法苑珠林 13.26

13.26

On the eighth day of the fourth month in the third year of the Ningkang era of Emperor Xiaowu of the Eastern Jin, the śramaṇa Shi Dao'an of Tanxi Temple in Xiangyang, whose abundant virtue was illustrious and whose fame spread throughout the realm, cast an eighteen-foot gilt-bronze statue of Amitāyus Buddha at the vihāra west of the outer city wall. At the end of winter of the following year, the ornamentation was completed. Xi Huizhi, General of the Army of the Pacification of the Garrison and Regional Inspector of Yongzhou under the Jin, had newly arrived to govern the Xiang region and assisted in striking open the gate of blessings. That night, the statue went out and journeyed west to Mount Wanshan, leaving behind a single footprint with the imprint pattern sinking into the stone. The monks and laypeople of the district rushed there at once, marveling with sighs, and welcomed it back to its original place for offerings. Later, that evening, it went out and stood at the temple gate, which astonished the whole assembly. Huizhi then changed the name to Golden Statue Temple. In the third year of the Putong era of the Liang, on the eighth day of the fourth month, an imperial decree ordered that a gilt-bronze lotus pedestal be cast in the Jianxing Garden, five feet nine inches in height and nine feet eight inches in width. Once the adornment was completed, it was sent upstream against the current to support the statue's feet. A stele was erected to praise its virtue, with a text by Liu Xiaoyi and calligraphy by Xiao Ziyun, acclaimed as supreme under heaven. The stele exists today. Coming to the abolition of the Dharma by Emperor Wu of the Northern Zhou, in the jiayin year, the third year of the Jiande era, Wang Bing, Duke of Taiyuan, was Regional Inspector of Xiangzhou. His deputy commander, Supreme Opening of the Government Changsun Zhe, lacked faith in the Dharma in his mind. Hearing of the statue's miraculous efficacy, he wished first to destroy and eliminate it. The men and women in the city and the defrocked monks and nuns, hearing that it was to be destroyed, filled the roads with lamentations and wailing. Seeing the sighing and regret of the monastics and laypeople, Zhe grew increasingly furious; he pressured and drove his attendants, ordering them to smash it quickly. First, he ordered one hundred men to tie a rope around its neck and pull it, but it did not move. Zhe thought they were not applying themselves diligently, and caned the supervisors one hundred times each. They pulled it again as before, and he added three hundred more men, but it remained motionless as before. Zhe's fury mounted even higher, and he added five hundred more; only then was it pulled down. The ground shook with a resounding roar, and all the people trembled with fear. Zhe alone leaped for joy. He immediately ordered it to be melted down and destroyed, shouting out his delight. He then galloped on horseback to inform the regional inspector, but after only about a hundred paces he suddenly fell from his horse. He lost his speech, stared straight ahead, and could not raise his four limbs. By nightfall, he died. Monastics and laypeople shouted with even greater joy. When Zhe was about to destroy the statue, an inscription under its armpit inside the hanging robe was revealed, which read: "In the nineteenth year of the Taiyuan era of the Jin, the year jiayin, on the first day of the month, the bhikṣu Dao'an made an eighteen-foot golden statue west of the outer city of Xiangyang. After three sexagenary cycles—one hundred and eighty years—this statue will be destroyed." When the months and years were later calculated, its rise and fall matched completely. It is truly known that Master Dao'an was a sage, and his inscription was certainly not in vain. The place where he originally dwelt is now called Qifa Temple, and the stone which the statue overturned has been quarried by people and still exists today.