集神州三寶感通錄 3.57

3.57

During the Zhenguan era, Dong Xiong of Hedong served as Assistant of the Court of Judicial Review. Having had faith and reverence since his youth, he had eaten a vegetarian diet for over ten years. In the fourteenth year, he was implicated in the affair of Li Xiantong. The Emperor was greatly enraged and dispatched Attendant Censor Wei Cong to conduct a very strict interrogation; several tens of people were imprisoned, with Li Jingxuan, Assistant of the Court of Judicial Review, and Wang Xin both implicated along with him. Confined in the same room and bound with chains, Xiong focused his mind on the Universal Gate Chapter, completing three thousand recitations a day. As he sat reciting the sūtra at night, the lock suddenly opened by itself and fell to the ground. Startled, Xiong informed Xin and Xuan; Xin and Xuan inspected it together: the lock lay whole and intact on the ground, but its hook and body were separated by several feet. They immediately informed the guards. That night, Investigating Censor Zhang Shouyi was on night duty; he ordered the officers to examine the lock with a torch and found it astonishing that the lock was not broken open yet was separated. He locked it again, sealed it with paper, signed it, and departed. Xiong recited the sūtra as usual; around the fifth watch, the lock opened and fell again with a sound. Xiong again informed Xin, Xuan, and the others, and at dawn they informed Shouyi. Shouyi came to inspect it: the paper seal and signature were as before, but the lock had separated of its own accord. Jingxuan had never believed in the Buddha's Dharma, and when his wife read the sūtras, he would often say to her: 'Why are you bewitched by barbarian gods and read such books?' Upon witnessing this event of Xiong's, he profoundly realized the error of his disbelief and only then knew that the Buddha is a Great Sage. At that time, Xin also recited the names of the eight bodhisattvas, completing thirty thousand recitations, and in broad daylight his lock opened and fell, looking no different from Xiong's. All inside and outside the Censorate heard and saw these matters, and before long they were all released, and so forth.