廣弘明集 15.142

15.142

Regarding the four-faced bronze Buddha in Shahe County, Xingzhou: it is about four feet tall. At the beginning of the Sui dynasty, someone entered the mountains and saw a monk guarding this image; he thereupon asked to make offerings to it, but the monk's whereabouts were lost. The man wished to carry it out on his back, but it would not move. People from various places heard of this and came to help pull it, but it was the same. A monk of Shahe Temple heard of it and tried to guide it; it immediately moved and reached the temple. Later, someone beside the temple obtained a lump of gold bearing the forms of two crows, with an inscription reading: 'Intended for gilding the four-faced Buddha.' Thereupon it was gilded, and across the Buddha's form the shadows of crows appeared everywhere. When the last emperor of the Sui heard of this auspicious sign, he dispatched artisans to cast an imitation of it. The casting never succeeded, always having flaws or omissions; after two hundred days they finally ceased. It is now in the temple.