冥報記 2.18

2.18

東宮右監門兵曹參軍鄭師辨。年未弱冠時。異病死。三日而蘇。自言。有數人見收。將行入官府大門。見有囚百餘人。皆重行北面立。凡為六行。其前行者。形狀肥白。好衣服。如貴人。後行。漸瘦惡。或著枷鎖。或但去巾帶。皆行連袂。嚴兵守之。師辨至。配入第三行東頭第三立。亦去巾帶。連袂。辨憂懼。專心念佛。忽見生平相識僧來。入兵圍行內。兵莫之止。因至辨所。謂曰。平生不修福。今忽至此如何。辨求哀請救。僧曰。吾今救汝得出。可持戒也。辨許諾。須臾。吏引入諸囚。至官前。以次許問至辨。因見。向者僧。為官說其福業。官曰放之。僧因引辨出至門外。為授五戒。用瓶水灌其額。謂曰。日西當活。又以黃帔一枚。與辨曰。披此至家。置淨處也。仍示歸路。辨披之而歸。至家疊帔置床角上。既而目開身動。家人驚散。謂欲起屍。唯母不去。問曰。汝治耶。辨曰。日西當活辨意。時疑日午問母。母曰。夜半。方知死生返晝夜也。既至日西。能食而愈。猶見帔在床頭。及辨能起。帔形漸滅而尚有光。七日乃盡。辨遂持五戒。後數年。有人勸食猪肉。辨不得已。食一臠。是夜夢。已化為羅剎。爪齒各長數尺。捉生猪食之。既曉覺口腥唾出。而使人視之。滿口中。盡是凝血。辨驚懼不敢食肉。又數年。娶妻。妻逼之食食乃無驗。然而辨自六年來。鼻常有大瘡洪爛然自不能愈。或恐以破戒之故也（臨昔與辨同直東宮。見其自說云爾）。

Zheng Shibian, Officer for Military Affairs of the Right Gate Guard of the Crown Prince's Palace, died of a strange illness before reaching the age of twenty and revived after three days. He recounted that several men arrested him and led him into the main gate of an official bureau. He saw over a hundred prisoners standing in multi-tiered ranks facing north, arranged into six rows in total. Those in the front ranks were plump and fair, wearing fine clothes like persons of high rank. The rear ranks grew progressively leaner and more wretched, some wearing cangues and locks, others having merely had their caps and sashes removed; all stood sleeve to sleeve, guarded strictly by armed soldiers. When Shibian arrived, he was assigned to stand as the third person at the eastern end of the third row, also with his cap and sash removed, sleeve to sleeve with the others. Shibian was worried and terrified, so he concentrated his mind on reciting the Buddha's name. Suddenly, he saw a monk he had known in life enter inside the cordon of soldiers; the soldiers did not stop him. Coming up to Shibian, he said to him: 'In life you did not cultivate merit; now you have suddenly arrived here, what will you do?' Shibian begged piteously for rescue. The monk said: 'If I rescue you now so you can get out, will you uphold the precepts?' Shibian agreed. A moment later, an officer brought the prisoners before the magistrate, questioning them in turn until he reached Shibian. He then saw the former monk explain his meritorious deeds to the magistrate. The magistrate said, 'Release him.' The monk then led Shibian out beyond the gate, transmitted the five precepts to him, and poured water from a flask onto his forehead, saying: 'When the sun moves to the west, you shall revive.' He also gave a yellow cape to Shibian, saying: 'Wear this until you reach home, and place it in a pure spot.' He then pointed out the road home. Shibian wore it and returned; arriving home, he folded the cape and placed it on the corner of his bed. Soon after, his eyes opened and his body moved. His family fled in alarm, thinking he was about to become a vetāla. Only his mother did not leave, asking: 'Are you cured?' Shibian said, 'I was supposed to revive when the sun moved to the west.' Shibian thought it was noon and questioned his mother, but she replied, 'It is midnight.' Only then did he realize that day and night are reversed between the living and the dead. When the sun reached the west, he was able to eat and recovered. He could still see the cape at the head of the bed; by the time Shibian could get up, the shape of the cape gradually faded away, though it still gave off light, disappearing completely only after seven days. Shibian then upheld the five precepts. Several years later, someone urged him to eat pork. Unable to refuse, Shibian ate a morsel. That night he dreamed that he had transformed into a rākṣasa, with claws and teeth several feet long, seizing a live pig and eating it. Upon waking at dawn, he felt a foul, fishy taste in his mouth, and when he spat and had someone inspect it, his whole mouth was full of clotted blood. Shibian was terrified and dared not eat meat. Several years later, he married; his wife forced him to eat it, but this time there was no such omen. However, for the past six years, Shibian has constantly had a large, severely festering sore on his nose that fails to heal of itself; it is feared that this may be due to his breaking the precepts. (Lin formerly served on night watch in the Crown Prince's Palace together with Shibian, and heard him recount this himself.)