冥報記 3.15

3.15

京兆潘果。年未弱冠。以武德中。任都水小吏。下歸與里中少年數人。出田遊戲。過於塚間。見一羊。為人所遺。獨立食草。果因與里。中年少捉之。將以歸家。其羊中路而鳴。果懼其主聞。乃拔去其羊舌。乃無聲。於是夜烹食之。後一年。果舌漸小。遂銷盡。陳牒解職。富平縣尉鄭餘慶。疑其詐也。開口驗之。乃全無舌。看本處。纔如豆許不盡。怪問之。果盡以實答其狀。縣官教為羊追福。果乃受五戒。大修福。後一年舌漸生。尋平復如舊。詣縣自陳。縣官用為里正。餘慶貞觀十八年為監察御吏。自向臨說云爾。

Pan Guo of Jingzhao was not yet twenty years of age when, during the Wude era, he served as a minor clerk in the Directorate of Waterways. After going off duty, he returned home and went out to the fields to amuse himself with several young men of his village. Passing among the graves, they saw a stray sheep that had been lost by its owner, grazing on the grass alone. Guo and the village youths caught it and were going to take it home. On the way, the sheep began to bleat; fearing that its owner would hear, Guo pulled out the sheep's tongue, and it made no more sound. That night they cooked and ate it. A year later, Guo's tongue gradually shrank until it completely melted away. He submitted a petition to be relieved of his office. Zheng Yuqing, the county defender of Fuping, suspected that he was feigning, and opened his mouth to inspect it, finding that he had no tongue at all; looking at the original site, only a remnant the size of a small bean was left unconsumed. Marvelling at this, he questioned him, and Guo fully reported the truth of the matter. The county magistrate instructed him to cultivate merit on behalf of the sheep. Guo then received the five precepts and extensively cultivated merit. A year later, his tongue gradually regrew, and soon became fully restored as before. He went to the county office to report in person, and the county magistrate employed him as a village headman. In the eighteenth year of the Zhenguan era, Yuqing was an investigating censor, and he personally related this to Tang Lin.