法苑珠林 6.72

6.72

Li Dan of the Song, styled Shize, was a native of Guangling. For his filial piety, prudence, and unadorned simplicity, he was renowned in his village. On the fourteenth day of the first month in the third year of the Yuanjia reign era (426), he died suddenly. His chest remained warm, and after seven days he revived. They fed him with gruel, and overnight he returned to normal. He said that a person holding an official pennant arrived at his bedside, declaring: “The Magistrate summons you.” Dan then followed him, going straight north. The road was very level and clean. Upon arriving at city walls and gates as lofty and grand as contemporary palaces, a message-bearer was sent to console and summon him. Dan stepped forward. In a great hall, he saw thirty people in unlined robes and green headscarves seated in solemn rows. One person sat facing east, wearing a gown and leaning on a table, with about a hundred attendants to his left and right. Looking at Dan, he said to the seated people: “We should show him the various hells so that the world may know of them.” After Dan heard these words, he raised his head and looked around in the four directions; the previous place was completely gone, and he was inside hell. He saw crowds of sinners receiving various painful retributions, groaning and wailing piteously beyond endurance. Soon a message-bearer said: “The Magistrate trusts that you may return; we will summon you again later.” Because of this, he returned. In the first month of the sixth year (429), he died again, and after seven days revived once more. He recounted what he had seen, roughly similar to before. Some prisoners sent messages through him to inform their families, saying that they had committed crimes in life and asked them to cultivate merits on their behalf, gradually detailing their names, relatives, and villages. Dan searched according to their words and found them all. He also said: “In the jiashen year, pestilence will spread and kill all evil people. If disciples of the Buddhist house observe the eight purificatory precepts (aṣṭāṅga-samanvāgatopavāsa), cultivating the mind and acting with goodness, they can be spared.” Dan originally served as a libationer (jijiu) of the Daoists and wished to renounce his original register and teachings, but the Daoist people admonished and restrained him, so he practiced both traditions, while constantly exhorting people to observe the eight purificatory precepts.