宋高僧傳 22.9

22.9

Śramaṇa Huaijun: it is not known where he was from. As a monk, he was naive and wild, yet he could foresee events before their omens appeared, and his fulfillments were like spirits. During the Qianning era, he arrived in Badong for no apparent reason. Jun was skilled in cursive script, his brushwork being natural; whether on the walls of Buddhist monasteries, Daoist cloisters, or shops, or writing Buddhist scriptures, Daoist rites, or even songs, poems, and vulgar ditties, there was nothing that did not collect at the tip of his brush. When someone spoke with him, he merely answered, "Yes, indeed." The villagers treated him as a divine sage. Regional Inspector Lord Yu was troubled by his misleading the masses, bound him in prison, and interrogated him; Jun thereupon submitted a statement in verse, the meaning pointing east and west of Minchuan, but the phrasing was so exquisite that the prefectural commander marvelled at it and released him. Furthermore, examining his intention, one suspected he belonged in the sea—could he not have been of the class of Beidu? Travelers passing through always moored their boats to pay him a visit—to determine the auspiciousness of journeying up or down the Gorges, or the profit and loss in trade and commercial pursuit of goods. When travelers earnestly prayed to him, he would only write three or five lines, never speaking clearly, yet the matters were verified with subtle precision. At that time, Zhou Chongbin, a grand officer of Jingnan, visited him; Jun wrote and handed to him: "Deliver to the imperial capital for investigation." Thereafter, when he entered to present tribute, owing to the imperial army's southern campaign, he was bound in the southern commandery and ultimately executed. Sun Daoneng, an administrative officer, visited him, and Jun wrote the words: "Deliver to Zhulin Temple." In that year Sun passed away and was buried on the grounds of the ancient Zhulin Temple. When Huangfu Xuan was prefectural governor, Jun drew a person bearing a cangue with a woman beside him. Soon after, Xuan took a daughter of a commoner family and suffered a lawsuit, being imprisoned and sent to the capital. There was one Mu Zhaosi—of Persian descent, who in his youth was fond of pharmacology—who accompanied his father to visit him; Jun drew a Daoist riding the clouds and carrying a gourd, and wrote, "Commanding Envoy Gao so-and-so appoints [him] as prefectural judge." Mu later achieved success through medical skill, and Gao Conghui, the King of Nanping, ordered him to leave Daoism to follow Confucianism, and conferred on him the concurrent post of prefectural judge. When the imperial army attacked Jingzhou, Jun composed a poem and presented it to the King of Nanping, saying: "The horse's head gradually enters the road to Yangzhou; / Relatives must wash their eyes to see." In that year the Gao clan pledged allegiance to the Huaihai region, and the heavy siege was lifted. His other wondrous traces were mostly of this kind. One day he wrote on a plantain leaf in the courtyard: "Today I repay my debt of karma; the prefecture and county need not investigate further." Passersby mostly saw it but paid it no heed. Suddenly he was harmed by someone, his head and body severed; the regional inspector performed his cremation.