冥報記 3.9

3.9

隋開皇初。冀州外邑中。有小兒。年十三。常盜隣家雞卵。燒而食之。後早朝村人未起。其父聞。外有人叩門。呼此兒聲。父令兒出應之。見一人云。官喚汝侵。兒曰。喚我役者。入取衣糧。使者曰。不須也。因引兒。出村門。村南舊是桑田。耕訖未下種。是且。此兒忽見。道有一小城。四面門樓。丹素甚麗。兒怪曰。何時有此。使者呵之。使勿言。因引至城北門。令兒前入。兒入度間城門忽閉。不見一人。唯是空城。地皆殺灰碎火。深纔沒踝。兒忽呼叫。走赴南門。垂至而閉。又走東西北門。亦皆如是。未往則開。既至便闔。時村人出田。男女大小皆見。此兒在耕田中。口似啼聲。四方馳走。皆相謂曰。此兒狂耶。且來如此。遊戲不息。至日食時。採桑者皆歸。兒父問曰。見吾兒不。桑人答曰。在村南走戲。喚不肯來。父出村。遙見兒走。大呼其名。一聲便住。城灰忽不見。見父而倒。號泣不言之。視其足。半脛已上。血肉燋乾。其膝已下。洪爛如炙。抱歸養療髀肉如故。膝下遂為枯骨。隣里聞之。共視其走處。足跡通利。了無灰火。於是邑人。男女大小。皆持戒練行（有大德僧道慧本冀州人。為臨言之。此其隣邑也）。

At the beginning of the Kaihuang era of the Sui, in an outlying district of Jizhou, there was a young boy aged thirteen who constantly stole his neighbor's chicken eggs, roasted them, and ate them. Later, early in the morning before the villagers had arisen, his father heard someone knocking on the outer door and calling the boy's name. The father told the boy to go out and answer it. He saw a man who said, 'The authorities summon you for corvée.' The boy said, 'If you summon me for corvée, let me go inside to fetch clothes and provisions.' The messenger said, 'There is no need.' He then led the boy out through the village gate. South of the village were formerly mulberry fields, which had been plowed but not yet sown. This morning, the boy suddenly saw that by the road there was a small city, with gate towers on all four sides, painted in red and white very beautifully. The boy marveled, 'When was this built?' The messenger scolded him and made him keep silent. He then led him to the north gate of the city and ordered the boy to enter first. As the boy stepped through, the city gate suddenly shut. Not a single person was to be seen; it was only an empty city, and the ground was entirely burning ash and fragmented fire, barely deep enough to submerge one's ankles. The boy cried out in panic and ran toward the south gate, but just as he approached, it shut. He ran to the east, west, and north gates as well, and all were like this: before he arrived they were open, but as soon as he reached them, they closed. At that time, villagers went out to the fields, and all—men and women, young and old—saw this boy running wildly in all four directions in the plowed fields, making sounds like weeping. They all said to one another, 'Is this boy mad? Ever since he came here, he has been playing without rest.' When it was time for breakfast, the mulberry pickers all returned. The boy's father asked, 'Have you seen my boy?' The mulberry pickers replied, 'He is running and playing south of the village; when we called him, he refused to come.' The father went out of the village and saw from afar his boy running. He called his name loudly, and at the single shout, the boy stopped. The city and ashes suddenly disappeared. Seeing his father, he collapsed, weeping and unable to speak. The father looked at his feet: from mid-calf upward, the flesh and blood were scorched dry, and below his knees, they were festered and rotten as if roasted. He carried him home and nursed him; the flesh of his thighs returned to normal, but below his knees they ultimately became withered bones. When the neighbors heard of this, they went together to look at the place where he had run; the footprints were clear, with no ash or fire whatsoever. Thereupon the people of the district, men and women, young and old, all upheld the precepts and practiced spiritual purification. (The monk of great virtue Daohui, originally a native of Jizhou, related this to me; this was in his neighboring district.)