折疑論 4.142

4.142

At night, a divine being in golden armor descended from the sky, struck open the locks with a golden hammer, and rescued the monks, leading them away. This is the fourth instance of foreknowledge. Liu Xiang, the Han Director of Waters on the Left, said: 'I searched through the collected books and examined the Chart of Immortals created by the Grand Astrologer. From the Yellow Emperor down through six generations to the present, there were over seven hundred people who attained the way of immortality. Verified by examination, there were one hundred and forty-six people; seventy-four of them already appear in the Buddhist scriptures.' This is the fifth instance of foreknowledge. In the third year of the Yuanshou era of Emperor Wu of the Former Han, Kunming Lake was dug to the southwest of the city of Chang'an (the Emperor wished to attack the state of Biming, whose people were skilled in naval warfare, so he excavated the lake to drill for it).