集神州三寶感通錄 1.37

1.37

江州廬山有三石梁。長數十丈。廣不及尺。下望無底。晉咸康年中。庾亮為江州。登山過梁見老公殊偉。夏屋崇峻玉堂眩目。靈塔高竦莫測是何修葺。久之終非人宅。乃拜謝而返。唐貞觀二十一年。荊州大興國寺塔西南柱無故有聲。人往看之。乃見有金銅佛頭出。如是日日漸出。經三夕方盡。長六寸許。是立佛。道俗咸異之。唐初相州大慈寺塔被焚。余至彼問焚所由。僧云。大業末歲群盜互陣寺在三爵臺西葛屨山上。四鄉來投築城固守。人物擁聚尺地不空。塔之上下重複皆滿。於中穢污不可見聞。及賊平人出糞穢狼藉。寺僧無力可用屏除。忽然火起焚蕩都盡。唯東南角太子思惟像殿得存。可謂火淨以除其臭穢也。此塔即隋高祖手勅所置。初以隋運創臨天下未附。吳國公蔚逈周之柱臣鎮守河北作牧舊都。聞楊氏御圖心所未允。即日聚結舉兵抗詔。官軍一臨大陣摧解。收擁俘虜將百萬人總集寺。北遊豫園中。明旦斬決。園牆有孔。出者縱之。至曉便斷。猶有六十萬人。並於漳河岸斬之。流尸水中水為不流。血河一月夜夜鬼哭。哀怨切人。以事聞帝。帝曰。此段一誅深有枉濫。賊止蔚逈餘並被驅。當時惻隱咸知此事。國初機候不獲縱之。可於遊豫園南葛屨山上立大慈寺。坼三爵臺以營之六時禮佛。加一拜為園中枉死者。寺成僧住依勅禮唱。怨哭之聲一期頓絕矣。

At Mount Lu in Jiangzhou there are three stone bridges, tens of zhang in length and less than a foot wide, bottomless to look down upon. During the Xiankang era of the Jin, Yu Liang was governor of Jiangzhou. He climbed the mountain and crossed the bridges, where he saw an old man of remarkable stature, and spacious, towering buildings and jade halls dazzling to the eyes, with a numinous stūpa soaring high, whose construction was unfathomable. After a long while, [realizing] it was no human dwelling, he bowed in gratitude and returned. In the twenty-first year of Zhenguan of the Tang, a sound issued without cause from the south-western pillar of the stūpa of the Great Xingguo Temple in Jingzhou. People went to see it, and saw a gilt-bronze Buddha head emerging. Thus it gradually emerged day by day, taking three nights before it was fully out; it was about six inches tall, a standing Buddha. Monastics and laypeople all marveled at it. In the early Tang, the stūpa of Daci Temple in Xiangzhou was burned down. When I arrived there and asked the monks the cause of the burning, they said: In the closing years of the Daye era, bandit factions battled one another. The temple sat on Mount Gexi west of the Three Sanjue Terraces. People from the four surrounding counties came to seek refuge, building walls to hold fast. People and animals crowded together, leaving not a foot of ground vacant; both the upper and lower levels of the stūpa were filled repeatedly. Within, the filth was unbearable to see or smell. When the bandits were pacified and the people departed, excrement was strewn everywhere, and the temple monks lacked the strength to clear it away. Suddenly a fire broke out and consumed everything completely; only the hall of the Prince in Contemplation image in the south-eastern corner survived. It can be said that the fire purified and removed its foul stench. This stūpa was established by imperial decree of Emperor Gaozu of the Sui. At first, when the Sui dynasty began its mandate and the realm was not yet pacified, Yuchi Jiong, the Duke of Wu, who was a pillar minister of the Zhou guarding the regions north of the Yellow River and governing the ancient capital, heard that the Yang clan had taken the imperial throne and his heart was unyielding. That very day he assembled forces and raised an army in defiance of the decree. Once the imperial army arrived, his vast battle lines shattered. The captives gathered numbered nearly one million, all assembled in the Youyu Garden north of the temple, to be executed the following morning. There was a breach in the garden wall; those who escaped were allowed to go, but by dawn it was blocked, and there were still six hundred thousand men. They were all beheaded on the bank of the Zhang River. The corpses flowed into the water so that the water ceased to flow; the river of blood lasted a month, with ghosts weeping night after night, their sorrowful resentment piercing the heart. When the matter was reported to the emperor, he said: "This single slaughter was profoundly unjust and indiscriminate; the rebel was only Yuchi Jiong, while the rest were coerced. At that time, feelings of pity arose and everyone knew of this affair, yet at the founding of the state the critical moment did not permit pardoning them. Let the Daci Temple be erected on Mount Gexi south of Youyu Garden, dismantling the Three Sanjue Terraces to construct it, where the Buddha shall be venerated at the six intervals, adding an extra prostration for those who died unjustly in the garden." When the temple was completed and monks dwelt there, they chanted venerations according to the decree, and the sounds of sorrowful weeping immediately ceased all at once.