法苑珠林 94.59

94.59

唐吳王文學陳郡謝弘敞妻。高陽許氏。武德初年遇患死。經四日而蘇。說云。被二三十人拘至地獄。未見官府即聞喚。雖不識面似是姑夫沈吉光語音。許問云。語聲似是沈丈。何因無頭。南間人呼姑姨夫。皆為某姓丈也。吉光即以手提其頭。置於膊上而誡許曰汝且在此間。勿向西院。待吾為汝造請。即應得出。遂於語處而住。更不東西看。其吉光拪遑似有經紀。凡經再宿。吉光始來語許云。汝今此來。王欲令汝作其女伎。儻引見不須道解絃管。如其不為所悉可引吾為證也。少間有吏抱案引入。王果問之。解絃管不。許云不解。復云。沈吉光具知。王問吉光。答云。不解。王曰。宜早放還不須留也。于時光欲發遣。即共執案人籌度。不解其語。執案人云。娘子功德力雖強。然為先有少罪。隨便受却身業俱淨。豈不快哉。更別引入一大院。其門極小。亦大見有人受罪。許甚驚懼。乃求於主者曰。生平修福何罪而至斯耶。答曰。娘子曾以不淨盌盛食與親。須受此罪。方可得去。遂以銅汁灌口。非常苦毒。比蘇時口內皆爛。光即云。可於此人處受一本經記取。將歸受持勿怠。自今已去保年八十有餘。許生曾未誦經。蘇後遂誦得經一卷。詢訪人間所未曾有。今見受持讀誦不闕。其經見在。文多不載。蘇活之後吉光尚存。以後二年方始遇害。凡諸親屬有欲死者。三年以前並於地下預見。許之從父弟仁則說之云耳（右一驗出冥報記）。

The wife of Xie Hongchang, an Erudite in the Princely Establishment of Wu and a native of Chen Commandery, was née Xu of Gaoyang. In the early years of the Wude reign era, she contracted an illness and died, yet revived after four days. She related: 'I was seized by twenty to thirty people and brought to hell. Before reaching the government offices, I heard someone calling out. Although I could not see his face, the sound of his voice resembled that of my uncle-by-marriage, Shen Jiguang.' Lady Xu asked, 'Your voice sounds like Uncle Shen. Why do you have no head?' (People of the south address the husbands of their paternal or maternal aunts as 'Elder [so-and-so]'.) Jiguang then lifted his head with his hands, placed it upon his shoulders, and admonished Lady Xu, saying, 'Stay here for now. Do not go toward the western compound. Wait until I submit a petition on your behalf, and you should be able to get out.' She therefore stayed where he had spoken, not looking anywhere east or west. Jiguang hurried about as if managing affairs. After two nights had passed, Jiguang finally came and said to Lady Xu, 'Now that you have come here, the king wishes to make you one of his female musicians. If you are brought in to see him, you must not say that you understand string and wind instruments. If he does not believe you, you may call upon me as a witness.' Soon an officer carrying dossiers ushered her in. As expected, the king asked her, 'Do you understand string and wind instruments?' Lady Xu replied, 'I do not.' She added, 'Shen Jiguang knows all about this.' The king asked Jiguang, who replied, 'She does not.' The king said, 'She should be released to return at once; there is no need to detain her.' At that time, as Jiguang was about to see her off, he conferred with the dossier-keeper, speaking in words she could not understand. The dossier-keeper said, 'Although the lady's power of merit is strong, because she had previously committed a minor transgression, she may as well undergo retribution for it now so that her bodily karma will be completely pure—would that not be delightful?' She was then led into another large courtyard whose gate was exceedingly small. There she also saw many people undergoing punishment. Lady Xu was terrified and pleaded with the supervisor, saying, 'In my lifetime I cultivated merit; what transgression have I committed to come to this?' He replied, 'Lady, you once served food to your parents in an impure bowl. You must undergo this punishment before you may leave.' Thereupon molten bronze was poured into her mouth, which was excruciatingly painful and toxic. By the time she revived, the inside of her mouth was entirely ulcerated. Jiguang then said, 'You may receive a volume of scripture from this person and memorize it. Take it back, uphold and recite it without negligence, and from this time forward your lifespan is guaranteed to exceed eighty years.' In her lifetime Lady Xu had never chanted scriptures, but after reviving she was able to recite an entire fascicle of scripture. Upon inquiring in the human world, it proved to be something never seen before. Today she is seen upholding and reciting it without interruption. The scripture still exists, but its text is too lengthy to record here. When she revived, Jiguang was still alive in the world, and it was only two years later that he met with violent death. Whenever any of her relatives were about to die, she had already seen them in the underworld three years beforehand. This was related by Lady Xu's cousin Renze. (The preceding verification is from the Mingbao ji.)