華嚴經傳記 5.10

5.10

Kang Alushan was a man of Wannian County in Yongzhou. On the first day of the fifth month of the second year of Tiaolu, he contracted an illness and subsequently died. On the fifth day, as they were about to conduct his funeral and carried him to the grave site, before he could be lowered from the carriage, a sound was heard from within the coffin. His relatives suspected that he had come back to life, so they pried open the coffin to inspect it; Alushan had indeed revived. He got up and was carried home, where he personally recounted that he had been mistakenly summoned by the underworld. Before King Yama, there were thirty-five people in all, standing together in a single row. Among them were the Xinfeng [Subprefecture] Guoyi officer and Alushan, fifteen men in all, who had previously observed the precepts; together at the King's seat, they presented their petition and were permitted to return. At that time, he had seen Master Rong, a pharmacist from the East Market. Master Rong had fallen ill and died in the first year of Tiaolu; because he had boiled chicken eggs during his life, he was cast into the cauldron of boiling water hell along with seven hundred people. Knowing Alushan from before, he thereupon entrusted him with a message, saying: 'My fourth son, Xingzheng, has some slight benevolence and compassion. Please tell him on my behalf to have one copy of the Avataṃsaka Sūtra copied. Nothing else can match it. If he would have it copied for me, all seven hundred of these people will attain liberation.' Afterward, when [Alu]shan had recovered his health, he went to Xinfeng to search for the Guoyi officer; when they met, their sorrow and joy were just like that of old friends, and as each related the reasons, their stories coincided exactly. He also went to the medicine-seller A's family in the East Market, and fully reported Rong's words to Xingzheng. Xingzheng was deeply moved and saddened; he thereupon requested the Avataṃsaka Sūtra from Master Fazang at the West Dayuansi, and had someone copy it. At first, after Master Rong had died, the family had no dreams of him whatsoever. But on the evening when the sūtra first began to be copied, the entire family shared the same dream, in which his father came, filled with boundless joy. By the eighth month of the first year of Yonglong, the adornment [of the scrolls] was complete, and they invited an eminent monk to celebrate the sūtra and provide offerings. On that day, Alushan was also in the assembly; he then saw Master Rong and the seven hundred ghost followers all coming to the vegetarian feast, revering the Three Jewels, kneeling together before the monks, repenting, and receiving the precepts. When the matter was finished, they departed. Having fully witnessed the underworld tribunal, [Alu]shan came to deeply believe in sinful karma; he thereupon cut off human affairs, permanently abandoned worldly ties, entered Mounts Taibai and Zhongnan, and devoted himself exclusively to seclusion. Afterward, his end was unknown.