弘贊法華傳 10.20

10.20

儀鳳年。汝州梁縣北。有梁村劉氏男。失名。先因從征東討高麗。沒為奴。於遼海東岸牧馬。因而寢睡。屢夢有一僧。喚令入海。共海歸家。若此非一。劉氏子自惟。漂落與死莫殊。頻感斯夢。逐投身海浦。於水中。抱得菊草一束。隨波漂流。浮渡西。至于岸上。行餘一里。思念。此草能濟吾身命。劫迴取草。解束曝之。乃於其中。得法花經第六卷。遂持還家。其父劉老。先緣子沒蕃。遂為造法花經一部。書寫清淨。每事嚴潔。及見子到。相持悲慶。怪問所由。劉氏子。具說前事。父子遂共於精舍中。開視經函。乃欠第六一卷。驗其子於海中得者。果是其父為子所造之經。部軸具足。紙墨僉同。彼此無殊。宛然符會。於是。父子篤信三寶。戒行精勵。

During the Yifeng era (676–679 CE), north of Liang County in Ruzhou, there was a man of the Liu family in Liang Village whose personal name is lost. Previously, having taken part in the expedition east to attack Goguryeo, he had been captured and made a slave, herding horses on the eastern shore of the Liao Sea. While sleeping there, he repeatedly dreamt of a monk who called to him to enter the sea and return home with the sea. This happened more than once. The son of the Liu family thought to himself, "Wandering adrift is no different from death; having repeatedly received this dream, I will throw myself into the cove." In the water he grabbed a bundle of chrysanthemum-weed, and drifting with the waves, he floated west until he reached the shore. After walking more than a li, he thought, "This plant was able to save my life; I must turn back to retrieve it." He untied the bundle and laid it out to dry, and inside it he found the sixth fascicle of the Lotus Sūtra. He then carried it back home. His father, Old Liu, because his son had previously been lost in foreign territory, had produced a copy of the Lotus Sūtra for him, copying it purely and making every matter solemn and clean. When he saw his son arrive, they embraced each other in weeping and joy, and [the father] marveled and asked the reason. The son of the Liu family related the previous events in detail. Father and son then went together into the shrine room and opened the sūtra case to look; it was indeed missing the sixth fascicle. Examining the one the son had found in the sea, it was truly the sūtra the father had made for his son: the sets and scrolls were complete, the paper and ink were identical, with no difference between them, matching perfectly. Thereupon, father and son became deeply devoted to the Three Jewels and rigorously cultivated their precepts.