冥報記 2.13

2.13

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.