法苑珠林 94.14

94.14

唐冀州頓丘縣有老母。姓李。年可七十。無子孤老。唯有奴婢兩人。家鎮酤酒。添灰少量分毫經紀。貞觀年中因病氣斷。死經兩日。凶器已具。但以心上少溫。然始蘇活。口云。初有兩人並著赤衣。門前召出之。有上苻遣追。便即隨去。行至一城。有若州郭。引到側院。見一官人。衣冠大袖憑案而坐。左右甚多。階下大有著枷鎖人。防援如生。官府者遣問老母。何因行濫酤酒多取他物。擬作法華經己向十年。何為不造。老母具言。酒使婢作。量亦是婢。經己付錢一千文與隱師。即遣追婢。須臾即至。勘當元由婢即笞四十放還。遣問隱師。報云。是實。乃語老母云。放汝七日去。經了當來得生善處。遂爾得活。復有人問。勘校老母。初死之時。婢得惺悟久而始蘇。腹背青腫。蓋是四十杖迹。隱禪師者。本是客僧。配寺頓丘。年向六七十。自從出家即頭陀乞食。常一食齋。未甞暫輟。遠近大德並皆敬慕。老母病死之後。隱師夢有赤衣人來問。夢中答云。造經是實。老母乃屈鄉閭眷屬及隱禪師行道。雇諸經生眾手寫經。經了正當七日。還見往者二人來前。母云。使人已來。並皆好住。聲絕即死。隱師見存。道俗欽敬。

During the Tang, in Dunqiu County of Jizhou, there was an old mother surnamed Li. She was about seventy years old, childless and solitary, having only two servants, a male and a female. Her family constantly brewed and sold wine, adding ashes to lessen the measure to profit by minute fractions. During the Zhenguan era, her breath was cut off due to illness; she had been dead for two days, and the funerary equipment was already prepared, but because her chest was still slightly warm, she only then revived. She said, "At first, two men, both wearing red garments, summoned me outside the gate, saying that an official warrant had been issued to arrest me. I then followed them away. We walked to a city resembling a provincial capital. I was led to a side courtyard, where I saw an official wearing a cap and robes with wide sleeves, leaning on a desk and seated. His attendants were very numerous. Below the steps were many people wearing cangues and fetters, guarded as if in the living world. The official sent someone to interrogate the old mother, 'Why did you conduct abusive wine-selling and take much of others' property? You planned to make the Lotus Sūtra for nearly ten years; why have you not produced it?' The old mother recounted fully, 'The wine was made by the maidservant, and the measuring was also done by the maidservant. For the scripture, I have already given one thousand copper coins to Master Yin.' They immediately sent someone to arrest the maidservant, who arrived in a moment. When the origin was investigated, the maidservant was given forty lashes and released back. They sent someone to ask Master Yin, who reported that it was true. They then said to the old mother, 'We release you for seven days. When the scripture is completed, you shall be born in a good realm.' Thereupon she came back to life." Someone also went to check and verify the old mother's story: when she first died, the maidservant had fallen unconscious for a long time before reviving, and her abdomen and back were bruised and swollen, which were indeed the traces of the forty lashes. Dhyāna Master Yin was originally a guest monk assigned to a temple in Dunqiu, nearly sixty or seventy years old. Ever since leaving the household, he had practiced the dhūta austerities of begging for food, and constantly observed the fast of one meal a day, never ceasing even briefly; all the venerable ones far and near revered and admired him. After the old mother fell ill and died, Master Yin dreamed that a man in red garments came to ask him, and in the dream he answered, "The making of the scripture is true." The old mother then invited her townsfolk, relatives, and Dhyāna Master Yin to practice the Way, and hired many scribes whose combined hands copied the scripture. Exactly on the seventh day, when the scripture was completed, she saw the two men from before come forward again. The mother said, "The messengers have already arrived. Fare you all well." As her voice ceased, she died. Master Yin is still living, revered by both clerics and laypeople.