卷二傳五江陵祇洹寺道壽尼

道壽。未詳何許人也。清和恬寂以恭孝見稱。幼受五戒未嘗起犯。元嘉中遭父憂。因毀遘疾自無痛癢。唯黃瘠骨立。經歷年歲諸治不瘳。因爾發願。願疾愈得出家。立誓之後漸得平復。如願出俗住祇洹寺。勤苦超絕。誦法華經三千遍。常見光瑞。

元嘉十六年九月七日。夜中寶蓋垂覆其上。云

2.5 (Tsai no.18) Tao-shou

The nun Tao-shou (Longevity of the Way) of Jeta Grove Convent in Chiang-ling

No one knows where Tao-shou's family originally came from. Of pure and gentle character, she was commended for her reverence and filial piety. When she was yet a child, she accepted the five fundamental precepts of a Buddhist householder, and not once did she commit an offence against them.

In the yüan-chia reign period (424-453) of Sung, Tao-shou was in mourning for her father, and as a result she grieved herself sick but felt no pain or discomfort. For several years she remained sickly and skeletal, not responding to any medical treatment. Therefore she vowed that, if she were cured, she would leave the household life to become a nun. After making the vow she gradually recovered, and in fulfillment of her vow she left the household life and became a nun in Jeta Grove Convent, where her practice of austerities was unequaled. She chanted the Flower of the Law Scripture three thousand times and frequently saw glorious omens. For example, in the middle of the night on the seventh day, ninth month, of the sixteenth year of the yüan-chia reign period (439), a jeweled canopy [such as the kind placed over images of the Buddha] descended and hovered over her.