三寶感應要略錄 2.78

2.78

In the final years of the Kaiyuan era of Emperor Xuanzong, there was a physiognomist who could determine long or short lifespan upon hearing a voice. At Zisheng Monastery, hearing a voice outside the gate, [he knew] the person had only today to live. He went out at once to see him: it was a thirteen-year-old boy of dignified and handsome appearance. With pity and sorrow, [the physiognomist] silently went back inside. The next day, he heard the same young boy again; his life was now extended past seventy years. Arousing a sense of the extraordinary, he immediately went out and asked the cause. The boy said, "Tonight I lodged in a monk's chamber and heard the Sūtra of Longevity; there was nothing else." The physiognomist sighed and said, "The Buddha Dharma is inconceivable; it cannot be known by the wisdom of divination and physiognomy."