高僧傳 12.5

12.5

Sengqun's thatched hut was separated from the basin by a small ravine, and he always used a single log as a bridge to fetch water across it. Later, a duck with a broken wing suddenly appeared, spreading its wings across the bridge, pecking at Sengqun with its head. Sengqun wanted to lift his pewter staff to nudge it away, but fearing he might injure it, he turned back and refrained from drinking water. After several days he passed away, at the age of one hundred and forty. As he was dying, he told people that in his youth he had once broken a duck's wing, and he took this event to be its immediate karmic retribution.