法苑珠林 18.7

18.7

晉周閔。汝南人也。晉護軍將軍。世奉法。蘇峻之亂都邑人士皆東西滅遷。閔家有大品一部。以半幅八丈素反覆書之。又有餘經數囊。大品亦雜在其中。既當避難單行不能得盡持去。尤惜大品不知在何囊中。倉卒應去。不展尋搜裴回嘆咤。不覺大品忽自出外。閔驚喜持去。周氏遂世寶之。今云尚在。一說云。周嵩婦胡母氏有素書大品。素廣五寸。而大品一部盡在焉。又并有舍利。銀甖貯之。並緘于深篋。永嘉之亂胡母將避兵南奔。經及舍利自出篋外。因取懷之以渡江東。又甞遇火不暇取經。及屋盡火滅得之於灰燼之下。儼然如故。會稽王道子就嵩曾雲。求以供養。後甞暫在新渚寺。劉敬叔云。曾親見此經。字如麻大巧密分明。新渚寺今天安是也。此經蓋得道僧釋慧則所寫也。或云。甞在簡靖寺。靖首尼讀誦之。

Zhou Min of the Jin was a native of Runan. He was Army-Guarding General of the Jin. His family had revered the Dharma for generations. During the rebellion of Su Jun, the gentlemen and scholars of the capital were all scattered and relocated east and west. Min's family possessed one set of the Large Perfection of Wisdom, written on both sides of eighty feet of half-width plain silk. There were also several bags of other scriptures, and the Large Perfection of Wisdom was mixed among them. As he had to flee the disaster traveling light and alone, he could not take them all with him. He was especially grieved over the Large Perfection of Wisdom, not knowing in which bag it was. Having to depart in haste, he had no opportunity to search, pacing back and forth and sighing. Without his realizing it, the Large Perfection of Wisdom suddenly came out of its own accord. Min was astonished and delighted, and took it away. The Zhou family thereupon treasured it for generations, and it is said to still exist today. Another account says: The wife of Zhou Song, of the Humu clan, had a Large Perfection of Wisdom written on silk. The silk was five inches wide, yet the entire Large Perfection of Wisdom was contained on it. There were also relics stored in a silver jar, all sealed within a deep chest. During the Yongjia disorder, Madame Humu was about to flee south to escape the soldiers; the scripture and relics came out of the chest on their own accord, whereupon she took them into her bosom and crossed to the east of the Yangzi. Furthermore, she once encountered a fire and had no time to retrieve the scripture; when the house was completely destroyed and the fire extinguished, she found it beneath the ash and embers, as intact as before. Prince of Kuaiji Sima Daozi went to Song's great-grandson Yun to ask for it in order to make offerings. Later it was once temporarily kept at Xinzhu Temple. Liu Jingshu said that he once saw this scripture with his own eyes; the characters were the size of hemp seeds, exquisitely dense and distinct. Xinzhu Temple is today's Tian'an Temple. This scripture was probably copied by the monk Shi Huize who had attained the Way. Some say it was once at Jianjing Temple, and the head nun of Jing chanted it.