[Pramāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/) › [Indian literature](https://indike.org/pramana/in) › [Buddhist Literature](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha) › [Taishō Tripiṭaka (Chinese Buddhist canon)](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho) › [法苑珠林](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.2122) › 96.19 # 法苑珠林 96.19 法苑珠林 96.19 - **Language:** Classical Chinese ### [96.19](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.2122.96.19) 宋臨川招提寺有釋慧紹。不知氏族。小兒時母哺魚肉輒吐。咽菜不疑。於是便蔬食。至八歲出家為僧要弟子。精勤稟勵苦行標節。後隨要止臨川招提寺。乃密有燒身之意。常雇人斫薪𧂐。於東山石室高數丈。中央開一龕。足容己身。乃還寺辭要。要苦諫不從。即於焚身之日。於東山設大眾八關齋。并告別知識。其日闔境奔波車馬人眾及齎金寶。不可稱數。至夜行道。紹自行香。行香既竟。執燭然薪。入中而坐。誦藥王本事品。眾既不見。紹悟其已去。禮拜未畢。悉至薪所。薪已洞然誦聲未息。火至額聞唱一心。言已奄絕。大眾咸見有一星其大如斗。直下煙中俄而上天。則見者咸謂。天宮迎紹。經三日薪聚乃盡。紹臨終謂同學曰。吾燒身處當生梧桐。慎莫伐之。其後三日果生焉。紹焚身是元嘉二十八年。年二十八。 > Under the Song, at Zhaoti Temple in Linchuan, there was Shi Huishao, whose clan name is unknown. As a small boy, whenever his mother fed him fish or meat, he would vomit it up, but he swallowed vegetables without hesitation. Thereupon he adopted a vegetarian diet. At the age of eight, he left the household to become a disciple of Sengyao. Diligent and strenuous in practicing austerities, he was an exemplar of moral restraint. Later, following Yao, he stayed at Zhaoti Temple in Linchuan and secretly harbored the intention of burning his body. He regularly hired people to cut firewood. On the East Mountain, where the stone chamber was several tens of feet high, he opened a niche in the center just large enough to contain his body. He then returned to the temple to bid farewell to Yao; Yao bitterly dissuaded him, but he would not comply. On the day he burned his body, he held an eightfold retreat (aṣṭāṅgasamanvāgatopavāsa) for the great assembly on the East Mountain and took leave of his acquaintances. On that day, carriages, horses, and throngs of people from the entire region rushed there, and the gold and jewels they brought were beyond count. When night fell to practice the circumambulation, Shao offered incense himself. After offering the incense, he took a torch, lit the firewood, stepped inside, sat down, and recited the 'Chapter on the Ancient Deeds of Bodhisattva Bhaiṣajyarāja'. When the assembly could no longer see him, they realized he had already gone. Before their prostrations were finished, they all rushed to the woodpile. The firewood was already blazing fiercely, yet the sound of recitation had not ceased. When the fire reached his forehead, he was heard crying out 'Single-mindedness!' Having spoken, he suddenly expired. The great assembly all saw a star as large as a peck measure fall straight down into the smoke and, after a moment, ascend to heaven. All who saw it said that the heavenly palace had come to welcome Shao. After three days, the pile of firewood was consumed. As he approached death, Shao had told his fellow students: 'Where I burn my body, a paulownia tree will grow; be sure not to cut it down.' Three days later, it indeed grew there. Shao's self-immolation occurred in the twenty-eighth year of Yuanjia, at the age of twenty-eight. > — English (machine translation) (machine translation) - [Previous: 96.18](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.2122.96.18) - [Next: 96.20](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.2122.96.20) - [Up: 96](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.2122.96) ## Translations (1) - [English (machine translation)](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.2122~en-mt.96.19) — English, machine translation ## Linked texts (3) - [高僧傳](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.2059.12.15) — 慧皎, Classical Chinese - [法華傳記](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.2068.10.4) — Classical Chinese - [弘贊法華傳](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.2067.5.4) — Classical Chinese --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.2122.96.19](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.2122.96.19) · Pramāṇa