法苑珠林 31.29

31.29

漢時雒。下有一洞穴。其深不測。有一婦人欲殺夫。謂夫賸賸曰。未甞見此穴。夫自送視。婦遂推下經多時至底。婦於後擲飯物如欲祭之。當時巔墜恍忽良久蘇。得飯食之。氣力小強。周遑覓路仍得一穴。便匍匐從就。崎嶇反側。行數十里穴寬亦有微明。遂得平步。行百餘里。覺所踐如塵。而聞糠米香。噉之芬美。即裹而為糧。復齎以行。所歷幽遠里數難詳。而轉就明廣。食所齎盡。便入一都。城郭修整宮舘壯麗。臺榭房宇悉以金魄為飾。雖無日月明踰三光。人皆長三丈。被羽衣奏奇樂非世所聞。便告求哀。長人語令前去。凡過如此者九處。最後至苦飢餧。長人指中庭一大柏樹近百圍下有一羊。令跪捋羊鬚。初得一珠。長人取之。次捋亦取。後捋令噉。即得療飢。請問九處之名求停不去。答云。君命不得停還問張華。當悉此間人。便復隨穴出交州。還雒。問華。以所得物示之。華云。如塵者是黃河下龍涎。泥是崑山下泥。九處地仙。名九館大夫。羊為癡龍。其初一珠食之與天地等壽。次者延年。後者充飢而已。此人還往七八年間。

In the Han period, below Luoyang, there was a cave of unfathomable depth. A woman wished to kill her husband and said to him deceitfully, "I have never seen this cave." The husband went of his own accord to view it, and his wife pushed him down. After a long time, he reached the bottom. From above, the wife cast down food and items as if making an offering. At that moment of falling from the heights, he had been dazed for a long while before reviving. He obtained the food, ate it, and his energy somewhat recovered. Wandering anxiously in search of a path, he immediately found an opening, and crawling toward it, traversing rugged twists and turns, he walked several tens of li until the cave broadened and showed faint light. He was then able to walk on level ground. Walking for over a hundred li, he felt that what he trod upon was like dust, and he smelled the fragrance of unhulled and hulled rice. Tasting it, it was fragrant and delicious, so he wrapped some as provisions and carried it as he walked on. The distance he traveled through the depths was vast and hard to calculate in li, yet it grew steadily brighter and wider. When the provisions he carried were exhausted, he entered a capital city. Its walls were well-maintained, and its palaces and mansions were magnificent; the terraces, pavilions, and rooms were all adorned with gold and amber. Although there were no sun or moon, its brightness surpassed the three luminaries. The people were all thirty feet tall, clad in feathered garments, and playing wondrous music unheard in the mortal world. He bowed and pleaded for pity. A tall man told him to proceed forward. In all, he passed nine such places. At the last one, he was suffering bitterly from hunger. A tall man pointed to a courtyard with a great cypress tree nearly a hundred arms' spans in circumference, beneath which was a sheep. He ordered him to kneel and stroke the sheep's beard. The first stroke yielded a pearl, which the tall man took; the next stroke also yielded one, which he also took; the final stroke yielded one that he ordered the man to eat, whereupon his hunger was instantly cured. He asked the names of the nine places and begged to stay without leaving. The reply was: "Your destiny does not permit you to stay. Return and ask Zhang Hua; he will know the people here in full." Thereupon, following the cave, he emerged in Jiaozhou. He returned to Luoyang, questioned Zhang Hua, and showed him what he had obtained. Zhang Hua said: "That which was like dust was dragon saliva from beneath the Yellow River; the mud was mud from beneath Mount Kunlun. The nine places are earthly immortals, known as the Grand Masters of the Nine Mansions. The sheep is a foolish dragon. Eating the first pearl grants a lifespan equal to heaven and earth; the second prolongs one's years; the last merely staves off hunger." This man's round trip took between seven and eight years.