南嶽總勝集 2.198

2.198

在縣西二里覺海寺後。飛泉噴響。古木交陰。石路曲折。巖上有菴蘿果樹。昔有遊人到此。巖下見有老僧。古貌峻嶒。身披破衲。因詰之不顧。良久云。此乃淨居天也。忽指四顧。遂失所在。巖有瀉洪亭。憲使張公綬有詩一絕云。潺潺石磴瀉洪泉。路躡丹梯入紫煙。巖有高人無問處。菴蘿雙樹碧參天。雖近郭而有塵外之境。又山後有蛟窟。枉山中僧宗譽初至。樂其幽閴以結菴。有婦人數擾之。譽由是避之嶽寺不敢留。紹興十一年。僧善同始居之。方有屋數間。遊僧妙印者。年二十八。婦人來與之合。明日自腰以下如氷。數日死。又有行者祖淵。採木山中。迷不能還。凡五日。忽得之於老虎巖中云。一婦人令住此。今出求果。餌以飼我。巖口甚窄。僅容人身。而其中頗廣蓋。蛟所穴也。祖淵歸亦病。是年四月幾望。風雨暴至。遍山皆黑。雷電掣旋屋外。善同素不睡。宴坐龕中。夜且半起。明燈聞有聲出龕下如鼓韛。然視之乃巨蟒蟠結數匝。尾猶在戶外。善同呼眾僧。以杖擊之。既去復還。又擊之。乃趨一大石罅欲入間震死。山水大至衡屋室太半。已而星月粲然。詰且視死蟒。長丈二許。圍數尺體皆黑方花紋。祖淵即日發狂。如歡惜狀。數日亦死。前後僧僕為所殺者凡八人。向時每夜山輒黑昏。雖有月亦然。自蛟死夜。山色始明。今有塔數層屋數間。僧行數輩。

Two li west of the county, behind Juehai Monastery. Flying springs gush forth with resounding noise; ancient trees intertwine their shade; the stone path twists and turns. On the cliff there is an āmra fruit tree. Formerly, a traveler came here and saw an old monk below the cliff, with an archaic, rugged appearance, wearing a ragged patchwork robe. When questioned, he paid no attention; after a long time he said: "This is the Heaven of Pure Abode." Suddenly pointing around, he vanished. At the cliff there is the Xiahong Pavilion. Surveillance Commissioner Lord Zhang Shou composed a quatrain that says: "Murmuring stone steps pour out the surging flood, / The path treads the cinnabar ladder into purple mist. / At the cliff sits a lofty man with none to ask of him, / Twin āmra trees reach azure to the sky." Although close to the town, it has the atmosphere of a realm beyond the dust. Moreover, behind the mountain there is a flood-dragon's cave. The monk Zongyu of Wangshan first arrived here, delighted in its secluded quietude, and built a hermitage. A woman repeatedly disturbed him; because of this, Yu fled to the Yue Temple and did not dare to remain. In the eleventh year of the Shaoxing era, the monk Shantong first came to live there, when there were only a few rooms. A wandering monk named Miaoyin, twenty-eight years of age, copulated with the woman who came to him; the next day, from his waist down he was cold as ice, and within a few days he died. Furthermore, there was the postulant Zuyuan, who was gathering wood in the mountains and became lost, unable to return. After five days, he was suddenly found in Tiger Cliff, saying: "A woman made me stay here. Just now she went out to seek fruits and food to feed me." The mouth of the cliff was extremely narrow, barely admitting a man's body, but inside it was quite spacious; it was evidently where the flood-dragon had its den. After Zuyuan returned, he also fell ill. Around the full moon of the fourth month of that year, wind and rain broke out violently, and the entire mountain turned black. Thunder and lightning flashed and swirled outside the house. Shantong habitually did not sleep, sitting serenely in meditation within his niche. Around midnight he arose, lit a lamp, and heard a sound coming from beneath the niche like a bellows being pumped. Looking at it, he saw a giant python coiled in several loops, its tail still outside the door. Shantong called the assembly of monks and struck it with staffs. Having left, it returned again, and they struck it once more; it then fled into the crevice of a large boulder, and as it tried to enter, it was struck dead by thunder. A great mountain torrent rushed down, sweeping away more than half of the house. Soon the stars and moon shone brilliantly. At daybreak they inspected the dead python: it was about a zhang and two chi long, several chi in girth, and its body was completely covered in black square patterns. That very day Zuyuan went mad, seeming to rejoice and mourn by turns, and within a few days he also died. In total, eight monks and servants had been killed by it before and after. Previously, every night the mountain had been pitch-black, even when the moon was out; from the night the flood-dragon died, the appearance of the mountain first became bright. Today there is a stupa of several tiers, several rooms of houses, and several groups of monks and postulants.