冥報記 3.8

3.8

Jiang Lue, a woman of Tianshui and a Brave-as-Eagles General under the Sui, hunted in her youth and was skilled at flying falcons. Later, she fell ill and saw thousands of birds, all without heads, surrounding her bed and chirping, 'Quickly return our heads to us!' Lue would then suffer a headache and lose her breath; after a long time she would revive. She prayed to cultivate posthumous merit on behalf of the birds. When she promised to do so, they all departed, and she was presently cured. Thereupon, for the rest of her life, she abstained from wine and meat and did not kill living beings. (When I was in Longyou, I saw Jiang in summer; she was about sixty years of age and recounted this to me herself.)