法苑珠林 97.65

97.65

Pei Zennan, a man from Lihu in Caozhou during the Tang, died at the age of twenty-one in the late Zhenguan period. After three days, he revived. He said of himself: "When I first died, I was taken by a person to the king's location. The king was dressed in white, which was extraordinarily fresh and clean. The king dispatched this person to take an ox to plow the land. This person pleaded, 'My brothers are young, and there is no one to attend upon my two parents.' The king thereupon took pity on him. He then dispatched an envoy to lead him toward the south. Arriving at the third gate, he entered and saw boiling cauldrons, the mountain of knives, and the tree of swords. He also saw several thousand human heads that had all been severed and arranged on the ground. These heads all cried out with their mouths, 'Great hunger!' In his own village there was an elderly woman, aged nearly seventy, who had not yet died at that time; he then saw her tending the fire before the boiling cauldron. After finishing his observation, he returned before the king and saw Zhang Cheng, a fellow villager who was also not yet dead. There was someone accusing Cheng of demolishing a certain house. The king dispatched an envoy to inspect it, who reported: 'It is true.' Cheng said: 'Cheng was plowing the field without realizing it and plowed through the grave; it was not intentional.' The king said: 'Although you did not do it intentionally, your mind was careless in the end.' Thereupon he ordered someone to strike his waist seven times with a staff. After a moment, the king said: 'You have no further business; I release you to return early.' The king then sent someone to escort him away, sending him north to climb over a wall. Upon climbing the wall, he looked out and saw his house, and thereupon heard the sound of weeping. He then jumped down from the wall, and suddenly awoke and sat up. After reviving, he recounted the matter in detail to the villagers. When the townsfolk looked at Zhang Cheng's waist, there were indeed seven marks from the blows of the staff, and the marks were extremely bluish-black. When they asked him about damaging the grave, he replied that it was not false. The elderly woman soon fell ill and died not long after. (The above evidential miracle is from the Mingbao shiyi.)