法苑珠林 18.7

18.7

Zhou Min of the Jin was a native of Runan. He was Army-Guarding General of the Jin. His family had revered the Dharma for generations. During the rebellion of Su Jun, the gentlemen and scholars of the capital were all scattered and relocated east and west. Min's family possessed one set of the Large Perfection of Wisdom, written on both sides of eighty feet of half-width plain silk. There were also several bags of other scriptures, and the Large Perfection of Wisdom was mixed among them. As he had to flee the disaster traveling light and alone, he could not take them all with him. He was especially grieved over the Large Perfection of Wisdom, not knowing in which bag it was. Having to depart in haste, he had no opportunity to search, pacing back and forth and sighing. Without his realizing it, the Large Perfection of Wisdom suddenly came out of its own accord. Min was astonished and delighted, and took it away. The Zhou family thereupon treasured it for generations, and it is said to still exist today. Another account says: The wife of Zhou Song, of the Humu clan, had a Large Perfection of Wisdom written on silk. The silk was five inches wide, yet the entire Large Perfection of Wisdom was contained on it. There were also relics stored in a silver jar, all sealed within a deep chest. During the Yongjia disorder, Madame Humu was about to flee south to escape the soldiers; the scripture and relics came out of the chest on their own accord, whereupon she took them into her bosom and crossed to the east of the Yangzi. Furthermore, she once encountered a fire and had no time to retrieve the scripture; when the house was completely destroyed and the fire extinguished, she found it beneath the ash and embers, as intact as before. Prince of Kuaiji Sima Daozi went to Song's great-grandson Yun to ask for it in order to make offerings. Later it was once temporarily kept at Xinzhu Temple. Liu Jingshu said that he once saw this scripture with his own eyes; the characters were the size of hemp seeds, exquisitely dense and distinct. Xinzhu Temple is today's Tian'an Temple. This scripture was probably copied by the monk Shi Huize who had attained the Way. Some say it was once at Jianjing Temple, and the head nun of Jing chanted it.