法苑珠林 6.72

6.72

宋李旦。字世則。廣陵人也。以孝謹質素。著稱鄉里。元嘉三年正月十四日暴死。心下不冷。七日而蘇。唅以飲粥。宿昔復常云。有一人。持信幡來至床頭稱。府君教喚。旦便隨去。直北向行。道甚平淨。既至城閣高麗似今宮闕。遣傳教慰勞問呼。旦可前至。大廳事上見有三十人。單衣青幘列坐森然。一人東坐披袍隱机。左右侍衛可有百餘。視旦而語坐人云。當示以諸獄令世知也。旦聞言已。舉頭四視。都失向處。乃是地獄中。見群罪人受諸苦報。呻吟號呼不可忍視。尋有傳教稱。府君信君可還去。當更相迎。因此而還。至六年正月復死。七日又活。述所見事較略如先。或有罪囚寄語報家道。生時犯罪使為作福。稍說姓字親識鄉伍。旦依言尋求皆得之。又云。甲申年當行疾癘殺諸惡人。佛家弟子作八關齋。戒修心善行可得免也。旦本作道家祭酒。即欲棄錄本法。道民諫制。故遂兩事。而常勸化作八關齋。

Li Dan of the Song, styled Shize, was a native of Guangling. For his filial piety, prudence, and unadorned simplicity, he was renowned in his village. On the fourteenth day of the first month in the third year of the Yuanjia reign era (426), he died suddenly. His chest remained warm, and after seven days he revived. They fed him with gruel, and overnight he returned to normal. He said that a person holding an official pennant arrived at his bedside, declaring: “The Magistrate summons you.” Dan then followed him, going straight north. The road was very level and clean. Upon arriving at city walls and gates as lofty and grand as contemporary palaces, a message-bearer was sent to console and summon him. Dan stepped forward. In a great hall, he saw thirty people in unlined robes and green headscarves seated in solemn rows. One person sat facing east, wearing a gown and leaning on a table, with about a hundred attendants to his left and right. Looking at Dan, he said to the seated people: “We should show him the various hells so that the world may know of them.” After Dan heard these words, he raised his head and looked around in the four directions; the previous place was completely gone, and he was inside hell. He saw crowds of sinners receiving various painful retributions, groaning and wailing piteously beyond endurance. Soon a message-bearer said: “The Magistrate trusts that you may return; we will summon you again later.” Because of this, he returned. In the first month of the sixth year (429), he died again, and after seven days revived once more. He recounted what he had seen, roughly similar to before. Some prisoners sent messages through him to inform their families, saying that they had committed crimes in life and asked them to cultivate merits on their behalf, gradually detailing their names, relatives, and villages. Dan searched according to their words and found them all. He also said: “In the jiashen year, pestilence will spread and kill all evil people. If disciples of the Buddhist house observe the eight purificatory precepts (aṣṭāṅga-samanvāgatopavāsa), cultivating the mind and acting with goodness, they can be spared.” Dan originally served as a libationer (jijiu) of the Daoists and wished to renounce his original register and teachings, but the Daoist people admonished and restrained him, so he practiced both traditions, while constantly exhorting people to observe the eight purificatory precepts.