神僧傳 5.46

5.46

Shi Mingjing was a native of Gaomi. Having renounced household life in his youth, he took delight in meditation as his vocation. Later, he traveled south to the various mountains of Dongyue and Tiantai, keeping meditative contemplation in his heart without attachment to worldly habits. Yet his robes were tattered, and his deportment moved with the times; his fellow companions of meditation did not yet understand or extol him. When mountain grain ran out, he went daily to the villages to beg for food. While carrying [food] back on the road, he encountered a pack of tigers, all with open mouths and closed eyes as if famished. Mingjing said, 'I have walked through mountains and marshes extensively; tigers and rhinos harbor no intention to fear me. Now that you line the roadside, is it not for food?' He then used a spoon to dish out rice and put it into their mouths; the others watched and ate it completely. He addressed them, 'Knowing that the food brought back was meager, I rashly provided for both myself and others, falling far short of my wish, for which I feel deeply ashamed.' When he begged for food the following day, the tigers acted as before. It once happened that a severe drought arose; the crops all withered, and practitioners of excessive and improper sacrifices made futile prayers and entreaties, but despite intense sincerity, they could never bring [rain]. Mingjing said, 'You may cease all heterodox prayers; I alone can bring it down.' He then observed a retreat in a quiet room for seven days. At dawn, clouds spread and rain fell, pouring down abundantly upon high and low alike, benefiting the common people. From the winter of the third year of Zhenguan to the sixth month of the fourth year in summer, no rain fell. The Son of Heaven issued an edict commanding universal rain sacrifices at all shrines of the sacred peaks and waterways. At that time, across ten thousand leagues the land was scorched and dried up, without any response whatsoever. There was a Vice Minister Pan who had formerly served in Mizhou; knowing that Jing could elicit numinous responses, he submitted a memorial reporting this. An imperial decree summoned him to the capital and ordered him to stay and pray for rain. When asked what he required, he made no wasteful expense, wishing only: 'Quietly contemplate the Three Jewels and compassionately rescue the four kinds of living beings; after seven days, sweet rain will surely fall.' He then engaged in silent meditation in a quiet room at Zhuangyan Monastery. Approaching dawn on the seventh day, he asked the guards, 'In the northwest of the sky, there should be a white rainbow; you may try looking.' Following his words, they immediately saw it. Mingjing said, 'Rain is certain to arrive.' In an instant, clouds gathered and heavy rain suddenly fell; by late afternoon, the entire realm was thoroughly soaked, which led to a bountiful year. An imperial decree ordained three thousand monks in total to repay Jing's virtue. His supernatural responses were difficult to conceive, and his manifestations impossible to fathom. However, because the capital was clamorous and crowded, and by nature he disliked intimacy with such environments, he requested permission to return to Yisheng Monastery in his native district to dwell in the mountains and continue his practice. In the end, no one knew of his survival or passing.