廣弘明集 17.28

17.28

In Tai prefecture, a pagoda was erected at Daiyue Temple. When the relics arrived in the prefecture, on that night drum sounds were heard within the shrine of Mount Tai. As dawn approached, the triple gates all opened of their own accord; some saw thirty horsemen riding out from the shrine, who were the spirits of the peak. As the relics were brought from the prefecture toward the temple, reaching several li away, a cloud canopy emerged above the mountain summit, five-colored and three-layered. White vapor like a rainbow came and covered the relics, dispersing into a dense mist that moistened people’s clothing; its droplets resembled hanging pearls, and its taste was like amṛta. From dawn until noon, the mist gathered and returned to the mountain, dividing into three sections and moving back and forth as if an army on the march; this, too, was the peak spirit coming to welcome them. Thereupon, a sound arose from within the vial and it emitted light more than ten feet high, which extinguished after the duration of a meal. Looking closely, people saw that within the lapis lazuli, the lid of the gold vial opened on its own, and at the mouth of the vial there was an inch-long beam of light like a chopstick, brightly pointing west; though turned rapidly, it never changed its direction. This continued for eight days. When they were about to enter the casket, the light dispersed, returned into the gold vial, and clouds and mist arose again. There was a youth who could recite the Lotus Sūtra; he came to pay homage to the relics and subsequently burned his body in the wilderness as an offering. On the sixth day of the second month of the following year, the spirit drums of Mount Tai resounded throughout the night; listening from the north, the sound was in the south, and listening from the south, the sound was in the north, and it was likewise with east and west.