法苑珠林 73.47

73.47

唐顯慶年中。長安城西路側店上有家。新婦誕一男。月滿日親族慶會。買得一羊欲殺。羊數向屠人跪拜。屠人報家內。家內大小不以為徵。遂即殺之。將肉釜煮。餘人貪料理葱蒜餅食。令產婦抱兒看煮肉。抱兒火前。釜大極牢。忽然自破。釜湯衝灰火直射母子。母子俱亡。親族及隣人。見者莫不酸切。信知交驗。豈得不慎。店人見聞之者。永斷酒肉葷辛不食（在同店人向道自說）。

During the Xianqing era of the Tang dynasty, at an inn beside the road west of Chang'an, there was a household where a daughter-in-law gave birth to a boy. On the day he reached one month of age, relatives gathered to celebrate. They bought a sheep, intending to slaughter it. The sheep repeatedly knelt and bowed to the butcher. The butcher reported this to the family, but old and young alike in the household did not regard it as an omen, and proceeded to slaughter it. They put the meat into a cauldron to boil. The other people were preoccupied with preparing leeks, garlic, and cakes, so they told the mother to hold the child and watch the meat boiling. Holding the child in front of the fire—the cauldron was very large and solid—it suddenly burst on its own. The boiling water from the cauldron, mixed with ash and fire, blasted straight at mother and child, and both perished. Relatives and neighbours who saw this were all grief-stricken. Knowing with certainty that retribution is verified, how can one not be cautious? The people of the inn who saw and heard of this permanently renounced wine, meat, and pungent roots, and ate them no more. (A person staying at the same inn recounted this directly to a monk.)