宋高僧傳 20.41

20.41

Shi Puman's origins are unknown. In the region between the Fen and Jin, his actions were heedless and unconstrained by monastic deportment; he would sing or weep, and none could comprehend his meaning. Whenever he criticized affairs in speech, there was always verification, so people of the time treated him as they did Qianglian and Wanhui. Sometimes he entered among the Jihu people and exhorted them to cultivate the good, even bringing some to abandon hunting. In the early Jianzhong era, he wrote several poems in a Buddhist hall in Luzhou and disappeared. What was recorded read: 'This water connects to the Jing River; double Zhu's blood fills the stream; / The blue ox leads the red tiger, and the era is once more called peaceful.' After it was inscribed, no one could understand it. Later, when Zhu Ci was supported by the rebels of Jingyuan and the emperor fled to Fengtian, troops were conscripted throughout the realm, the capital region was occupied by bandits, and they laid siege and fought continuously; only then did people understand. 'This water' (ci shui) was [Zhu] Ci; 'the Jing River' meant the troops arriving from Jingzhou that initiated the rebellion; 'double Zhu' referred to Ci and [Zhu] Tao; 'the blue ox' was the first year of Xingyuan, yichou—yi being wood, which is blue; chou being the ox; in that year the reign era was changed to Zhenyuan, and by the second year, bingyin—bing being fire, which is red; yin being the tiger—the bandits were finally quelled; hence it said, 'the era is once more called peaceful.'