佛祖歷代通載 9.66

9.66

（三十一　己巳）　太清三年夏四月。逆賊侯景陷臺城。以甲士五百人自衛。帶劍上殿拜訖。帝神色自若。使引向三公坐榻。謂曰。卿在戎日久。無乃為勞。景惶懼不能對。出謂左右曰。吾每據鞍臨敵。矢石交下了無所怖。今見蕭公使人畏慴。豈非天威難犯。吾不復見之矣。及景自稱大丞相而徵求無已。帝憤之。遂寢疾。然齋戒不衰。日夕念佛不絕於口。獨皇子侍側。五月丙辰大測。不能進膳。久而口苦。索蜜未至。而舉手曰荷荷。遂崩於淨居殿。年八十有六。帝日角龍顏舌文八字。項有浮光身映日無影。右手文成武字。幼甞蹈空而行。所居之室常若雲氣。人或遇者體輒肅慄。前後受命符端凡六十餘事。及即位太極殿常有六龍。各守一柱。其神奇異瑞自書契以來人君皆所未有。幼而好學。六藝備閒棊登逸品。至於陰陽緯候卜筮占決草隷尺牘騎射。並洞精微。雖登大位萬機多務。猶手不釋卷。然燭測光常至戊夜。撰通史六百卷金海三十卷五經義注講疏等合二百餘卷。贊序詔誥銘誄箴頌牋奏諸文凡一百二十卷。晚奉佛道日止一食。膳無鮮腴唯豆羹糲飯而已。或遇事擁不暇就食日才過中。便嗽口而坐。製涅槃大品淨名三惠諸經義記數百卷。聽覽餘暇即於重雲殿同泰寺講說。名僧碩學四部聽眾常萬餘。衣布衣木綿皂帳。一冠三載一被二年。自五十外便斷房室不飲酒不取音樂。非宗廟祭祀大會饗宴及諸法事。未甞舉樂。勤於政事。每冬月四更竟即勅把燭看事。執筆觸寒手為皴裂。然仁愛不斷。親親及所近倖愆犯多縱捨。坐是政刑珥紊。每決死罪常矜哀流涕然後可奏。性方正為居小殿暗室常理衣冠小坐。暑月未甞褰袒。雖見內竪小臣如遇嚴賓焉。諡曰武皇帝。廟號高祖（出南史）。

(31. Yisi) In the summer of the third year of the Taiqing era, in the fourth month, the traitorous rebel Hou Jing captured the palace city of Taicheng. Defending himself with five hundred armored soldiers, he ascended the hall wearing his sword, and completed his obeisance. The Emperor's countenance remained calm and self-possessed. He had him guided to the couch of the Three Excellencies, and said to him, "You have been on campaign for a long time; has it not been tiring?" Hou Jing was terrified and could not reply. Going out, he said to his attendants, "Whenever I sit in the saddle and face the enemy, with arrows and stones falling in crossfire, I have no fear at all. Today, seeing Lord Xiao, I was made to tremble in terror. Is it not that the heavenly majesty cannot be violated? I shall not see him again!" When Hou Jing titled himself Grand Chancellor and made endless demands, the Emperor was indignant and subsequently fell ill. Yet his fasting and precepts did not wane; day and night, reciting the Buddha's name was never absent from his mouth. Only an imperial son attended at his side. On the day bingchen of the fifth month, he became gravely ill and could not eat. After a long while, with bitterness in his mouth, he called for honey, but before it arrived, he raised his hand and said, "He! He!" He then passed away in the Jingju Hall, at the age of eighty-six. The Emperor had a prominent sun-forehead and a dragon countenance; the lines on his tongue formed the character ba (eight); there was floating light around his neck, and his body cast no shadow in the sun; the lines on his right hand formed the character wu (martial). In his youth, he had once walked through the air; the chamber where he dwelt always appeared to have clouds and vapors, and people who encountered it would shudder with awe. The signs and omens of his receiving the mandate numbered more than sixty events in all. When he ascended the throne, six dragons often appeared in the Taiji Hall, each guarding a pillar. Such wondrous anomalies and auspicious portents had not occurred for any sovereign since the invention of writing. In his youth he was fond of learning, fully versed in the Six Arts, and his game of go attained the transcendent rank. As for yin and yang, apocrypha and astrology, divination and prognostication, cursive and clerical scripts, epistolary writing, archery and horsemanship, he penetrated their subtleties with absolute mastery. Even after ascending the imperial throne with all the myriad affairs of state, he never let a book drop from his hand. Lighting candles to gauge the time, he would regularly read until the fifth watch. He authored the *Comprehensive History* in 600 fascicles, the *Jinhai* in 30 fascicles, and commentaries, notes, and lecture subcommentaries on the Five Classics totaling more than 200 fascicles; and eulogies, prefaces, imperial edicts, inscriptions, elegies, admonitions, hymns, and memorials amounting to 120 fascicles. In his later years, he venerated the Buddha's Way, taking only one meal a day; his food had no fresh or rich flavors, consisting solely of bean broth and coarse rice. If official business delayed him so that he could not take his meal before the sun had barely passed noon, he would rinse his mouth and sit. He composed several hundred fascicles of commentaries on the meaning of scriptures such as the *Nirvāṇa*, the *Large Prajñāpāramitā*, the *Vimalakīrti*, and the *Threefold Wisdom*. In his leisure time away from state affairs, he would deliver lectures in the Chongyun Hall and Tongtai Monastery; his audience of eminent monks, profound scholars, and the fourfold assembly regularly numbered over ten thousand. He wore plain cloth robes and used a black cotton bed-curtain, wearing a single cap for three years and using a single coverlet for two years. From the age of fifty onward, he severed sexual relations, drank no wine, and listened to no music; except for ancestral temple sacrifices, great state banquets, and various Buddhist rituals, he never had music played. He was diligent in governance: whenever the fourth watch ended on winter months, he would order candles held to inspect state affairs, holding a brush in the biting cold until his hands chapped. Yet his benevolence and love were endless; he often pardoned and overlooked the offenses of his kin and favorites, and on this account governance and penal codes became lax and disordered. Whenever he decided a capital crime, he would weep with pity and grief before approving the memorial. His disposition was upright: when dwelling in small halls or dark chambers, he would adjust his robes and cap and sit formally; in summer months he never bared his chest or rolled up his garments; even when meeting eunuchs or petty officials, it was as if receiving solemn guests. He was granted the posthumous title Emperor Wu, and his temple name was Gaozu (from the *History of the Southern Dynasties*).