大唐內典錄 10.71

10.71

During the Zhenguan era, Dong Xiong of Hedong served as an assistant in the Court of Judicial Review. He was sincere and honest from youth, and had eaten a vegetarian diet for over a decade. In the fourteenth year, he was implicated in the affair of Li Xiantong. The Emperor was exceedingly furious and sent the Attendant Censor Wei Cong to interrogate him with great urgency; several dozen people were imprisoned as a result. The assistant in the Court of Judicial Review Li Jingxuan and the judicial investigator Wang Xin were also implicated in this case. Xiong was imprisoned and fettered in the same chamber with them. He single-mindedly recited the Universal Gate Chapter, reaching three thousand times a day. While he was sitting at night chanting the sūtra, his fetters suddenly unlocked themselves and fell to the ground. Startled, Xiong told Xin and Xuan. Xin and Xuan together examined the lock; it lay intact and solid on the ground, yet the clasp and lock were separated by several feet. They immediately informed the guards. That night, the Investigating Censor Zhang Shouyi was on night duty; he ordered an officer to open the lock and illuminate it with a candle. Seeing that the lock had not been picked open yet was separated, he found it very strange. He locked it again, sealed it with paper, inscribed it, and left. Xiong chanted the sūtra as usual. During the fifth watch, the lock unlocked and fell again with a sound. Xiong again told Xin, Xuan, and the others. At dawn, he told Jingxuan to look: the paper seal and inscription were as before, but the lock had separated on its own. Jingxuan had never believed in the Buddhadharma; when his wife read sūtras, he would often say to her, 'Why are you bewitched by barbarian spirits to read such books?' Upon seeing this event with Xiong, he deeply realized the fault of his disbelief and only then knew that the Buddha is a great sage. At that time, Xin also recited the names of the eight bodhisattvas, completing thirty thousand recitations, and his lock unlocked and fell; examining it, it was no different from Xiong's. These occurrences were fully heard and seen within and outside the Censorate, and shortly thereafter, they were all released.