大宋僧史略 3.37

3.37

晉代有尼淨撿。此方女人得戒之上首也。一旦中庭有光。上屬于天。若虹霓狀。中有天女。相見欣然携手。撿遂引弟子躡光而去。又桓宣武窺尼入浴室。見其刲割可畏。出而無他。蓋以誡宣武溫。由是滅其跋扈。又隋尼智仙知文帝當為天子。通變不測。厥徒實繁。略舉尤者。尼女尚然。況丈夫釋子者乎。

In the Jin dynasty, there was the nun Jingjian, the foremost of women in this land to receive the precepts. One morning, a light appeared in the courtyard, reaching up to the sky like a rainbow; within it was a heavenly maiden, who, delighted to see her, took her hand. Jingjian thereupon led her disciples, stepped into the light, and departed. Furthermore, when Huan Xuanwu [Huan Wen] peeked at a nun entering the bathhouse, he saw her dismembering herself in a terrifying manner, yet she came out without any injury; this was to admonish Xuanwu Wen, thereby extinguishing his domineering arrogance. Moreover, the Sui nun Zhixian knew that Emperor Wen was destined to become the Son of Heaven; her penetrations and transformations were unfathomable. Such figures were truly numerous; I have only cited the most outstanding. If even female nuns were like this, how much more so the great men among the sons of Śākya!