神僧傳 4.31

4.31

Shi Shangyuan, whose secular surname was Chen, was a native of Guanghan. He renounced household life and used dhāraṇī arts to rescue living beings. In the palace of Xiao Ji, Prince of Wuling of the Liang, ghosts and specters bewitched the palace women; singing and weeping, they caused chaotic disturbances. The Prince then ordered skilled archers to draw their bows and aim at them. When the ghosts manifested their forms, they shot arrows at the ghosts, but the ghosts caught them from afar and hurled them back at the people; this went on for a long time without ceasing. Hearing that Shangyuan upheld dhāraṇīs, he invited him into the palace. The ghosts vied with one another to perform various transformations, manifesting dragons, snakes, and hundreds of beasts, flickering suddenly in front and behind, in the air and on the ground, with manifold strange transformations. Shangyuan sat calmly and addressed them, saying, "You petty domestic ghosts, for what reason do you dare to enter the Prince's palace? If you can transform my body, then you may transform yourselves into ten thousand kinds; but you are merely petty ghosts. You may halt and listen to my single word." The ghosts joined their palms and stood still. Only when Shangyuan uttered, "Namo buddhāya," did all the ghosts vanish from their places. From then on, all was peaceful and quiet. When Emperor Wu heard of it, he summoned him and rewarded him with great favor. At the age of eighty-one, he passed away in the city where he lived.