宋高僧傳 24.52

24.52

光覽此經，倍加精進。後以偏感有親在吳，未答慈力，表乞歸省養，詔旨未允。遂生有妄之疾，策蹇強力，將投于淵。驢伏不前，群烏拂頂，心既曉覺，疾亦隨瘳。乃以經頂荷行道，忽有詔許還。既止烏程，構營寶塔；日持《法華》偈，成報往願焉。永泰元年，浙西廉使韋元甫表請光為六郡別勅道場持念之首。大曆癸丑歲——顏魯公真卿領郡，相國李紳父為烏程宰——，紳未朞歲，乳病暴作而不啼不鑒者七辰。召光至，命乳母洗滌焚香，乃朗諷經〈分別功德品〉。遂起席而坐，拱手開眸。光授飲杯水，令強乳哺之，疾乃徐愈。光笑而謂曰：「汝何願返之遄速乎？」因以光名易紳小字。貞元中，紳重遊霅上，泊舟之次，光早遲竚于溪側，而笑言戲撫之，若稚孺焉。後紳刺于吳興，飲醉于館，光引宿於道場。夜分將醒，白光滿室，朗然若晝。往覘，光公宴坐，梵音方作，光起面門，如開毫相。經音向息，光色隨斂。紳歸京相辭，光曰：「汝得徑山之言，吾則無以為諭。行矣自愛，去留有時。他日位處廟堂，以教法為外護乎？」永貞元年十二月黑月既夕，示滅于持經道場，獸嘷鳥墜，山木驚振。異香芬馥，信宿不消。刺史顏防深愴悼之。光一納四十歲無浣濯，而戒香欝然；一飯七十載，徵驗絕多。故相李公紳素於空門寡信，頗規僧過，而敦重光公，自著碑題云「墨詔持經大德神異碑銘」，布衣楊夔書云。

When Guang examined this sūtra, his diligence doubled. Later, moved with filial thoughts because his mother remained in Wu and he had yet to repay her maternal love, he submitted a memorial requesting permission to return home and attend to her; but the imperial decree did not grant it. He thereupon contracted an illness born of delusion. Urging on his donkey and exerting his strength, he was about to throw himself into an abyss. The donkey prostrated itself and refused to advance, while a flock of crows brushed against his crown. Once his mind awakened, his illness subsided accordingly. He then carried the sūtra on his head and circumambulated, when suddenly an imperial decree arrived granting his return. Once he settled in Wucheng, he constructed a precious pagoda and daily recited the Lotus Sūtra verses, thereby fulfilling his former vow. In the first year of Yongtai, the Surveillance Commissioner of Western Zhejiang, Wei Yuanfu, submitted a memorial requesting Guang to serve as the head of recitation at the specially decreed bodhimaṇḍas across the six commanderies. In the guichou year of Dali—when Duke Yan of Lu, Yan Zhenqing, governed the commandery, and the father of Chancellor Li Shen was magistrate of Wucheng—Shen, who was not yet a year old, suddenly developed an infantile illness and neither cried nor opened his eyes for seven days. Guang was summoned. He instructed the wet nurse to wash and burn incense, and then clearly chanted the 'Discrimination of Merits' chapter of the sūtra. The infant thereupon sat up on his mat, clasped his hands, and opened his eyes. Guang gave him a cup of water to drink and bade her force-feed him milk, whereupon the illness gradually resolved. Guang smiled and said to him: "Why were you wishing to return so swiftly?" He consequently changed Shen's childhood name using Guang's name. During the Zhenyuan era, when Shen visited the Zha River again and moored his boat, Guang had long been waiting by the stream bank, and playfully stroked and laughed with him as if he were still an infant. Later, when Shen was regional inspector of Wuxing and got drunk at the hostel, Guang guided him to sleep in the bodhimaṇḍa. Around midnight, just as Shen was waking up, a white light filled the room, as bright as day. Peeking out, he saw the Venerable Guang sitting in meditation; as the Sanskrit chanting began, light radiated from his face like the opening of the ūrṇā mark. When the sound of the sūtra drew to an end, the light gathered back accordingly. When Shen was returning to the capital and came to say farewell, Guang said: "You have received the words of Mount Jingshan; I have nothing further to instruct you. Go and take care of yourself; there is a time to depart and a time to remain. When you hold a position at court in future days, will you serve as an external protector of the teaching?" On the evening after the dark moon in the twelfth month of the first year of Yongzhen, he manifested extinction at the bodhimaṇḍa for reciting sūtras; beasts howled, birds fell, and mountain trees shook. An extraordinary fragrance wafted about and did not dissipate for two nights. The regional inspector, Yan Fang, mourned him deeply. Guang wore a single patched robe for forty years without washing it, yet the fragrance of his precepts was luxuriant; he ate one meal a day for seventy years, and his miraculous signs were exceedingly numerous. The late Chancellor, Lord Li Shen, had ordinarily possessed little faith in Buddhism and frequently reprimanded the faults of monks; yet he deeply respected the Venerable Guang, personally composing an inscription entitled 'Inscription on the Miracles of the Great Worthy Who Recited Sūtras by Ink Edict', which was transcribed by the commoner Yang Kui.