宋高僧傳 26.31

26.31

Shi Daibing was a native of Tiantai in Taizhou, surnamed Chen. Because he once made a great vow to take upon himself the illnesses of all sentient beings for the entirety of this single retribution, his original name became unrecorded. On the day of his birth, an auspicious light filled the room, which the neighbors found extraordinary. At the age of seven he lost his father, grieving to the point of almost destroying his own life. He addressed his mother requesting to renounce the household life; his mother had barely raised difficulties and obstacles when he severed one of his fingers; his relatives and clan urged and persuaded her, and his widowed mother finally sent him to Guoqing Temple. Having fully received the precepts, he took a vow to travel and observe the various directions. At first he stopped at the present Eastern Capital, and next at Heyang; to relieve drought for the people, he followed the scriptures to paint the eight dragon kings and established a bodhimaṇḍa. When the prayers were completed, he cast them into the river. The entire multitude saw the painted images dive and leap erratically; in a short moment clouds arose from thin air, thunder and rain burst forth violently, and sufficiency was announced for a thousand li. From this time, those who placed their faith in him were numerous. Prior to this, fierce winds and hail were frequent among the three cities, constantly damaging crops and parapets, which was said to be the work of a venomous dragon. Daibing intoned secret mantras for them, and throughout the years that followed, this calamity was completely gone. The people of Mengjin erected a hall for him as a shrine to a living person. In the first year of the Dali era, he ascended Mount Taihang and traveled through Mount Huo, penetrating deep into the secluded wilderness to knot thatch and reside. A person stole his bowl of food, but shortly saw two tigers barring the road; just then encountering Daibing, the thief kowtowed and expressed remorse. After Daibing consoled and instructed him, he stroked the tigers' heads; in this manner he repeatedly subdued ferocious beasts. That thief was originally a woodcutter, and wished to rely on him to practice austerities. In that area was a shrine to the mountain spirit—its spiritual efficacy was widely circulated between Jin and Jiang—and Daibing entered the shrine, urging the spirit to take the refuges and precepts, and to put an end to the boiling and roasting of sacrificial beasts. The stone image of the spirit repeatedly nodded in assent following his exhortation, but looking at his spirit wife, she showed no sign of agreement whatsoever. He thereupon shaved the spirit's hair and dismantled and removed the spirit wife. The villagers thought this strange and reported it to the prefecture and town. The prefect was furious, saying: "When Emperor Gaozu of the Tang first rose and arrived here, he was long beleaguered by overcast skies and rain; this spirit manifested his form and showed the path to welcome the righteous army. Thereafter, stone was polished to make his image, and sacrificial offerings have never been deficient. How dare this shaven-headed monk be so outrageous?" He had him bound and confined in Jiacuan Temple, locking him up under strict guard. On the twentieth day, when the locks were opened, he was in serene dhyāna absorption; the entire town went to gaze upon and pay homage to him, and when someone struck a chime, he slowly arose. The prefect urgently summoned him, but he did not come, even under the threat of having his head cut off. Daibing severed another finger and handed it to the messenger. The prefect was moved, personally went to welcome and invite him, relocated him to Dafan Temple, and separately constructed a brick stūpa to store his severed finger-joint! From then on, patrons and faithful rubbed shoulders and followed heel to heel. A person placed poison in wine and bribed a poor woman to go and offer it. Daibing already knew this. The poor woman deceived him, saying: "My home brew feels very fine; I pour and offer it to the Reverend to seek blessings. Moreover, the Buddha does not oppose the wishes of sentient beings." Daibing said: "You too are a Buddha." However, the poor woman feared being made to drink it in return, and fully reported the truth. Daibing took the cup and sipped it; in a moment, the vapor of the wine reached his two shins and feet, and the ground cracked open for it; those who heard of it were astonished. Making offerings of wine began from this. When the people of Fenxi and Xihe were ill, he merely gave them pure water, and drinking it, they were inevitably cured. Whenever successive famines occurred, he always solicited grain to set out food. Later, in Zhaozhou, to rescue from this barren famine, he conducted bodhimaṇḍas for distributing food, eight assemblies in all; both far and near relied on him, and instances of his spiritual resonance were numerous. On the eighth day of the seventh month in the autumn of the nineteenth year of the Zhenyuan era, he suddenly passed away seated cross-legged. The fourfold assembly at first thought it was like the dhyāna absorption at Jiacuan Temple, and offered incense and flowers. Only when the next year arrived and his flesh gradually hardened did they realize he had passed away forever; they then covered him with lacquer cloth and painted him. When Emperor Wuzong abolished stūpas and images, destroying all without regard to size, someone suggested moving him into a pottery kiln. Soon afterward, an auspicious plant grew there, towering like a canopy, intertwining and winding around, more than sufficient to shelter him from wind and rain. When Emperor Xuanzong ascended the throne and Buddhist affairs enjoyed a resurgence, the administrative monk built a small pavilion and moved his true form to be placed within it. His finger-joint, severed earlier at Jiacuan Temple, had passed over a hundred years, yet its muscle, flesh, and fingernail were glossy and looked like gold. Once during warfare, the city fell and the finger was lost. Later, someone carried it out while fleeing the disaster, and returned it when the trouble ceased. It also invisibly blessed that refugee; to this day, the people of Pingyang revere and believe in it.