法苑珠林 17.28

17.28

During the Tianping era of the Northern Wei, Sun Jingde, a recruit of Dingzhou, made an image of Avalokiteśvara and worshipped it with personal reverence. Later he was implicated by bandits; unable to bear the torture, he falsely confessed to a capital crime and was about to be beheaded. He dreamed of a śramaṇa who instructed him to recite the Life-Saving Avalokiteśvara Sūtra a thousand times to gain release. The officers bound him and led him to the marketplace; he recited as he walked. Reaching the execution ground, he completed the thousandth recitation. When the sword struck, it broke of itself into three pieces, leaving his skin and flesh unharmed. Three times they changed the sword, and each time it broke as before. Looking at the image of the Bodhisattva, it had three blade marks on its neck. This was reported to the throne in a memorial; the Prime Minister Gao Huan submitted a memorial requesting his pardon from death, and an imperial decree ordered the scripture to be copied and widely distributed throughout the world. It is now called the King Gao Avalokiteśvara Sūtra. From the Jin, Song, Liang, Chen, Qin, and Zhao states, divided into sixteen kingdoms and spanning four hundred years, those who invoked the names and recited the scriptures of Avalokiteśvara, Kṣitigarbha, Maitreya, and Amitābha and obtained deliverance are beyond count; all are detailed in the various biographies and records, and therefore are not recorded in full here.