法苑珠林 62.84

62.84

梁鍾山開善寺沙門智藏。俗姓顧氏。吳郡吳人也。有墅姥工相人為記吉凶。百不失一。謂藏曰。法師聰辯蓋世天下流名。但恨年命不長。可至三十一矣。時年二十有九。聞斯促報。於是講解頓息竭誠修道。發大誓願不出寺門。遂探經藏得金剛般若。受持讀誦畢命奉之。至所厄暮年。以香湯洗浴。淨室誦經以待死至。俄而聞室中聲曰。善男子。汝往年三十一者。是報盡期。由般若經力得倍壽矣。藏後出山試過前相者。乃大驚起曰。何因尚在世也。前見短壽之相。今年一無。沙門誠不可相矣。藏問今得至幾。答曰。色相貴法年六十有餘。藏曰。五十為命。已為不夭。況復過也。乃以由緣告之相者欣然敬服。後記畢壽。於是江左道俗競誦此經。多有徵瑞。因藏通感矣。以普通三年九月十五日。卒於本寺。春秋六十有五（右二驗出梁高僧傳）。

The śramaṇa Zhizang of Kaishan Temple on Mount Zhong in the Liang had the secular surname Gu and was a native of Wu in Wu Commandery. There was a rustic old woman skilled in physiognomy who predicted good and ill fortune for people, failing not once in a hundred times. She said to Zhizang, 'The Dharma Master's intelligence and eloquence surpass the world, and his fame spreads across the empire. The only pity is that your life is not long; you may only reach thirty-one.' At that time, he was twenty-nine years old. Hearing of this brief retribution, he immediately halted his lectures and explanations, and devoted all his sincerity to cultivating the Path. He made a great vow not to go out of the temple gates. He then searched the canon, obtained the Diamond Prajñā Sūtra, and upheld, read, and recited it, dedicating his life to serving it. When he reached the late year of his predicted misfortune, he bathed with fragrant water and recited the sūtra in a pure room to await the arrival of death. Presently, he heard a voice in the room say, 'Good son, your thirty-first year was the period when your retribution was to end. By the power of the Prajñā Sūtra, your lifespan has been doubled.' Later, Zhizang left the mountains and went to test the previous physiognomist. She was greatly shocked, stood up, and said, 'For what reason are you still in this world? Previously I saw the marks of a short lifespan, but this year there are none at all. Śramaṇas truly cannot be physiognomised!' Zhizang asked, 'How long can I reach now?' She replied, 'Your appearance shows a noble mark of the Dharma; your age will be sixty and more.' Zhizang said, 'Fifty years of life would already not be dying young; how much more to exceed it!' He then told her the reason. The physiognomist was delighted and reverently convinced. Later, she predicted the end of his lifespan. Thereupon, monastics and laypeople in the Jiangzuo region vied to recite this sūtra, and many experienced auspicious signs; these sympathetic resonances were opened through Zhizang. On the fifteenth day of the ninth month in the third year of the Putong reign era, he passed away at his home temple, at the age of sixty-five. (The two proofs above are from the Liang Biographies of Eminent Monks.)