廣弘明集 2.20

2.20

沙門曇曜帝禮為師。請帝於京西武州西山石壁。開窟五所鐫佛像各一。高者七十尺。次六十尺。彫飾奇偉冠於萬代。今時見者傳云。谷深三十里。東為僧寺。名曰靈巖。西頭尼寺。各鑿石為龕。容千人。已還者相次櫛比。石崖中七里極高峻。佛龕相連餘處。時有斷續。佛像數量孰測其計。有一道人。年八十。禮像為業。一像一拜至于中龕而死。尸殭伏地。以石封之。今見存焉。莫測時代。在朔州東三百里恒安鎮西二十餘里。往往來者述之。誠不思議之福事也。

The Emperor treated the śramaṇa Tanyao with the etiquette due a master. Tanyao requested the Emperor to open five cave sanctuaries in the cliff-face of the Western Mountains of Wuzhou, west of the capital, carving one Buddhist statue in each, the tallest being seventy *chi* and the next sixty *chi*. The carving and ornamentation were extraordinarily majestic, surpassing myriad generations. Those who see it nowadays transmit reports saying: 'The valley is thirty *li* deep; on the east is a monastery called Lingyan, and on the west end is a nunnery. In each, niches are carved from the rock, some accommodating a thousand persons, with those of lesser size arranged in dense succession like the teeth of a comb. The middle section of the stone cliff, spanning seven *li*, is extremely tall and precipitous, with Buddhist niches contiguous to one another; elsewhere they are intermittent at times. Who could calculate the number of Buddhist images?' There was an eighty-year-old Daoist [Buddhist] practitioner whose practice was to bow to the statues; making one bow before each image, he reached the middle niche and died. His corpse lay prostrate on the ground, and it was sealed with stones, remaining visible to this day. Its era cannot be determined. It lies three hundred *li* east of Shuozhou and more than twenty *li* west of Heng'an Town. Travelers coming and going often describe it. It is truly an inconceivable work of merit!