神僧傳 3.36

3.36

Shi Tanchao's surname was Zhang. He was a native of Qinghe. He was eight chi tall, with an upright and impressive countenance. He ate vegetarian food, wore cloth garments, and ate only once at midday. At first he stayed at Longhua Temple in the capital. At the end of Yuanjia he traveled south to Shixing, viewed its mountains and waters everywhere, and slept alone beneath pine trees, unharmed by tigers or wild oxen. In the Daming era he returned to the capital. When Emperor Taizu of the Qi ascended the throne, he was commanded by imperial decree to go to Liaodong to propagate and extol the way of dhyāna. He stayed there for two years, and the Dharma transformation flourished greatly. At the end of Jianyuan he returned to the capital. Soon afterward he went to Lingyin Mountain in Qiantang, where a single period of samādhi lasted for several days. Suddenly he saw a person come and pay homage, saying, "Your disciple lives at Qilitan. Because the people of Fuyang County quarreled and dug under Mount Lushan, encroaching upon and damaging the dragon dwellings, the dragons are all enraged, and have vowed that there shall be no rain for three hundred days. Now a hundred days have passed, and the fields are parched. We wish to ask your virtuous presence to go forth; it will surely move [the dragons] to bring sweet rain, moistening the people, and the merit will return to you." Tanchao agreed to it, and the spirit departed. Tanchao walked south for five days to Mount Chicheng, where he made incantations and vows for the dragons. When night fell, the dragons transformed into humans, came, and bowed in homage. Tanchao expounded the Dharma further to them, whereupon they begged for the three refuges, stating that they were dragons. Tanchao requested that they send down rain, but they looked at each other without speaking. That night they appeared to Tanchao in a dream, saying, "Originally we made the vow out of wrath. Since the Master has guided us with goodness, we dare not disobey your command. Tomorrow at the申 hour, rain shall fall." When the time came, rain fell abundantly, and the harvest that year was bountiful. He passed away in the tenth year of Yongming at the age of seventy-four.