法苑珠林 32.47

32.47

In the fourth year of the Yixi reign era of the Jin dynasty, Wu Daozong of Taimo county in Dongyang commandery lost his father at an early age. He lived alone with his mother and had no wife or children yet. Zong was hired out as a laborer and was not at home. A neighbor heard a loud, crashing sound in their house. Peering in, he did not see the mother, but only a black-striped tiger inside the house. The villagers were alarmed and frightened, fearing that the tiger had entered the house and eaten his mother. They beat drums and gathered people to go together to rescue her. Surrounding the residence, they rushed in, but saw no tiger; they saw only his mother, whose speech was as usual, and they could not fathom the meaning of it. When her son returned, the mother said to him, "I am pursued by past sins and must undergo a transformation." A month later, the mother disappeared. Within the county borders, tiger calamities frequently arose, and everyone said it was the mother, the black-striped tiger. The common people, suffering from this, dispatched men to fight and strike it. It killed several people. Later, someone shot the tiger with a white hawk and pierced its belly with a halberd, yet they could not capture it immediately. After several days, the tiger returned to its former bed in its home, unable to resume human form. It collapsed on the bed and died. Her son wailed and wept, following the rites for burying his mother, weeping and mourning for her morning and night. (This one verification is from the Qixie ji.)