續高僧傳 25.125

25.125

釋明恭。住鄭州會善寺。昔在俗。是隋高下[狗-口+一]騎。與伴三人膂力相似。而時所忌。帝深慮以事除之。作兩裹餅啗。一餅裹一具生鹿角。一餅裹五升鹽。俱賜食之並盡。其噉鹽者出至朝堂。腹裂而死。恭噉鹿角全無所覺。厭俗出家住會善寺。其力若神不可當者。曾與超化寺爭地。彼多召無賴者百餘人。來奪會善秋苗。眾咸憂惱。恭曰勿愁。獨詣超化。脫其大鐘塞孔。以乾飯六升投中。水和可噉。一手承底一手取噉。須臾並盡。仍取大石。可三十人轉者。恭獨拈之如小土塊。遠擲于地。超化既見一時驚走。又隋末賊起。周行抄掠。先告寺曰。明當兵至。可辦食具。并大猪一頭。寺無力制。隨言為辦。至時列坐。鋪奠食具。恭不忍斯。負拄杖會所。與賊言議。賊先讓食。恭乃鋪餅數十。安猪裹之。從頭咬拉。須臾並盡。賊眾驚伏。恭召為護寺檀趣。群賊然之。故會善一寺。隋唐交軍。絕賊往來。恭之力也。又曾山行。虎猪交鬪。猪漸不如。恭語虎曰。可放令去。虎不肯。便一手捉頭。一手撮尾。拋之深谷。斯氣力也。說多難信而實有之。恭戒潔貞嚴。常依眾食。所噉如恒人。一食有值機候。便噉二百人料。眾但深訝。莫知其所由。武德五年。終於本寺。春秋八十五。時會善有客遊沙彌。口作吳語。厨下然火。乾竹大如臂。兩指折而燒之。恭時怪訝。亦以指折而不得。沙彌出後。恭抱厨柱起。以沙彌衣置磉上。柱壓之。沙彌來求衣不得。見在柱下。欲取不得。恭笑為捧柱取衣。此亦難可思者。

Shi Minggong resided at Huishan Temple in Zhengzhou. Formerly in secular life, he served as a subordinate cavalryman under Emperor Gao of the Sui. He and three companions had comparable physical strength and were feared by the court of the time. The Emperor deeply worried about them and devised an affair to eliminate them: he had two wrapped cakes prepared to feed them. One cake was wrapped around a whole raw deer antler, and the other cake was wrapped around five sheng of salt. Both men were bestowed them to eat, and they consumed them entirely. The one who ate the salt reached the court hall, whereupon his belly burst and he died. Gong ate the deer antler entirely without feeling anything. Becoming weary of secular life, he renounced household life and lived at Huishan Temple. His strength was godlike and insurmountable. Once, the temple disputed land with Chaohua Temple. The other party summoned more than a hundred scoundrels to come and seize the autumn crops of Huishan Temple. The assembly was all distressed and anxious. Gong said, 'Do not worry.' He went alone to Chaohua Temple, unfastened its great bell, stopped up the hole, and cast into it six sheng of dried cooked rice. Mixed with water, it could be eaten. Supporting the bottom with one hand, he took food with the other hand, and in a moment finished it all. Then he took a huge stone—one that would require about thirty men to roll—and Gong alone picked it up like a small clod of earth and hurled it far to the ground. When the people of Chaohua saw this, they all fled in shock at once. Furthermore, at the end of the Sui dynasty, bandits arose and roved about plundering. They first notified the temple, saying, 'Tomorrow our troops will arrive. You must prepare eating utensils as well as one large pig.' The temple lacked the strength to resist them and prepared them according to their words. When the time came, the bandits sat in rows and spread out the dining wares. Gong could not bear this, so carrying his walking staff, he went to the gathering and conversed with the bandits. The bandits first offered him food; Gong then spread out several tens of cakes, placed the pig within, wrapped it up, and bit and chewed it from the head down, finishing it completely in a moment. The bandit gang was astonished and cowed. Gong invited them to become the temple's protective dānapati patrons, and the bandits agreed. Therefore, at Huishan Temple, during the clash of armies between the Sui and Tang, visits by bandits ceased completely; this was Gong's doing. Once, while walking in the mountains, a tiger and a boar were fighting each other, and the boar was gradually losing. Gong said to the tiger, 'You may let it go.' The tiger was unwilling, so with one hand he seized its head and with the other hand gripped its tail, and hurled it into a deep ravine. Such was his strength! Much of what is told is hard to believe, yet it truly happened. Gong's precepts were pure, chaste, and strict. He always took his meals according to the community's schedule, and what he ate was like ordinary people. Yet when a meal coincided with a fitting occasion, he would eat the provisions of two hundred men. The assembly merely felt deep wonder, not knowing the reason for it. In the fifth year of the Wude reign, he passed away at his home temple, at the age of eighty-five. At that time at Huishan Temple there was a visiting novice who spoke the Wu dialect. Lighting a fire in the kitchen, there was dried bamboo as thick as an arm, and he snapped it with two fingers to burn it. Gong was surprised at the time, and tried to snap it with his fingers as well, but could not. After the novice went out, Gong lifted the kitchen pillar with his arms, placed the novice's robe upon the stone pillar-base, and lowered the pillar onto it. The novice returned to look for his robe but could not find it; seeing it under the pillar, he tried to pull it out but could not. Gong laughed, held up the pillar for him, and retrieved the robe. This, too, is inconceivable.