In Chang'an, there was a scholar named Fang Dong, who was quite talented and famous, but he was frivolous and lacked proper conduct. Every time he went out and encountered women on their outings, he would shamelessly follow them. One day, shortly before the Qingming Festival, he casually strolled to the outskirts of the city, where he saw a small carriage. It was adorned with red curtains and embroidered drapes, with several maidservants in green robes riding horses slowly following behind the carriage. One of the maidservants, who was riding a small horse, had an exceptionally beautiful appearance. Fang Dong moved closer to sneak a look and saw that the carriage curtains were wide open. Inside, there sat a girl of about sixteen or seventeen, dressed in full splendor, extraordinarily beautiful, surpassing any woman Fang Dong had ever seen in his life.
Fang Dong was dazzled, overwhelmed, and couldn’t control his emotions. Reluctantly, he kept following her, sometimes running ahead of the carriage, and at other times falling behind, trailing after the carriage for several miles. Suddenly, he heard the girl inside call one of the maidservants to the carriage and say: “Lower the curtains for me. Who is this shameless young man constantly spying on us?” The maidservant angrily lowered the curtain and furiously scolded Fang Dong: “This is the bride of the seventh son of the Furong City Lord, on her way to visit her family. She is not some farmer’s wife that you, a mere scholar, can ogle at will!” After saying this, she grabbed a handful of dirt from the roadside and threw it at Fang Dong.
Fang Dong's eyes were immediately filled with dirt, and he couldn’t open them. When he rubbed his eyes and looked again, the carriage and horses had vanished without a trace. He returned home, shocked and confused, feeling constant discomfort in his eyes. When he asked someone to examine his eyelids, they found a thin film growing over his eyeballs. By the next day, his eyes were even more uncomfortable, with tears streaming continuously. The film in his eyes gradually thickened and, within a few days, became as thick as a copper coin. A spiral-shaped membrane also grew over his right eye, and no medicine could cure it. Fang Dong was devastated, feeling hopeless, and deeply regretted his actions.
He heard from others that reciting the "Bright Light Sutra" could help remove misfortunes, so he obtained a copy of the scripture and asked someone to teach him to recite it. At first, though he recited the sutra, he felt restless and uneasy. However, over time, he gradually calmed down. From then on, he would sit cross-legged, turning a Buddhist rosary in his hands, reciting the sutra both morning and evening whenever he was free. After a year, Fang Dong felt that all distracting thoughts had been cleared from his mind.
One day, he suddenly heard a sound in his left eye, like the buzzing of mosquitoes or flies, saying: “It’s so dark in here, I can’t stand it anymore!” A voice from his right eye responded: “Let’s go out for a bit, take a walk, and relieve some of this frustration.” At that moment, Fang Dong felt an itching sensation in his nostrils, as if something was crawling out, leaving his nose. After a long while, whatever it was returned and crawled back into his eye sockets through his nostrils.
He then heard them say: “We haven’t visited the garden for some time. How could the orchids have withered and died?” Fang Dong had always been fond of fragrant orchids and had planted many in his garden, frequently watering and tending them himself. However, since he had gone blind, he had not paid attention to them for a long time. Surprised by what he had heard, he quickly asked his wife: “Why did you let the orchids wither and die?” His wife, puzzled by how he could know about this, asked for an explanation. Fang Dong told her the reason. She immediately went to the garden to check and found that the orchids had indeed withered. Astonished by the strange event, she silently watched and waited in the house for the creatures to appear.
Soon, she saw two tiny figures, smaller than soybeans, crawl out of Fang Dong’s nostrils, making faint buzzing sounds as they left the house, walking further and further away until they disappeared. A while later, the two tiny figures returned hand in hand and flew onto Fang Dong’s face like bees or ants returning to their nest. This phenomenon continued for two or three days. Fang Dong then heard the little figure in his left eye say: “The passage we use is too winding and inconvenient. Why don’t we create a new door for ourselves?” The figure in the right eye responded: “But the wall on my side is too thick to break through easily.” The left-eye figure said: “I’ll try to open a door first. If it works, we can both use it.”
At this moment, Fang Dong felt a faint pain in his left eye socket, as though it were being scratched open. After a while, he opened his eyes and was astonished to see the furniture and layout of the room clearly. He excitedly told his wife. Upon close inspection of his eye, his wife saw that a small hole had opened in the membrane covering his eye, with a faint glimmer of light coming through, about the size of a peppercorn. By the next day, the entire membrane in his left eye had disappeared. Upon closer observation, there were now two pupils in his left eye. However, the spiral-shaped membrane in his right eye remained unchanged, and he realized that the two tiny figures were now both living in his left eye socket. Although Fang Dong was blind in one eye, he could see even more clearly than people with both eyes. From that point on, Fang Dong became more careful and restrained in his behavior, earning praise from his fellow villagers for his high moral character.
The Historian of Strange Tales comments: A scholar from the same village was once walking down the road with two friends when he saw a young woman riding a donkey ahead of them. In a mocking tone, he said: “Look, there’s a beauty!” Then he turned to his friends and said: “Let’s catch up with her!” Laughing, the three of them hurried to catch up. When they got closer, they realized it was the scholar’s own daughter-in-law. Ashamed and downcast, he fell silent, while his friends pretended not to know and continued making vulgar remarks about the woman. Embarrassed, the scholar stammered: “That’s my eldest son’s wife.” His friends then quietly laughed and stopped their teasing. Frivolous people often bring shame upon themselves, and it’s truly laughable! As for Fang Dong’s blindness, it was a severe punishment inflicted by the gods. The identity of the bride from Furong City is unknown, but could she have been a divine figure, perhaps even a Bodhisattva in disguise? However, the fact that the tiny figures inside Fang Dong’s eyes removed the membrane, shows that while the gods are harsh, they also allow people to repent and reform.
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