法苑珠林 14.17

14.17

元魏天平中。定州募士孫敬德。防於北陲造觀音金像。年滿將還。常加禮事後為劫賊。橫引禁於京獄不勝考掠遂妄承罪。並斷死刑。明旦行決。其夜禮拜懺悔淚下如雨。啟曰。今身被枉當是過去枉他。願償債畢誓不重作。又發大願云云。言已少時依俙如夢見一沙門。教誦觀世音救生經。經有佛名令誦千遍。得度苦難。敬德欻覺。起坐緣之了無參錯。比至平明已滿百遍。有司執縛向市且行且誦。臨欲加刑誦滿千遍。執刀下斫。刀折三段不損皮肉。易刀又斫。凡經三換刃折如初。監當官人莫不驚異。具狀聞奏。承相高歡表請其事遂得免死。勅寫此經傳之。今所謂高王觀世音經是也。敬德放還設齋報願。出在防像乃見項上有三刀痕。鄉親同覩歎其通感（見齊志及旌異等記）。

During the Tianping era of the Northern Wei, Sun Jingde, a conscripted soldier of Dingzhou, made a gilt-bronze image of Avalokiteśvara while serving garrison duty on the northern frontier. When his term was completed and he was about to return, he constantly paid homage to it. Later, he was falsely implicated by robbers and imprisoned in the capital jail. Unable to bear the flogging, he made a false confession and was sentenced to death. The execution was to be carried out the next morning. That night, he bowed, repented, and wept like rain, appealing: “If I am wronged in this life, it must be because in a past life I wronged others. I pray that my debt will be fully repaid, and I vow never to commit it again.” He also made great vows, and so forth. Soon after he finished speaking, indistinctly, as if in a dream, he saw a śramaṇa teaching him to recite the *Sūtra on Avalokiteśvara Saving Lives*. The sūtra contained names of Buddhas and bade him recite it a thousand times to cross over suffering and difficulty. Jingde suddenly awoke, sat up, and recited it from memory without the slightest error. By daybreak he had already reached a hundred times. The officials bound him and led him to the marketplace, and he recited as he walked. When the execution was imminent, he reached the full thousand recitations. The blade was brought down to strike, but it broke into three pieces without harming his skin or flesh. Another blade was substituted to strike again, and after three changes the edges broke as before. The supervising officials were all astonished and marveled. They reported the details to the court. The Chancellor Gao Huan memorialized the emperor to request his pardon, and so he was spared from death. An imperial edict was issued to transcribe this sūtra and propagate it; this is what is now known as the *Gao Wang Guanshiyin jing*. Jingde was released to return home, and he held a vegetarian feast to fulfill his vow. When he took out the image he had kept during his garrison duty, he saw three blade marks on its neck. His relatives and neighbors all witnessed it and sighed in admiration at its sympathetic efficacy. (Found in the *Qi zhi* and the *Jingyi ji*).