道宣律師感通錄 1.24

1.24

又問。今諸瑞像。多云育王第四女所造。其事幽遠。難得其實。答云。育王第四女。厥貌非妍。久而未出。常恨其醜。乃圖佛形。相好異佛。還如自身。成已發願。佛之相好。挺異於人。如何同我之形儀也。以此苦邀。彌經年月。後感佛現。忽異昔形。父具問之。述其所願今非山玉華荊州長沙楊都高悝及今崇敬。並是其像。或書光趺。人罕識者。育王令諸神鬼所在將往開悟佛法。今諸像面。莫匪女形。崇敬寺地。本是戰場。西晉末。五胡大起兵戈殺害。此地特多。地下人骨今由見在。所殺無辜殘酷枉濫。故諸神鬼携以鎮之。令此冤魂得生善念。周滅佛法神亦從之。隋祖載隆佛還重起云云。

He also asked: "It is commonly said today that the various auspicious images were made by King Aśoka's fourth daughter. This matter is obscure and distant, so it is difficult to obtain the truth of it." [The deva] replied: "King Aśoka's fourth daughter had an appearance that was far from beautiful. For a long time she remained unmarried, and she constantly lamented her ugliness. She then painted the form of the Buddha, but its primary and secondary marks were different from the Buddha's and resembled her own person instead. When it was finished, she made a vow: 'The Buddha's primary and secondary marks are vastly different from those of humans. How could they be the same as my appearance?' With this anguished petition, months and years passed. Later, she moved the Buddha to manifest, and suddenly her past appearance changed. Her father questioned her in detail, and she recounted what she had vowed. The present images at Feishan, Yuhua, Changsha in Jingzhou, Gao Kui's in the southern capital, and the present one at Chongjing Temple are all these images. Some have inscriptions on their halos or pedestals, but people rarely recognize them. King Aśoka commanded the various spirits and ghosts to carry them everywhere to awaken [beings] to the Buddha's Dharma. The faces of these images are none other than female forms. The site of Chongjing Temple was originally a battlefield. At the end of the Western Jin, the Five Hu arose in great arms and slaughtered people; here there were especially many. The human bones beneath the ground can still be seen today. Those killed were innocent, brutalized and murdered without cause. Therefore, the various spirits and ghosts carried it here to suppress [the malevolence] so that these aggrieved souls might give rise to wholesome thoughts. When the Zhou suppressed the Buddha's Dharma, the spirits also followed along [and concealed it]. When the founder of the Sui arose and flourished, the Buddha[-image] emerged once again, and so on."