法苑珠林 13.27

13.27

Furthermore, during the collapse and division at the end of the Sui dynasty, regional frontiers held their strongholds firmly. Doulu Bao, the defense commander of Xiangyang, controlled a region under Wang Shichong. There was Dharma Master Xian of Qifa Temple, who was held in high regard by the gentry and commoners. He repeatedly admonished Lord Dou to submit to the Tang state, but Dou would not comply. Xian exchanged secret correspondence with both monastics and laypeople inside and outside the city, and troops from the capital were consequently dispatched to Xiangyang. Dou held out firmly; although troops arrived three times to besiege the city, it did not fall. Later, Dou discovered Xian's intentions and secretly had him murdered. Nearing death, Xian told his disciple Su Fulou: "Your father and I witnessed the destruction of Master Dao'an's golden statue. From that time forth, the surviving traces have not been continued. After I die, you may make a statue following it." In the fourth year of the Wude era, when the imperial army laid close siege, Dou surrendered; only then did he regret not following Xian's advice, lamenting the cruelty of having murdered him unjustly. This was a case where a man had rendered merit to the state yet no one vindicated him. When the city was pacified, Fulou adopted lay clothing. Master Xian's robes, supplies, and miscellaneous utensils were all gathered by Fulou. He then set his mind on making a statue, yet he did not know what model to use. At a single smelting, it was completed without any defect. When the statue was being cast, the sky was overcast with clouds, raining down flowers like plums throughout the temple. Fulou was naturally ingenious and had abundant wealth of his own; he also made a gilt-bronze statue of Maitreya in his home, over ten feet high. Later, he dreamed that Master Xian instructed him to make another Buddha statue, whereupon he made a large statue fifty-nine feet high at Fanyun Temple, the events of which are recorded elsewhere. In the past, at the beginning of the Sui, Prince Xiao of Qin, Yang Jun, once governed the Xiang region. Hearing that Master Dao'an's ancient statue had an extraordinary shape and style, he sent people to draw its likeness and made one at Yanxing Temple in Chang'an. On the night it was first cast, it also called forth heavenly music and raining flowers, presenting great miraculous omens. That statue is currently at Yanxing Temple.