廣弘明集 17.39

17.39

In Fan prefecture, a pagoda was erected at the Lingjiushan Temple in Chongyang Ward, Hongyang Township. Excavations unearthed three stone caskets placed during the late Song; two of them each held a bronze casket containing two small silver images; one held a silver vial containing a gold vial, which presumably originally held relics, though now it was empty. Soon afterward, within the pit appeared cloud-like vapor forms of divine immortals. In the past, during the time of Liu Yilong, ruler of the Song, Gunavarman, a holy monk from India, on his way to the capital of Yang passed by Lingjiu Temple and said to the monks: 'Here there will soon be extraordinary signs, and an imperial monarch will visit and build according to auspicious omens; eventually, a bodhisattva sage-ruler will be met, who will broadly restore and propagate it.' That winter, a flock of swallows indeed held an embroidered icon together in their beaks and laid it inside the hall. When Xiao Daocheng, ruler of the Qi, first served as the grand administrator of Shixing, he visited this temple and erected a white pagoda; in the third year of Tianjia of the Chen, a stele was erected in the temple with that text. Such restoration and propagation by a sage-ruler is verified today.