of cold or heat, feeling warm in winter and cool in summer, and did not lie down day or night. He made a pact with ten fellow students to ingest these foods; after ten years, some died and some gave up, and only Daokai maintained his resolve intact. The grand administrator of Fuling sent horses to welcome Daokai, but Daokai declined, saying he could walk on foot, and arrived early in a single day over a journey of three hundred li. Spirits of the mountains and trees sometimes manifested strange forms to test him, but he showed no fear at all. In the twelfth year of the Jianwu era of Shi Hu, he came from Xiping, traveling seven hundred li in a single day. When he reached Nan'an, he ordained a boy as a novice monk, aged fourteen, who received the teachings and whose practice and ability matched Daokai's.