佛祖統紀 37.39

37.39

In the third year, Hou Jing reached Jiankang and breached the palace city (Taicheng). He entered to have an audience with His Majesty in the Taiji Hall, guarded by five hundred armored soldiers. Wearing his sword, he ascended the hall and bowed. His Majesty's expression remained calm and collected; he said: 'You have been in the military for so long; must it not have been tiresome?' He had him led to sit upon the seat of the Three Excellencies. Jing was terrified and could not respond. When he came out, he said to his attendants: 'When I sit in the saddle facing the enemy with arrows and stones raining down, I have never felt fear. Today, seeing Duke Xiao has made me endlessly terrified.' (慴 [shè], pronounced zhi-she reversed, means fear.) After Jing claimed the title of Chancellor for himself, the Emperor took ill from grief and indignation. His fasting and precepts did not slacken. With a bitter taste in his mouth, he asked for honey, but before it arrived, he raised his hand and cried out: 'Hehe!' and then passed away. The Emperor had a prominent forehead and a dragon-like visage, an eight-character pattern on his tongue, a floating aura behind his neck, cast no shadow at midday, and the palm of his right hand formed the character 'wu' (martial). In his later years, he devoted himself to the Buddhist Way, taking only one meal a day, eating only bean broth and coarse unhusked rice (糲 [lì], pronounced lang-ge reversed, unhusked rice), wearing plain cloth and black gauze curtains, wearing one cap for three years, completely giving up sexual relations from the age of fifty, and drinking no wine nor listening to music. He authored several hundred volumes of doctrinal commentaries on various sūtras, including the Nirvāṇa, the Pañcaviṃśatisāhasrikā Prajñāpāramitā, the Vimalakīrtinirdeśa, and the Three Wisdoms. Upāsaka Lu Fahe of Jiangling lived in seclusion and worshipped the Buddha. When Hou Jing sent his general Ren Yue to attack the Prince of Xiangdong at Jiangling, Fahe and eight hundred of his disciples mobilized the spirit soldiers of local shrines and defeated him. He gathered troops again in Jiangxia, wishing to attack Hou Jing, but the Prince, fearing he would cause unrest, stopped him. Fahe said: 'This poor monk seeks Buddhahood; I do not even yearn for the thrones of Śakra or Brahmā, so why would I covet the position of a human king? It is only out of the karma of offering incense and lamps to the Buddha King of Emptiness that, knowing Your Highness's past retribution, I wished to save you. Since I have already been suspected, this must be fixed karma that cannot be altered.' When Emperor Yuan ascended the throne (he was the Prince of Xiangdong), he appointed Fahe as Regional Inspector of Yingzhou. When the Emperor was captured by the Wei, Fahe and his disciples all went to Northern Qi (Book of Liang).