弘贊法華傳 9.8

9.8

Cui Yanwu of Boling served as Prefect of Wei Prefecture during the Kaihuang reign era of the Sui dynasty. While traveling through his administrative territory, he arrived at a certain hamlet. In astonishment and joyful surprise, he said to his attendants, "In a past life I was once a woman of this hamlet, and now I know where my home was." He then rode his horse into a long lane, turning and winding until he reached a house, where he ordered his men to call at the door. The master of the house was elderly and came out to pay respects. Yanwu entered the house and first ascended its hall. Looking at the eastern wall, six or seven feet from the ground, there was a raised protrusion. He said to the master, "In the past I read the Lotus Sūtra and, together with five gold hairpins, hid them in this wall; that raised place is it. The very last sheet of the seventh scroll of that sūtra was burned by fire, destroying the text. To this day, whenever I read this sūtra, upon reaching the end of the seventh scroll, I forget it and cannot remember it." He then ordered his attendants to chisel into the eastern wall, and indeed they obtained the sūtra wrapper. When they opened it, the end of the seventh scroll and the gold hairpins were all just as he had said. The master wept and said, "When my late wife was alive, she constantly read this sūtra, and the hairpins were also my wife's belongings. Because she died in childbirth, their whereabouts were lost. I never expected that you, commissioner, would know where they were." Yanwu then pointed to a pagoda tree in front of the courtyard and said, "When I was about to give birth, I cut off my own hair and placed it in the hollow of this tree." They had someone search inside the tree to test it, and indeed they found the hair. Thereupon, the master was overcome with sorrow and joy. Yanwu left behind clothes and goods, generously providing for the master before departing.