宋高僧傳 19.51

19.51

釋惟忠，少孺為僧，勵精自行，在乎群等，莫不宗焉。出家法定寺——本是後漢永平中佛法始流中國便有，置德淨伽藍，神光屢現。至宋釋惠持自廬阜辭遠公法兄，誓化岷蜀。屬譙縱不道，令數輩操刃欲屠持。持乃彈指，其眾驚奔僵仆。隋開皇四年改名法定焉。寺有彌勒聖像。唐武德中忽有枯查沿江而至，夜發光明，因雕作像首。貞觀中竇軌為長吏劍門，佛首光見引達于府。竇公令人迎取，數百人亦不能勝。乃令祝之，任欲何往，遂言：「可就法定否？」乃一人能舉。竇遂造佛身，長史高士廉蓋殿以安之。後有僧汎愛樹其浮圖，而獲一巨蟹，身足二尺餘。是塔頗多靈異，人或將酒肉乘醉詣聖佛前，立見災禍矣。忠於天寶中於寺，愈加精苦。無何，塔為霆震，拔其塔心柱出外，忽有小木承代之意，眾咸怪之，罔測厥由。忠乃叩搕於聖彌勒像，告訴天龍合加畏重，何輒震擊，奪塔心柱邪？是知庶女呌而雷擊景公臺，誠有所感。一日迅雷烈風，還同前震。覆覩之，乃龍神送舊柱，安置如故。當其易柱，陰雲四合，有四神人以身扶翼，立與塔齊。忠之感物也若此。會昌坼寺之前，舍利七粒出相輪上，白光滿空，向西飛去，蜀皆所目覩。將倒之時，赤光見于半天焉。又此寺有大棗樹，將毀寺之年，其樹枯瘁。及大中再置，其棗重榮也。忠後終于寺。

Shi Weizhong became a monk in his youth and diligently cultivated his personal conduct, being revered by all among his peers. He went forth from home at Fading Temple—which originally existed when the Buddha's teaching first flowed into China during the Yongping era of the Later Han, when it was established as Dejing Monastery, and miraculous lights repeatedly appeared. During the Song dynasty, Shi Huichi took leave of his Dharma brother Master Yuan at Mount Lu, vowing to convert the Min and Shu regions. At the time of Qiao Zong's unprincipled rebellion, several men were ordered to wield blades and slaughter Chi. Chi snapped his fingers, and the men fled in terror or collapsed to the ground. In the fourth year of Kaihuang of the Sui, it was renamed Fading. The temple possessed a sacred image of Maitreya. During the Wude era of the Tang, a withered piece of driftwood suddenly came floating down the river, emitting light at night; it was therefore carved into the head of the Buddha image. During the Zhenguan era, when Dou Gui was Chief Administrator of Jianmen, the light of the Buddha head appeared and led him to the commandery office. Duke Dou ordered men to welcome and bring it, but several hundred men could not lift it. He then ordered prayers to be made, leaving it to go wherever it wished, and when someone said, “May it go to Fading Temple?”, a single man was able to lift it. Dou then fashioned the Buddha’s body, and Chief Administrator Gao Shilian built a hall to house it. Later, a monk named Fan'ai erected a stūpa there and captured a giant crab whose body and legs were over two feet long. This pagoda exhibited many miraculous occurrences; if someone carried wine and meat and approached the sacred Buddha in a drunken state, disaster would be seen immediately. During the Tianbao era, Zhong became even more assiduous in his austerities at the temple. Before long, a thunderbolt struck the pagoda and uprooted the central pillar of the stūpa, casting it outside, and suddenly a small piece of wood seemed to support and replace it. Everyone found this strange and could not discern the reason. Zhong prostrated and knocked his head before the sacred Maitreya image, complaining to the heavenly beings and nāgas that they ought to increase their reverence, asking why they had abruptly struck the pagoda with thunder and seized its central pillar. From this we know that just as the common woman’s cry caused lightning to strike Duke Jing’s terrace, sincere feeling truly evokes a response. One day, swift thunder and violent winds arose, just like the previous lightning strike. Looking again, they saw that the dragon spirits had brought back the old pillar and installed it as before. When the pillar was replaced, dark clouds gathered from all four sides, and four divine beings supported it with their bodies, standing as high as the pagoda. Such was the extent to which Zhong moved things. Before the destruction of the temple during the Huichang era, seven grains of śarīra emerged upon the dew basin, and their white light filled the sky, flying off to the west, which was witnessed by all the people of Shu. When the pagoda was about to collapse, a red light appeared halfway up the sky. Moreover, there was a large date tree at this temple; in the year the temple was to be destroyed, the tree withered. When the temple was re-established during the Dazhong era, the date tree flourished once again. Zhong later ended his life at the temple.