三寶感應要略錄 2.118

2.118

The monk Qingxu of Huiyi Monastery in Zizhou had chanted the Diamond Prajñāpāramitā since his youth. At the beginning of the tenth month in the first year of the Wansui Tongtian reign era, among the Sanzong Mountains north of Lingyan Monastery in Qi, he made a vow to accept and uphold the Diamond Prajñāpāramitā for the sake of sentient beings suffering in the three wretched realms. From the evening of the twenty-third day of the tenth month, he sat upright in the mountains chanting the scripture. Suddenly, as if in a dream, he saw a city about five li square. The monk walked along a road to the eastern gate of the city, which was barely large enough to admit one person. The monk asked a gatekeeper who naturally knew, "When will the Great King release the sentient beings suffering in hell?" The gatekeeper answered: "Yesterday at the hour of the sheep (1–3 p.m.), a Chan master from Qizhou, holding a monk's staff in hand and appearing over seventy years of age, came before the king and said to him: 'There is a visiting monk who is chanting the Diamond Prajñāpāramitā for the sake of sentient beings suffering in the three wretched realms. Does the king know this or not? When will the Great King grant a respite and release the sentient beings suffering in hell?' The king replied: 'I already know. Tomorrow at noon, for the master's sake, I will release a small portion of those whose offenses are light.'" The gatekeeper said to the monk, "Master, please depart at once; pray speak no further."