法苑珠林 31.72

31.72

宋時安定梁清。字道修。居楊州右尚坊問桓徐州故宅。元嘉十四年二月數有異光。仍聞擘籬聲。令婢子松羅往看。見一人問。云姓華名芙蓉。為六甲至尊所使。從太微紫宮中下。來遇舊居。仍留不去。或鳥頭人躬。舉是眼摶灑糞穢清。射之應弦而滅。並有絳汁染箭。又覩一物形如猴。懸在樹㯹。令人刺。中其髀墮地奄沒。經日反從屋上跛行就婢乞食。團飯授之。頓進二升。數日眾鬼群至。醜惡不可稱論。拉攞床障塵石飛揚累晨不息。婢採菊路遇一鬼。著衣幘乘馬。衛從數十。謂採菊曰。我是上天仙人勿名作鬼。問何以常擲穢污答曰。糞污者錢財之象也。投擲者速遷之徵也。頃之清果為武將軍北魯郡太守。清塵毒既久乃呼外國道人波羅疊讀祝文。諸鬼悑懼。或踰壁穴而走。皆作鳥聲。於此都絕。在郡少時夜中松羅復見威儀器械人眾數萬。一人戴幘。送書麁紙有七十許字。筆迹婉媚遠擬羲獻。又歌云。登阿儂孔雀樓。遙聞鳳皇鼓。下我雛山頭。髣髴見梁魯。鬼有叔操。操哭泣答弔不異世人。鬼傳教曾乞松羅一函書。題云。故孔修之死罪白牋以弔其叔喪。敘致哀情甚有詮次。復云。近往西方見一沙門。自名大摩剎。問君消息。寄五丸香以相與之。清先奉使燉煌憶見此僧。清家有婢產於此便斷。

Under the Song dynasty, Liang Qing of Anding, styled Daoxiu, lived in the former residence of Regional Inspector Huan of Xuzhou, in the Youshangfang quarter of Yangzhou. In the second month of the fourteenth year of the Yuanjia reign (437 CE), there were repeatedly strange lights, and the sound of breaking bamboo fences was heard. He sent his maidservant Songluo to look, and she saw a person who, upon being questioned, said her surname was Hua and her given name Furong; she had been dispatched by the Supreme Sovereign of the Six Jia, had descended from the Purple Palace of the Grand Subtlety, and had encountered her former dwelling, where she remained without leaving. Sometimes it had a bird's head and a human body, completely covered with eyes; it balled up and flung foul feces. Qing shot at it, and it vanished at the twang of the bowstring, with crimson juice staining the arrow. Again, they saw a creature shaped like a monkey hanging from the bough of a tree; he ordered someone to stab it, which struck its thigh, and it fell to the ground and vanished. The next day, it returned, limping across the roof to beg food from the maidservant; she rolled rice into a ball and gave it, and it consumed two sheng at once. After a few days, a horde of ghosts arrived in crowds, unspeakably hideous and vile, smashing beds and screens, kicking up dust and flying stones without ceasing for several mornings. While picking chrysanthemums along the road, the maidservant met a ghost wearing robes and a cap, riding a horse, with several dozen attendants, who said to Caiju, 'I am an immortal of the high heavens; do not call me a ghost.' When asked why they constantly threw foul filth, it replied, 'Dung and filth are the sign of wealth and property; being cast about is the omen of rapid promotion.' Shortly thereafter, Qing indeed became General of the Martial Guard and Grand Administrator of Beilu Commandery. After Qing had suffered these annoyances for a long time, he called upon the foreign monk Bo Luodie to recite incantations. The ghosts were terrified; some leaped over walls or escaped through holes, all making bird sounds, and from this time they ceased entirely. Shortly after he was at the commandery, at night Songluo again saw tens of thousands of people with weapons and ceremonial regalia. One wearing a cap delivered a letter on coarse paper containing about seventy characters, whose calligraphy was charming and graceful, distantly imitating Wang Xizhi and Wang Xianzhi. They also sang: 'Ascending our Peacock Tower, / From afar we hear the Phoenix Drums. / Descending the crest of our Chu Mountain, / Faintly appears Liang of Lu.' Among the ghosts was Shucao; Cao wept and responded to condolences just like people of the world. A ghost messenger once begged a letter from Songluo, inscribed: 'The deceased Kong Xiuzhi, under penalty of death, writes this plain letter to offer condolences on the mourning for his uncle,' expressing sorrowful feelings in very clear order. It also said, 'Recently, traveling to the West, I saw a śramaṇa who called himself Damocha; he asked for news of you and sent five pellets of incense to give you.' Qing had previously been sent as an envoy to Dunhuang and remembered seeing this monk. When a maidservant in Qing's household gave birth, it ceased from then on.