Record of the Stone Pagoda of Munsusa on Odaesan五臺山文殊寺石塔記
1The pagoda that fishermen struck with axes
庭畔石塔盖新羅人所立也.制作雖淳朴不巧,然甚有霊響不可勝記.就中一事聞之諸古老云.昔連谷縣人具舡㳂海而漁忽見一塔隨逐舟揖,凢水族見其影者皆逆散四走.以故漁人一無所得,不堪憤恚尋影而至盖此塔也.於是共揮斤斫之而去,今此塔四隅皆缺者以此也.
The stone pagoda at the edge of the courtyard was probably raised by people of Silla. Though its workmanship is plain and not refined, its divine responses are so many that they cannot all be recorded.
One matter among them I heard from several old men.
Long ago a man of Yeongok-hyeon (連谷縣) fitted out a boat and was fishing along the coast, when suddenly he saw a pagoda following the boat. Whenever the creatures of the water saw its shadow, they all turned and scattered, fleeing in every direction.
Because of this the fishermen caught nothing at all. Unable to bear their anger, they followed the shadow, and when they arrived it was this very pagoda.
So together they swung their axes, struck it, and left. That the four corners of this pagoda are all chipped away today is because of this.
2Moved from its place, the responses ceased for twenty years
予驚嘆無已,然怪其置塔稍東而不中,於是仰見一懸板云.比丘䖏玄曽住此院,輙移置庭心則二十餘年間寂無霊應.及日者求基抵此乃嘆曰,“是中庭地非安塔之所,胡不移東乎.”於是衆僧乃悟復移舊䖏,今所立者是也.余非好怪者,然見其佛之威神,其急於現迹利物如此,爲佛子者詎可黙而無言耶.時正豊元年丙子十月日白雲子記.
I marveled at this without end. But I thought it strange that the pagoda was set a little to the east and not in the center.
Then I looked up and saw a hanging board, on which this was written.
The monk Cheohyeon (處玄) once lived at this temple and on a whim moved the pagoda to the center of the courtyard, and for more than twenty years all was silent and there was no divine response.
A diviner who came here seeking a site sighed and said, "This ground in the middle of the courtyard is no place to set a pagoda. Why not move it east?"
At this the monks understood and moved it back to its old place, and what stands there now is that.
I am not a man who loves the strange. But having seen how the Buddha's majesty and divinity are so quick to show their traces and benefit all things, how could one who is a disciple of the Buddha stay silent and say nothing?
The time is the first year of Jeongpung (正豊), the byeongja year, the tenth month, such-and-such day. Recorded by Baegunja (白雲子).