法苑珠林 91.34

91.34

The Wu Temple in Xuzhou of the Eastern Jin had a statue of the Crown Prince in Contemplation. Formerly, the Jin śramaṇa Faxian, maintaining strict discipline, went to the Western Heavens and traveled through the sacred sites. He went to lodge at a monastery, where young and old welcomed him. At the time, Faxian fell ill. The host elder monk personally attended to and managed his needs. He instructed a novice to seek the vegetarian food of the guest monk's native region. In an instant, the novice went and returned, with bleeding sores on his feet, saying that he had gone to the house of Wu Cangying in Pengcheng to beg for food and had been bitten by a dog. Faxian marvelled that within the space of a turnaround, the novice had journeyed tens of thousands of li away; only then did he realise that the monks of the monastery were all no ordinary men. Later, Faxian returned to his homeland by ship, and deliberately went to Pengcheng to search for and find Wu Cangying. He questioned him in detail about the matter. Wu replied that it had indeed happened, and pointed to the place on the gate where the remaining blood was smeared. Faxian said, "This is the blood of an arhat and holy man. At that time, it was seen that he was merely seeking food for me. How could he have been injured?" Hearing this, Cangying was ashamed and terrified; he immediately gave up his residence to make a temple, and personally went to Yangdu to seek scriptures and statues. Just as he was crossing the Yangtze River, the boat tilted and leaned over. Suddenly there were a pair of bones, each ten feet long, tossing and surging with the waves, which abruptly entered the boat. They then attained a calm current and went ashore. When this matter was memorialised, they proved to be dragon's teeth. Cangying had not yet obtained a statue, and went upstream along the river westward. Taking a brief rest in the forest, he met a Brahmin monk walking with this statue, who said, "I wish to go to Xuzhou to provide it to Wu Cangying for worship." Cangying said, "If it is truly as the Tathāgata says, this disciple is he." The monk then handed over the statue, and Cangying took it back to the capital. An imperial decree ordered ten replicas to be cast, all with inscriptions placed under their feet, so that people could not distinguish the new from the old, and Cangying was allowed to choose by searching. The statue appeared to him in a dream again, revealing its original features, and he was able to pick the right one and take it back. The original statue returned east to Xuzhou and constantly emitted extraordinary light. Emperor Xiaowen of the Northern Wei requested it to be brought into the Northern Terrace. When it reached the Later Ruler of the Northern Qi, the envoy Chang Biaozhi was sent to welcome it back to Ye. When Qi fell and Zhou abolished [Buddhism], monks hid it. When the Great Sui inaugurated the teachings, it shone brightly again. It is now in Daci Temple in Xiangzhou. (This one proof appears in the *Miscellaneous Records of the Jin History*.)