集神州三寶感通錄 3.47

3.47

In Hedong, there was a nun of disciplined practice who constantly recited the Lotus Sūtra. She sought a skilled scribe to copy it, offering several times the usual wage, and her purity and diligent devotion surpassed that of others. At every rising she bathed, burnt incense to perfume her clothes, and exhaled through a tube leading outside the wall. The work on the seven scrolls was accomplished only after eight years. The monk Faduan of Longmen Temple gathered a congregation to lecture and explain [the sūtra], and borrowed this nun's sūtra to serve as the standard text. The nun resolutely refused to grant it, but Duan rebuked her. Seeing no alternative, she personally delivered it to Duan. When Duan opened and read it, he saw only yellow paper with not a single character on it; the other scrolls were also like this. Ashamed and repentant, Duan returned it to the nun. Weeping with sorrow, the nun received it, washed the case with fragrant water, placed it atop her head, and circumambulated the Buddha for seven days without rest. When she opened it to look, the characters were as before. This took place in the second year of Zhenguan, and Duan related it himself.