釋迦方志 2.107

2.107

In the first year of the Dayan reign of Emperor Taiwu of the Northern Wei, there was a śramaṇa named Liu Sahe, whose family came from Gaoping Plain south of Lishi, in present-day Cizhou. In the past, while traveling to Fanhe Commandery west of Liangzhou, he gazed northeast toward the Yugu Valley and paid homage from afar, saying: 'This mountain will produce a miraculous manifestation of a statue. If its features are complete, the world will be joyful and the times peaceful; if it has deficiencies, the world will be disordered and the people will suffer.' After eighty-seven years, in the first year of the Zhengguang reign of the Wei, owing to a great storm of wind and rain with thunder and lightning, the mountain cliff split open to reveal a statue. The statue's body was eighteen feet tall, its marks handsome and dignified, but it lacked a head. Stone was immediately selected and craftsmen were ordered [to carve it]; after it was mounted, it fell off again. The way of the Wei declined, and his words were verified. When Liangzhou was first governed in the first year of the Northern Zhou, in a ravine seven leagues east of the city, people suddenly saw a Buddha head, its stone painted and brilliant with light. They went and affixed it, and it matched seamlessly. The divine appearance had been broken and deficient, and for more than forty years the body and head were in different places, separated by more than two hundred leagues, yet in a single morning it became complete. The multitude all sighed in wonder. At that time, lantern-light streamed and illuminated, and the ringing of bells resounded in flight, without anyone knowing whence it came. In the early years of the Jiande reign, the head of the statue fell repeatedly. The Grand Minister of Works and the Prince of Qi went in person to inspect it; they ordered it to be repositioned, but by night it fell as before. Over several dozen attempts, replacing it with other heads, it always fell as before. Later, the Dharma of the Buddha was abolished for merely four years; the state was lost and the dynastic line severed, and these words were verified once again. Because it was copied and modeled, its final dimensions vary. At present it is Gantong Monastery. Sahe eventually died in a ravine seven leagues west of the city of Jiuquan. His bones were like sunflower seeds, and people collected and threaded them together, as recorded on the stele of that monastery. In the early years of the Zhenguan reign, I traveled through the regions beyond the passes, and specially visited Sahe's original temple, which is inside the monastery in Cizhou. His image and likeness stand upright, receiving greater reverence day by day. Across prefectures such as Shi, Xi, Ci, Lan, Yan, Dan, Sui, and Yin, all have painted his likeness and worshiped him, calling him 'Master Liu Buddha'. In the Tianping reign of the Eastern Wei, Sun Jingde, a recruit in Dingzhou, fashioned a Guanyin statue and personally paid reverence to it. Later, implicated by bandits and unable to endure the interrogation and torture, he falsely confessed to capital crimes and was about to be beheaded. In a dream, a śramaṇa told him that if he recited the *Sūtra of Avalokiteśvara the Savior of Life* one thousand times, he would obtain deliverance. The officials tied and bound him, marching him toward the market; as he walked he recited, and as he reached the place of execution he completed the thousandth recitation. The blade struck, but it snapped of its own accord into three sections, leaving his skin and flesh unharmed. Three times they changed the blade, but it snapped as before. Upon inspecting the neck of the statue, there were three knife marks. When the circumstances were reported to the throne, the Prime Minister Gao Huan submitted a memorial requesting a pardon from death, and an imperial decree ordered that the sutra be copied and widely disseminated throughout the world. It is now called the *Gao Wang Guanyin [Jing]*. From the Jin, Song, Liang, Chen, Wei, Yan, Qin, and Zhao, the states were divided into sixteen and the era spanned four hundred years. Those who called upon the names and chanted the praises of Guanyin, Kṣitigarbha, Maitreya, and Amitābha, thereby obtaining salvation, cannot be completely recorded. Since they are fully contained in various biographies and records, they are not detailed here.