法苑珠林 18.41

18.41

Jia Daoxian of Luoyang in the Tang was erudite, widely learned, and particularly fond of Buddhist scriptures. In the fifth year of the Zhenguan reign era, he served as Census Officer of Qingzhou. Because the official residence was narrow and cramped, with nowhere to place the scriptures, he tied the two legs of a writing desk with ropes and hung it upward from the beams of the roof, placing sixty scrolls of Buddhist scriptures upon it. Sitting and lying beneath it, he studied and read them, forgetting weariness. Over time the ropes rotted, and one end finally snapped. The desk nevertheless remained stately, neither falling nor tilting. After a long while like this, people finally took it down. Daoxian's son, who served as Census Officer of Xizhou, recounted this.