續高僧傳 25.53

25.53

釋慧瑱。上黨人。奉律齊真貞確難拔。住郡內元開府寺。獨靜一房禪懺為業。會周建德六年。國滅三寶。瑱抱持經像隱于深山。遇賊欲劫之。初未覺也。忽見一人形長丈餘。美鬚面。著紗帽。衣青袍。九環金帶吉莫皮靴。乘白馬朱鬉。自山頂徑至瑱前。下馬而謂曰。今夜賊至。師可急避。瑱居懸崖之下。絕無餘道。疑是山神。乃曰。今佛法毀滅。貧道容身無地。故來依投檀越。今有賊來。正可於此取死。更何逃竄神曰。師既遠投弟子。弟子亦能護師。正爾住此。遂失所在。當夜忽降大雪可深丈許。遂免賊難。後群賊更往。神遂告山下諸村曰。賊欲劫瑱師。急往共救。乃各持器仗入山。路中相遇拒擊驚散。從此每日瑱恒憑之安業山阜。不測其卒。

Śramaṇa Huitian was a native of Shangdang. He observed the Vinaya in purity and truth, firm and unshakeable. He resided at Yuankaifu Temple within the commandery, solitary and quiet in a single room, taking meditation and repentance as his practice. It happened that in the sixth year of Jiande of the Zhou, the state eradicated the Triratna. Huitian carried scriptures and images, hiding in deep mountains. He met with bandits who wished to rob him, but at first was unaware of it. Suddenly he saw a man over ten feet tall, with a handsome beard and face, wearing a gauze hat, a blue-green robe, a nine-ringed gold belt, and chimo leather boots, riding a white horse with a vermilion mane. Coming straight from the mountain peak to the front of Huitian, he dismounted and said: 'Tonight bandits will arrive; Master, you should urgently flee.' Huitian, living beneath a hanging cliff, had no other way out. Suspecting this was a mountain spirit, he said: 'Now that the Buddhadharma has been destroyed, this poor monk has no place to lodge his body, so I have come to take refuge with you, dānapati. Now that bandits are coming, I might as well meet death here; where else should I flee?' The spirit said: 'Since the Master has come from afar to take refuge with this disciple, this disciple can also protect the Master. Just stay here.' Then he vanished. That night, heavy snow suddenly fell to a depth of about a zhang, and he thus avoided the bandit calamity. Later, when the bands of bandits went there again, the spirit informed various villages below the mountain, saying: 'Bandits wish to rob Master Tian; go together quickly to rescue him.' Thereupon, each bearing weapons, they entered the mountain. Encountering them on the path, they fought and dispersed the bandits in fright. From this time onward, Huitian relied on him daily to pursue his practice in peace on the mountain heights. His end is unknown.