神僧傳 9.4

9.4

釋懷信者。居處廣陵別無奇蹟。會昌三年癸亥歲。武宗為趙歸真排毀釋門。將欲堙滅教法。有淮南詞客劉隱之薄遊四明。旅泊之宵夢中如泛海焉。回顧見塔一所東度。是淮南西靈寺塔。其塔峻峙校胡太后永寧塔少分耳。塔第三層見信凭闌與隱之交談。且曰。暫送塔過東海。旬日而還。數日隱之歸揚州。即往謁信。信曰。記得海上相見時否。隱之了然省悟。後數日天火焚塔俱盡。白雨傾澍。傍有草堂一無所損。由是觀之。東海人見永寧塔不謬矣。

Śramaṇa Huaixin lived in Guangling, and there were no other miraculous traces of him. In the third year of the Huichang era, the guihai year, Emperor Wuzong was influenced by Zhao Guizhen to disparage and destroy the Buddhist order, intending to annihilate the teachings. Liu Yinzhi, a man of letters from Huainan, was traveling casually in Siming. On a night when his boat was anchored on his journey, he dreamt as if floating on the sea. Looking back, he saw a pagoda crossing to the east; it was the pagoda of Xiling Monastery in Huainan. The height and majesty of this pagoda was only slightly less than Empress Dowager Hu's Yongning Pagoda. On the third level of the pagoda, he saw Xin leaning against the balustrade, conversing with Yinzhi, and saying, "I am temporarily escorting the pagoda across the Eastern Sea, and will return in ten days." A few days later, Yinzhi returned to Yangzhou and immediately went to visit Xin. Xin said, "Do you remember when we met upon the sea?" Yinzhi was clearly awakened to it. A few days later, heavenly fire burned the pagoda down completely, while white rain poured down heavily; an adjacent thatched hall suffered no damage at all. Viewed from this, that people of the Eastern Sea saw the Yongning Pagoda was not mistaken.