法苑珠林 38.62

38.62

As for the pagoda of Fugan Temple in the suburbs of Yizhou, it is located west of the city wall in the suburbs of the prefecture. It was originally called "Great Stone." Tradition recounts that ghosts and spirits, obeying King Aśoka’s command, went to the western mountains and took a great stone to serve as the pagoda's foundation, and the śarīra was placed within it; hence it was named "Great Stone." In the Sui dynasty, when Xiu, the Prince of Shu, served as military governor, he heard of this and ordered men to dig and excavate it. It was entirely a single stone. Tracing its seams down to the springs, they could not find its limits. Suddenly a violent wind and rain arose. Someone chiseled off a fragment from the side of the stone to bring it out, and it turned out to be jet. When he asked a merchant who was an expert in gems, the merchant said: "This is genuine jet, extremely rare in the world." In the early Sui, there was the Vinaya Master Shen. Seeing this ancient site, he erected a nine-tiered wooden pagoda upon it, which is still standing today.