神僧傳 5.32

5.32

Shi Huixiang had the lay surname Zhou. He renounced household life at fifteen, practicing dhūta and begging for food. In silence, he engaged in meditation and chanting, not mingling with the multitude. When he was nineteen, he contracted an illness; after three months of medical treatment, there was no sign of recovery. Sitting in meditation at night, he sighed and said, "A great man originally intended to devote his body to the Way, subduing the unrighteous within the Latter Dharma. How can this aspiration remain unfulfilled, while I am trapped by illness?" Near dawn, a man over ten feet tall spoke to him, saying, "Just chant the Nirvāṇa [Sūtra], and have no worry of not recovering." When dawn came, he immediately chanted it, and was cured in three days. In the summer of the late Daye era, while eating, he obtained a śarīra in his mouth; unable to recognize it, he threw it on the ground, but it reappeared in his mouth. This happened several times. Suspecting it to be a genuine relic, he struck it with an anvil and hammer, but it could not be broken. He then struck the bell to announce it to the assembly; monastics and laypeople all gathered. Xiang wept and burned incense, praying for it to manifest its mighty power. In an instant, it emitted five-colored light, and a wondrous fragrance filled the city. The assembly regarded it as unprecedented. His physique was stout and fair, over eight feet tall; passersby who did not know him all marveled at and admired him. Li Shengming, the Prefect, came to the temple and found his appearance strange. He said to the officials, "If this man of the Way has such a complexion and build, he must consume a whole sheep daily." Having finished speaking, he felt his hands and feet lose mobility, and while riding his horse, he lost control of the reins. When the officials told him the truth, he repented, apologized, and returned. Furthermore, Grand Commissioner Quan Mao went to Dengzhou and also expressed wonder to Shengming, saying, "This Venerable One is extraordinary," and recounted the former circumstances in detail. Mao did not believe it, and requested to take him for seven days to test him with coarse food; however, his complexion became even more radiant. Mao felt humbled and repented for his previous sin of disbelief. When Xiang was about to pass away, holding a sūtra in his hands and kneeling in the barbarian style, he said to his disciples, "I am departing now. You must maintain this well and not allow it to be extinguished." A wondrous fragrance was also felt filling the city. In the eighth month of the final year of the Daye era, he died at the age of seventy. Although his breath and life were extinguished, he remained kneeling in the barbarian style holding the sūtra as before. People from far and near rushed to the scene; seeing him standing upright, all sighed in astonishment.