釋氏要覽 1.157

1.157

This is the principal dwelling chamber of a monastery. It originally began in the Xianqing era of the Tang dynasty, when an imperial decree dispatched Li Yibiao, Administrator of the Court of the Imperial Insignia, and Wang Xuance, former Magistrate of Huangshui in Rongzhou, on a diplomatic mission to the Western Regions. When they arrived about four li northeast of the city of Vaiśālī at the room where the layman Vimalakīrti manifested illness, its ruins were made of piled stones. Wang Xuance personally measured it both lengthwise and crosswise with his writing tablet, finding it to be ten tablets [on each side]. Hence it was designated the "Ten-Foot Square" (Fangzhang).