冥報記 3.16

3.16

隋大業中。洛陽人。姓王持五戒。時言未然之事。閭里敬信之。一旦忽謂人曰。今日當有人。與我一頭驢。至日午。果有人牽驢一頭送來。涕泣說言。早喪父。其母寡。養一男一女。女嫁而母亡。亦十許年矣。寒食日。妹來歸家。家有驢數年。洛下俗。以寒食日。持酒食祭墓。此人乘驢而往。墓在伊水東。欲度伊水。驢不肯度。鞭其頭面。被傷流血。既至墓所。放驢而祭。俄失其驢。還在本處。是日妹獨在兄家。忽見母入來。頭面血流。形容毀瘁。號泣告女曰。我生避汝兄。送米五升與汝。坐此得罪報。受驢身。償汝兄五年矣。今日欲度伊水。水深畏之。汝兄以鞭捶我。頭面盡破。仍許還家。更苦打我。我走來告汝。吾今償債垂畢。可太非理相苦也。言訖走出。尋之不見。女記其傷狀處。既而兄還。女先觀驢頭面傷破狀。女抱以號泣。兄怪問之。女以狀告。兄亦言初不肯度。及失還得之狀同。於是兄妹。抱持慟哭。驢亦涕淚交流。不食水草。兄妹跪請。若是母者。願為食草。驢即為食草。既而復止。兄妹莫如之何。遂備粟豆送五戒處。乃復飲食。後驢死。妹收葬焉。

During the Daye era of the Sui, there was a man of Luoyang surnamed Wang who upheld the five precepts. He would occasionally speak of things before they occurred, and the village respected and trusted him. One morning he suddenly said to people, 'Today someone will give me a donkey.' When noon arrived, someone indeed led a donkey to present to him, weeping as he explained: He had lost his father early, and his widowed mother had raised a son and a daughter; after the daughter married, the mother died, which was some ten years ago. On the Cold Food Festival, the younger sister came home for a visit; the family had owned a donkey for several years. By the custom of Luoyang, on the Cold Food Festival people would carry wine and food to make offerings at the graves. The man rode the donkey there. The grave was east of the Yi River; when he wished to cross the Yi River, the donkey refused to cross, so he whipped its head and face until it was injured and bleeding. Once he arrived at the grave site, he released the donkey and made the offerings, but soon lost the donkey, which had returned to its original place. On that day, the sister was alone at her brother's house, when she suddenly saw her mother come in, blood streaming down her head and face, her appearance haggard and withered. Weeping bitterly, she told her daughter, 'In life, without your brother's knowledge, I gave you five sheng of rice; for this transgression, I suffered retribution, receiving the body of a donkey, and have been repaying your brother for five years. Today we were to cross the Yi River; the water was deep and I feared it, but your brother beat me with a whip, smashing my head and face all over, and he even promised that upon returning home he would beat me even more severely. I have run here to tell you. I have nearly finished repaying the debt; how could he torment me so unreasonably?' Having finished speaking, she ran out, and upon searching for her, she was nowhere to be seen. The daughter remembered where the wounds were. Soon after, the brother returned, and the daughter first inspected the donkey's head and face for the wounds; embracing it, she wept bitterly. The brother marvelled and asked her about it, and the daughter told him what had happened. The brother also said that it had initially refused to cross, and that its disappearing and returning matched her account. Thereupon the brother and sister embraced the donkey and wailed with grief; tears streamed down the donkey's face as well, and it refused to eat water or grass. The brother and sister knelt and implored it, 'If you are our mother, please eat grass.' The donkey then ate grass for their sake, but soon stopped again. The brother and sister did not know what to do, so they prepared grain and beans and sent it to the place of the keeper of the five precepts, whereupon it ate and drank again. Later, when the donkey died, the sister collected its remains and buried it.