冥報記 2.13

2.13

武德中。以都水使者蘇長。為邑州刺史。長將家口赴任。渡嘉陵江。中流風起船沒。男女六十餘人。一時溺死。唯有一妾。常讀法花經。船中水入。妾頭載經函。誓與俱沒。妾獨不沒。隨波汎濫。頃之著岸。逐經楊州。嫁為人婦。而逾篤信。岑說云。見在妾自言然。臨因使其江上。船人說亦如此。

During the Wude reign, Su Chang, commissioner of waterways, was appointed prefect of Yizhou. Chang was taking his family to assume his post and was crossing the Jialing River. In midstream, a wind arose and the boat sank; more than sixty men and women drowned all at once. Only a concubine, who regularly recited the Saddharmapuṇḍarīka Sūtra, when the water entered the boat, placed the sūtra case on her head and vowed to sink together with it. She alone did not drown; floating on the waves, she soon reached the shore. Later, she went via Yangzhou and was married to someone as a wife, becoming all the more devout in her faith. Magistrate Cen said that he had seen this concubine in person, who herself related it was so. Lin subsequently had an official mission along the river, and the boatmen also recounted the matter in the same way.