弘贊法華傳 7.15

7.15

The upāsaka Wang, named Fanhang, was a native of Linyi in Langya. He lost both eyes when young. His mother, out of loving compassion, taught him the Lotus Sūtra by mouth. By the age of thirteen, he was fluent in the entire text. He continued to recite and practice day and night with single-minded devotion, reciting it seventeen thousand times. Although his eyes could not see, when walking about he needed no guide ahead, naturally recognizing pits and hollows. He was able to weave mats and hampers and sew clothes and write letters better than sighted people; all suspected that he possessed some special attainment. He kept a vegetarian diet and held the precepts of fasting, never marrying. At the age of seventy-one, he died in the sixth year of the Kaihuang reign era. In the forest graveyard among the grasses of the wilds, birds and beasts did not dare approach. After the flesh was entirely decomposed and only white bones remained, his tongue then emerged from his mouth, more than a foot long, colored like a lotus flower. His younger brother Huiyi placed it in a brick reliquary, and after a long time it still did not decay.