宋高僧傳 30.8

30.8

Śramaṇa Yuanbiao was originally a man of the Three Han. During the Tianbao era, he came to travel in China, and further went to the Western Regions to pay homage to the sacred sites. Meeting the Bodhisattva King of Mind, who pointed him toward the spiritual dwelling of Mount Zhiti, he thereupon carried on his back the eighty-fascicle Avataṃsaka Sūtra, sought out Huotong, paid homage to the Bodhisattva Tianguan, and came to live in the stone chamber of Zhiti. Prior to this, this mountain did not permit people to dwell there; if one lived there, there would inevitably be many thunderclaps, fierce beasts, and venomous insects, or else ghosts and goblins would bewilder and disturb them. Once, a monk who had not attained the Way boldly stayed there for a night, but was driven out by the mountain god; the next morning, his body was seen cast down several li below the mountain. Biao carried his scriptures and stayed there, drinking from mountain torrents and feeding on trees; later, no traces of his comings and goings were known. At that time, when the Huichang suppression and destruction occurred, Biao took the scriptures, placed them in a box of rosewood, and concealed them deep within the stone chamber. By the bingyin year, the first year of the Dazhong era of Emperor Xuanzong, Chan Master Huiping of Baofu, having long heard of past events, personally led faithful laypeople to welcome them out into the Ganlu Duwei Cloister; their paper and ink looked as if newly written, and they are now stored in a Buddhist temple in Fuzhou. There was also Śramaṇa Quanqing of Kuaiji, a native of Yue. Plowing and weeding the field of precepts, he was fragrant like sweet basil. In the esoteric mantras and spells, he was able to interrogate and indict ghosts and spirits. At that time, the wife of Wang, a marketplace broker, suffered from an evil affliction; her speech was wild and inverted, and she would either weep or laugh, continuing like this for several years. They summoned Qing to cure her; he thereupon tied up a straw figure over a foot long, clothed it in five colors, placed it on an altar, and cast spells and prohibitions over it. After a long while, the woman spoke, begging for her life, and then recorded her situation, saying, 'In a past year on a spring day, I attached myself to her in front of the Shrine of Yu. If the Master will not kill me, I will leave and go far away.' Qing then took a jar and used a whip to drive the straw effigy into it, which made whimpering sounds; he sealed the mouth of the vessel with Liuyi mud, stamped it with a talisman drawn in cinnabar, and buried it beneath a mulberry grove, warning the family members not to disturb it, whereupon the woman's illness was cured. Five years later, when Liu Hanhong and Dong Chang confronted each other across the river, the city of Yue fell. People thought this was a hidden treasure hoard; when they dug up and smashed the jar, they saw a crow burst out flying, perch on the tip of a mulberry tree, and speak in human words, saying, 'Now I get to see the light of the sun!' At that time, Master Qing had already passed away.