佛祖歷代通載 8.84

8.84

(Thirty-ninth year [489 CE]) In the seventh year of Yongming, the Emperor was angry that the Mahāsattva Baozhi deluded the multitude, and arrested him in the prison of Jiankang. On that day, the people of the state all saw the Mahāsattva strolling through the markets; yet upon inspection, he was still inside the prison. That evening he said to the jailer, 'Outside the gate are two hampers of food, with rice served in golden bowls; you may fetch them.' It turned out that Crown Prince Wenhui and the King of Jingling had indeed sent offerings. The Prefect of Jiankang, Lü Wenxian, reported this to the throne. The Emperor repented and apologised, inviting him into the inner palace. Soon afterward, an imperial order dismissed the inner palace attendants to hold a banquet for the imperial family; Zhi, as was customary, exited temporarily with the crowd. Shortly thereafter, he was still seen circumambulating in the Xianyang Palace, with seven bhikṣus following behind him. Startled, the Emperor dispatched an officer to summon him. The officer reported, 'Zhi left long ago and is in the ministry.' When they inspected him, his body looked as if smeared with black ink. The Emperor revered him with increasing awe. Later, in the Hualin Garden, he suddenly wore three overlapping cloth hats, with no one knowing where he had obtained them. Not long after, the Emperor passed away, and Crown Prince Wenhui and the King of Yuzhang died in succession, turning out exactly as his omen foretold. The śramaṇa Baoliang of Lingwei Temple wished to present him with a patchwork mantle; before he could speak, Zhi suddenly came, grabbed the mantle, and walked away. Wang Zhongxiong asked what official post he would attain; Zhi did not answer, but directly untied the cord on the left end of his staff and gave it to him. Zhongxiong did not understand at first, but later he indeed rose to the post of Left Vice Director of the Department of State Affairs. At the end of the Jianwu era, coming out of the gate at dawn, Zhi suddenly lifted his skirts and ran past, saying, 'The gate smells foul of blood!' When Emperor Ming was assassinated, his corpse was indeed carried out of this gate in a calf-drawn cart to the residence of the eunuch Xu Longju, and the emperor’s neck blood drenched the doorsill. Earlier, the Prince of Yulin killed many members of the imperial clan; the worthy scholar Jiang Bi, worried for the King of Nankang, questioned Zhi. Zhi overturned the ashes of an incense burner to show him, saying, 'All are completely gone without remainder.' When Xu Ling was a child, his father took him to pay respects to Zhi; Zhi patted him and said, 'A celestial stone qilin!' Ling later indeed became illustrious in the world.