佛祖統紀 42.28

42.28

In the third month of the first year of the Dazhong reign, an edict stated that the mergers and closures of temples in the final years of the Huichang era had been excessive in reform; regarding sacred sites on numinous mountains, if there were senior renowned monks able to repair and restore them, the authorities concerned were not to prohibit them. Li Deyu had monopolized power for a long time; the Emperor detested him and demoted him to Marshal of Chaozhou, and shortly thereafter demoted him again to Census Officer of Yazhou, where he died of a virulent illness. Earlier, there was a monk who had insight into past lives, who told Deyu, "Your Excellency will travel ten thousand li to the south. In your lifetime you are destined to eat ten thousand sheep; now you have consumed nine thousand five hundred. Until the sheep are exhausted, there is still a day of return." Deyu said, "I once dreamed of traveling in the Jin Mountains, where as far as the eye could see the mountains were covered with sheep. A shepherd said, 'These are what Your Excellency will consume in your lifetime.'" Ten days later, Li Ji, Military Commissioner of Zhenwu, sent a gift of four hundred sheep. The monk said, "The ten thousand sheep are nearly complete; Your Excellency will likely not return." Later he indeed died in Zhuya.