法苑珠林 63.49

63.49

The Han śramaṇa Zhu Tange was a man of Qin Commandery. Sincere and resolute, he engaged in ascetic practices, carrying his alms bowl and shaking his ringed staff to convert the fourfold assembly. Residing on Mount Jiang, he constantly practiced the pratyutpanna-samādhi and was exceptionally skilled in spiritual dhāraṇīs, with many verified responses. Sima Yuanxian deeply revered him. Liu Yi, General of the Guard, heard of his diligent asceticism and invited him to Gushu, treating him with great affection. In the fifth year of the Yixing era, there was a great drought: reservoirs and lakes dried up, the crops were parched, and sacrifices to the mountains and rivers for many ten-day periods brought no response. Yi then invited the saṃgha to hold a vegetarian feast, and Ge was also present. When the feast ended, Yi personally boarded an open boat to float along the rivers and streams, and the civil and military officials and commoners of the entire province all set out with him. In midstream, Ge burned incense and bowed in reverence, utterly sincere and fervent, and then recited the *Sūtra of the Dragon King of the Ocean*. Opening the scroll and giving voice, clouds immediately arose; before he had finished chanting half of it, torrential rain gathered from all four directions. Just as he rolled up the scroll, a deluge poured down, filling every field and lake. That year yielded a bumper harvest. Liu Jingshu, who was serving at that time as Master of the Gentlemen of the Palace in Yi's principality, personally took part in this gathering and witnessed it himself.