法苑珠林 85.34

85.34

The Tang lady née Xiao was the wife of Cui Yiqi, Grand Master of Siyuan. She was the daughter of Xiao Keng, and Keng was a nephew of the Vice Director. Lady Xiao was jealous and prone to anger by nature, fond of beating bondservants, and did not believe in karmic retribution. In the first year of Linde, she accompanied the imperial entourage to Luoyang, and in the first month of the second year she died, ending up in hell. Under Lady Xiao there was a maidservant she had always favored, named Runyu, about eighteen years of age. Although she was a Liao bondmaid, her appearance was upright and handsome, and her nature and intelligence were sharp; she had faithful joy in the Buddha's Dharma. In the second month, the family held a third-seven-day vegetarian feast for the lady. At the time when the monks were eating, the lady came of herself, wearing a cangue on her neck and chains around her waist, escorted by hell lictors, to view the feast. Other people did not know of it; only this maidservant saw it. The lady's spirit possessed this maidservant to speak, and her voice was no different from the lady's voice during her lifetime. She had her convey a message to all the family, great and small, saying: 'Since I married into the Cui family, by nature I was prone to anger, gave way to groundless jealousy, loved to beat bondservants, and moreover did not believe in cause and effect. Now I have arrived in hell and am suffering exceedingly heavy punishment, undergoing all kinds of torments that cannot be fully spoken of. Hearing that the household is holding a feast for me today on the third seventh day, I requested the hell magistrate to grant me one day's leave to come briefly to view the feast. Tell your sons, daughters, and the entire household, great and small: since I lived together with you, I committed the three bodily, four verbal, and three mental poisons of wrath, being fond of getting angry and beating you, as well as being jealous of my husband and the maidservants and concubines he looked upon, committing all kinds of unwholesome deeds. Having set in motion evil karma, I now receive suffering retribution, which cannot be recounted in full. May you, my sons and daughters, the entire household great and small, inner and outer relatives, accept my repentance and grant me gladness. However, you, my sons and daughters, remembering the kindness of my nursing and feeding you, quickly renounce and donate the goods and articles I used during my life to cultivate blessings, hoping to deliver me from the dark torments. When you hold a feast for me on the seventh seventh day, cause this merit to be swiftly accomplished. When my feast day arrives, I will ask the magistrate again in hopes of being able to come once more. Tell my husband, sons, daughters, and the rest: during his life, my husband has been hot-tempered and prone to wrath; he must not excessively beat the bondservants in anger. Exhort him to believe in the Three Jewels, to revere high and low, and to practice the vegetarian fast, precepts, giving, and patience without cessation.' When she was about to leave, she said to her sons and daughters: 'I will take Runyu away for a while, to let her see in hell what my punishment and agony are like. After five or six days, I will release her back, to let you, my sons and daughters, know the reality of my punishment and agony.' After she spoke these words, Runyu died immediately. Only the area above her heart remained warm while the rest of her body was cold; she lay on the ground, and they did not dare bury her. When this maidservant reached hell, she saw the courtyard gate of a grand hall, guarded by strict troops, which was said to be the King's hall, into which she dared not peer. Walking to the eastern courtyard, she saw another hall with a high official in it, who was said to be the magistrate who judges crimes. Passing further to the east of the courtyard hall, there were hells with all kinds of instruments of torment, exactly as in paintings. The lady said to the maid: 'Look at the misery of my punishment.' After she spoke these words, all sorts of hell lictors and rākṣasas immediately tossed and threw the lady, butchering and cutting her flesh, and boiling her in cauldrons of soup. After being boiled, she returned to life; after returning to life, she further went through various hells where iron tongs drew out her tongue and iron birds pecked it; she was also laid on an iron bed, where flying birds and fierce fires struck her body all at once. After dying, she returned to life, and after returning to life, she again suffered various torments that cannot be recounted in full. When the lady revived, she immediately saw her father, Xiao Keng, soaring through the sky seated upon a purple-gold lotus throne. Throughout his lifetime and through all his official posts, Keng had never consumed wine, meat, or pungent roots; he constantly recited the Lotus Sūtra, once every day, revered the Three Jewels, and bowed and chanted without neglect during the six periods of the day and night. Now born in a good realm, seeing his daughter suffering, he came to rescue her. He then said to his daughter: 'During my lifetime, I constantly exhorted you to generate faith and cease wrath, but you would not heed my words, bringing about this disaster today. Why, moreover, have you brought this maidservant here?' The daughter replied to her father, saying: 'Because during my life I did not believe and am now suffering punishment, I therefore brought this maidservant to see the severity of my punishment, so that she may convey it to the sons and daughters of the household and cause them to generate faith.' Hearing this, the father gave his approval, and said to his daughter: 'Although I have been born in a good realm, I cannot wholly save you from your misery. Strive diligently to encourage yourself to arouse the aspiration, and moreover rely on the household's blessings and goodness to assist you together; then you may firmly hope to get out and ascend to human or heavenly rebirth.' After he spoke these words, suddenly a brāhmaṇa master, youthful and handsome, also came flying through the air, and said to the lady: 