續高僧傳 22.43

22.43

Śramaṇa Daozhou was surnamed Fu and was a native of Shiping in Jingzhao. His grandfather served as the Grand Administrator of Shangdang, and consequently settled in Changzi. Daozhou was by nature intelligent and keen, taking delight in seclusion. When he was fourteen years old, he suffered the loss of his mother; moved by the longing expressed in the 'Liao'e' ode, and feeling that the debt of gratitude could hardly be repaid, he left household life for his mother's sake, his intent firm in filial piety. When he was twenty, he went to Bingzhou and asked Dharma Master Yin to be his preceptor. [The text is corrupt here; it continues:] ... at the age of eighty-five. He was ordered to be escorted to the city gate, where he saw many people wearing red garments and with thick beards coming to welcome him, saying, 'We are the living creatures who were released in Mianzhu.' Thereupon he revived. From then on, he broadly transformed others and established ponds for releasing living beings, building over a hundred of them in various prefectures, which all exist today. Furthermore, the Ganting spirit of Yizhou was mighty and terrifyingly fierce, bringing immediate retribution in misfortune or blessing; the cattle and sheep offered to it in sacrificial prayers with blood and flesh could hardly be counted. Suddenly, speaking through a spirit medium, the spirit wished to receive the precepts from Cheng. An image of the Buddha was placed below the spirit's seat. At that time, the spirit's shadow moved by itself from its original place and sat down facing the Buddha. Cheng conferred the precepts upon it. From then on, on sacrificial days, only vegetarian food was offered. He also went to Master Liu Bei to confer the precepts, and the spirit accompanied him as well. Therefore, wherever Cheng went among the shrines of the spirits in the Shu region, he conferred the precepts upon them, and down to the present day they have not abandoned them. Due to this, monastics and laity took refuge in him, and his words spread like the wind. Furthermore, he constructed a three-hundred-foot great image in Luo County, Mianzhu, which is now completed. Therefore, none of his prayers went unanswered. In the fourth year of the Xianqing era, he passed away at his home monastery at the age of eighty-five. Monastics and laity mourned him, escorting him to the pond for releasing living beings. On the way, it rained heavily three times, and the rain was entirely white. Just as they arrived at the burial site, heaven and earth became clear and bright.