In Hengyue there was the Yuelu Monastery, rebuilt and refurbished in brilliant gold and jade, its lustre dazzling everyone. A wandering Hu (northwestern) monk visited the temple, and addressed its abbot: “If, at the northeastern corner [214] a Tusita Bridge could be built over a small stream, once completed it would resemble the Western Heaven.” The following day the abbot brought together a multitude to discuss this transformation, and after some years it was complete.
The two sages of the temple gate then appeared to the abbot in a dream, saying: “This temple resembles the Western Heaven above, but now it falls short and the spirit of Mars is coming to burn and seize it. You should urgently take your multitude south to meet him by the ten li bridge.” On awaking, the abbot was terrified, and gathered his monks to go out front and wait. From dawn to evening, nobody came. When the sky darkened, they suddenly saw a priest, hair loose and unkempt around his temples, his clothes old and shabby, approaching them very slowly. The crowd of monks bowed as they saw him, leading him to the temple, making a great gathering with food and chanting, treating him with great honour, and begging him sorrowfully: “This temple has been built and repaired through the begging of alms; it is newly completed after more than a decade of hard work. If it should one day be reduced to a field of ashes, how could that not be regretted? We beg that the star lord would have a special mercy on us, and extend a brief pardon.” The priest was astonished, and said: “How could a poor cleric have such power?” The crowd of monks begged and supplicated over and over, so he asked: “Who was it that told you I was the spirit of Mars? If I could understand, perhaps this can be sorted out.” The abbot had no choice but to speak directly: “The two sages of the temple gate manifested in a dream.” The priest said: “You should make up several dozen widths of sticky paper and build them together to resemble the halls and chambers of this temple. Then burn it with lots of spirit money, so as to dispel this issue.”
The assembled monks did as he instructed, and burned it all. Just after the fifth watch (about dawn), the multitude escorted the priest out through the mountain gate, where he scolded the two sages: “Who taught you to shoot your mouths off like this? Who taught you to see the bone and not the flesh, the flesh and not the bone?” When they escorted him to the bridge of the previous day, cloud and mist arose on all sides, and the priest suddenly vanished. When the multitude returned to the mountain gate, the two sages collapsed into earth and dust, leaving only their wooden frames. When the abbot had them re-sculpted, within ten days they had fallen apart once more. To this day the temple’s mountain gate lacks its two guardian sages.
後2.213-14 (Tale 379):
岳麓寺二聖
衡岳有岳麓寺，重新修建，金碧輝煌，光彩爍人。有胡僧雲遊詣寺，與寺主言：「若於東北角 [214] 上小溪中造一座兜率橋，成則類西天矣。」寺主翌日集大衆題化，積年橋成。山門下二聖忽現夢於寺主云：「本寺類西天上界，今差火德星君來焚取，可急聚大衆南去十里溪橋邊迎之。」夢覺，寺主驚，遂集僧衆前去往候。自朝至晚，無往來者。天將昏，忽有一道人，鬢髮鬅鬙，身衣藍縷，徐徐然來。僧衆見之下拜，迎至寺，大作齋會，待之甚至，哀懇之曰：「此寺緣化修造，以十數年之辛勤方能圓就，若一旦為煨燼之場，寧不可惜！慾望星君特發慈悲，姑與原宥。」道人驚曰：「貧道安有此！」僧衆再三哀告不已，乃問曰：「誰與汝說我是火德星君，言若明白，當與料理。」寺主不得已，直云：「山門下二聖現夢。」道人云：「可打黏紙數十幅，一一綵繪本寺殿宇房廊樣式，多將紙錢前來燒化，庶可消禳。」僧衆如其教焚訖。五更初，衆送道人出山門下，乃指駡二聖云：「誰教汝饒舌，教汝骨不見肉，肉不見骨。」及送至昨日橋邊，雲霧四起，道人倏然不見。衆回山門，則二聖泥土皆落，隻有木胎。寺主再裝塑之，越旬日又落。至今本寺山門下無金剛二聖也。
Yuan Haowen 元好問, Chang Zhenguo 常振國 (ed), Xu Yijian zhi 續夷堅志 (Continued Records of the Listener), and Anon., Jin Xin 金心 (ed.), Huhai xinwen yijian xuzhi 湖海新聞夷堅續志 (Continuation of Records of the Listener with New Items from the Lakes and Seas) (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1986).
Zhiguai Translations 