六、隋同州般若寺尼智仙傳
6. Biography of Nun Zhixian of Prajna Temple in Suizhou
智仙，蒲坂劉氏女，少出家，有戒行。和上失之，恐其墮井，見在佛屋，儼然坐定。時年七歲，遂以禪觀為業。隋文帝誕日，無因而至，語太祖曰：「兒天佛所祐，勿憂也。」尼遂名帝為那羅延，言如金剛不可壞也。又曰：「此兒來處異倫，俗家穢雜，自為養之。」因割宅為般若寺，內通小門，以兒委尼，不敢名問。後皇妣來抱，忽見化而為龍，驚遑墮地。尼曰：「何因妄觸我兒，遂令晚得天下。」及年七歲，告帝曰：「兒當大貴，從東國來。佛法當滅，由兒興之。」而尼沈靜寡言，時道成敗吉凶，莫不符驗。初，在寺養帝，年十三方始還家。積三十餘歲，略不出門。及周滅二教，尼隱皇家，內著法衣，戒行不改。帝後果自山東入為天子，重興佛法，皆如尼言。及登祚後，每顧群臣，追念阿闍黎以為口實。又云：「我興由佛法，而好食麻豆，前生似從道人裏來。」由小時在寺，至今樂聞鐘聲，乃命史官王劭為尼作傳。其龍潛所經四十五州，皆悉同時為大興國寺，因改般若為其一焉。仁壽元年，帝及后宮同感舍利，並放光明，砧磓試之，宛然無損。遂散於州部，前後建塔百有餘所，隨有塔下，皆圖神尼，多有靈相。故其銘云：「維年月，菩薩戒佛弟子大隋皇帝堅、敬白十方三世一切三寶：弟子蒙三寶福祐，為蒼生君父，思與民庶共建菩提。今故分布舍利諸州供養，欲使普修善業，同登妙果，仍為弟子。法界幽顯，三途八難，懺悔行道。奉請十方常住三寶，願起慈悲，受弟子等請，降赴道場，證明弟子為諸眾生發露懺悔。」文多不載。
Zhi Xian was a woman from the Liu family of Puban. She left home to become a nun at a young age and was known for her strict observance of the precepts. Once, her master could not find her and feared she had fallen into a well, but then saw her sitting serenely in the Buddha hall. She was only seven years old at the time, and from then on she devoted herself to meditation.
On the day Emperor Wen of Sui was born, she arrived unexpectedly and said to his grandfather, "This child is protected by the heavenly Buddhas. Do not worry." The nun then named the emperor "Narayana," meaning he was as indestructible as a vajra. She also said, "This child's origin is extraordinary. The secular household is impure and chaotic; I will raise him myself." Thus, a residence was converted into the Prajna Temple, with a small gate connecting it to the imperial quarters. The child was entrusted to the nun, and no one dared to ask about his name.
Later, when the emperor's mother came to hold him, she suddenly saw him transform into a dragon. Startled, she dropped him to the ground. The nun said, "Why did you recklessly touch my child? Because of this, he will obtain the world later." When the emperor was seven years old, she told him, "You will achieve great nobility, coming from the eastern lands. The Buddha's teachings are about to decline, but you will revive them."
The nun was calm and spoke little, but whenever she spoke of success, failure, fortune, or misfortune, her words always proved true. Initially, she raised the emperor in the temple until he was thirteen before he returned home. For over thirty years, she rarely left the temple. When the Zhou dynasty suppressed both Buddhism and Daoism, the nun hid within the imperial household, wearing monastic robes in private and never wavering in her observance of the precepts.
Later, the emperor indeed entered from the east to become the Son of Heaven, reviving Buddhism exactly as the nun had predicted. After ascending the throne, he often spoke to his ministers, recalling his teacher as evidence. He also said, "My rise was due to the Buddha's teachings, and I have always enjoyed eating hemp and beans. It seems I came from a community of practitioners in a past life." Because he spent his childhood in the temple, he still delighted in the sound of temple bells and ordered the historian Wang Shao to write a biography of the nun.
In the forty-five provinces through which the dragon had passed, Great Xingguo Temples were simultaneously established, and the Prajna Temple was converted into one of them. In the first year of the Renshou era, the emperor and the imperial consorts together sensed the presence of relics, which emitted a radiant light. Even when tested with a hammer, they remained undamaged. These relics were distributed to various provinces, and over a hundred pagodas were built. Beneath each pagoda, an image of the divine nun was enshrined, and many miraculous signs appeared.
Thus, the inscription reads: "On this day, the Bodhisattva-precept disciple, the Great Emperor Jian of Sui, reverently addresses all treasures of the Three Jewels throughout the ten directions and three times: This disciple, blessed by the Three Jewels, serves as ruler and father to the people. I wish to join with all beings in cultivating bodhi. Therefore, I now distribute relics to various provinces for veneration, hoping that all may cultivate good deeds together and attain wondrous fruition. I also repent on behalf of all beings in the dharma realm, whether hidden or visible, and those in the three unfortunate realms and eight difficulties. I respectfully invite the eternal Three Jewels of the ten directions to manifest compassion, descend to this place of practice, and bear witness to this disciple's repentance on behalf of all sentient beings." The full text is too lengthy to record here.