'Because you did not believe in cause and effect, you now suffer punishment. I do not know how this maidservant's faculties and intelligence are; I wish to teach her to recite sūtras, so that she may transmit them to the household and cause worldly people to generate faith.' The lady replied, saying: 'Please, Master, simply teach her; this maidservant is clever and can manage to recite the sūtras.' The master then first taught her to recite the Diamond Prajñā; when she first received two or three lines, she forgot one or two phrases, but as he continued to instruct her, she gradually managed half a page and a full page, and in a short while recited it without forgetting. He further taught her to recite the Bhaiṣajyaguru and the Lotus Sūtras, which she did not forget once received. All three of these texts were in Sanskrit sounds, not in the Chinese language; the diction was standard and correct, the pronunciation and rhythm clear and bright, and the passages thoroughly memorized. She was then released to return. When she was about to leave, he said: 'When you arrive home, recite them for whoever you meet. The Chinese, whether clergy or lay, do not distinguish your sounds; have them seek a brāhmaṇa skilled in Sanskrit, and let him listen to your recitation; only then will they know its quality. Many people in the world believe in heresy and serve Daoism, not taking joy in the Buddha's Dharma. Once they see that you, a Liao bondmaid, can still recite three Sanskrit sūtras, how could they fail to generate faith? If even one person can be turned from error into correctness, not only will the lady attain blessings, but your own future retribution will also not fall into the three evil destinies.' Having received these words, she was released. Arriving home, she regained consciousness, was as before, and immediately gathered the household, high and low, to recount in full the lady's suffering in hell. Still fearing that the master and young gentlemen would not believe, she lay down on the ground and acted out the lady's suffering in hell: at times saying, 'Watch the lady swallowing hot iron balls,' opening her mouth to swallow them, her mouth red and belly burning like fire; at times saying, 'Watch the lady undergoing the iron plow tilling her tongue,' sticking out her tongue two or three feet; at times saying, 'Watch the lady suffering the iron bed,' her body turning red and hot vapor rising like fire. Having thus manifested all kinds of agony, she then revived. She further recounted the matter of seeing the lady's father admonishing her, and recounted seeing the brāhmaṇa teach her to recite the scriptures, intending for the lady to escape hell and ascend to heavenly retribution. This maidservant then sat upright for the household and recited, phrase by phrase and sentence by sentence, all in Sanskrit sounds, her voice clear and resonant, causing people to listen with joy. When the household, great and small, saw this spiritual verification of good and evil, the likes of which had rarely been heard, the lady's sons, daughters, great and small, threw themselves to the ground, weeping and wailing with sorrow and grief, exceeding the pain of her initial death. Clerics, laypeople, and commandery officials who heard of it all exhorted one another, changed their minds to take refuge and believe, and observed the vegetarian fast and precepts without cessation. In the first year of Linde, four brāhmaṇas from the Western Regions came to present the Buddha's cranial bone relic. On that occasion, a vegetarian feast was held in the household of their relative, General Xue Rengui, where all relatives gathered. The various officials conferred together, saying: 'Although this maidservant can recite Sanskrit sūtras, none of us can distinguish them. Let us therefore invite and request these four brāhmaṇas to come to the general's residence for the feast, and also summon this maidservant; do not tell the four monks that she learned to recite in hell, but merely deceive them by saying that another brāhmaṇa recited these three sūtras to her, to test secretly whether it is true or false.' Thereupon, facing the Western monks, they had the maidservant recite. When she had recited the Diamond Prajñā, the four brāhmaṇas all stood up at once, joined their palms in wondrous praise at this rare and unprecedented marvel: 'For what reason can a Chinese person achieve this?' When she further recited the Bhaiṣajyaguru and Lotus Sūtras, they were even more delighted and revered her like a teacher. They then conveyed through an interpreter, saying: 'For what reason does this girl possess such skillful pronunciation and diction? The sentences are canonical and correct, and her mastery of the texts is without error. Even among those in our Western Regions who are skilled at recitation, none can match this. This is not something an ordinary person could achieve!' Only then did the officials tell them the truth. The Western monks wept tears, [saying]: 'Were it not for the dark assistance of holy power, how could her words and diction be so canonical and correct?' The officials, clerics, and laypeople who witnessed this grieved with sighs, deeply believed in the Buddha's Dharma, and did not dare treat it lightly. Because of seeing this matter, the general memorialized it upward to reach the Emperor. The Emperor issued an edict to the hundred officials: 'Know with faith that the Buddha's Dharma is superior to all the holy ones and aided by dark protection; who could fail to believe?' The hundred officials bowed in thanks, celebrating what they had never heard before: 'It is truly because the great blessings and kindness of the Three Jewels are profound, and their compassionate shade covers the four kinds of born beings, which is not something the foolish minds of subjects can fathom. Since both holy and ordinary benefit from it, how could one not believe?' (Grand Master Cui also died in the second year of Linde. His residence was on the south side of the grand avenue of the west gate of Yishan Ward, east of the palace city in the Western Capital. A monk on the road visited his house, saw the maid reciting the scriptures, and recounted it in full like this.)