神僧傳 1.21.4

1.21.4

虎以澄先戒故獲免。 及宣事發被收。 澄諫虎曰。 既是陛下之子。 何為重禍耶。 陛下若含怒加慈者。 尚可六十餘歲。 如必誅之。 宣當為彗星下掃鄴宮也。 虎不從以鐵鎖穿宣頷。 牽上薪積而焚之。 收其官屬三百餘人。 皆轘裂支解。 投之漳河。 澄乃勅弟子罷別室齋也。 後月餘日有一妖馬。 髦尾皆有燒狀。 入中陽門出顯陽門。 東首東宮皆不得入。 走向東北俄爾不見。 澄聞而歎曰。 災其及矣。 至十一月虎大饗群臣於大武前殿。 澄吟曰。 殿乎殿乎。 棘子成林。 將壞人衣。 虎令發殿石下視之。 有棘生焉。 澄還寺視佛像曰悵恨不得莊嚴。 獨語曰。 得三年乎。 自答。 不得不得。 又曰。 得二年一年百日一月乎。 自答不得。 乃無復言。 還房謂弟子法祚曰。 戊申歲禍亂將萌。 己酉石氏當滅。 吾及其未亂先從化矣。 即遣人辭虎曰。 物理必遷身命非保。 負道焰遷之軀化期已及。 既荷恩殊重。 故逆以仰聞。 虎愴然曰。 不聞和尚有疾。 乃忽爾告終。 即自出宮寺而慰喻焉。 澄謂虎曰。 出入生死道之常也。 修短分定非所能延矣。 夫道重行全德貴無怠。 苟業操無虧雖亡若在。 違而獲延非其所願。 今意未盡者。 以國家心存佛理奉法無吝。 興起寺廟崇顯壯麗。 稱斯德也宜享休祉。 而布政猛烈理刑酷濫。 顯違聖典幽背法戒。 不自懲革終無福祐。 若降心易慮惠此下民。 則國祚延長道俗慶賴。 畢命就盡歿無遺恨。 虎悲慟嗚咽知其必逝。 即為鑿壙營墳。 至十二月八日卒於鄴宮寺。 是歲晉穆帝永和四年也。 士庶悲哀號赴傾國。 春秋一百一十七矣。 仍窆於臨漳西紫陌。 即虎所創塚也。 俄而梁犢作亂。 明年虎死。 冉閔纂戮石種都盡。 閔小字棘奴。 澄先所謂棘子成林者也。 澄左乳旁先有一孔。 圍四五寸。 通徹腹內。 有時腸從中出。 或以絮塞孔。 夜欲讀書輒拔絮。 則一室洞明。 又齋日輒至水邊引腸洗之。 還復內中。 澄身長八尺。 風姿甚美。 妙解深經旁通世論。 講說之日止標宗致。 使始末文言昭然可了。 加復慈洽蒼生拯救危苦。 當二石兇疆虐害非道。 若不與澄同日。 孰可言哉。 但百姓蒙益日用而不知耳。 佛調須菩提等數十名僧。 出自天竺康居。 不遠數萬里路。 足涉流沙詣澄受訓。 樊沔釋道安。 中山竺法雅。 並跨越關河聽澄講說。 皆妙達精理研測幽微。 澄自說。 生處去鄴九萬餘里棄家入道一百九年。 酒不踰齒過中不食。 非戒不履無欲無求。 受業追隨常有數百。 前後門徒幾且一萬。 所歷州郡興立佛寺八百九十三所。 弘法之盛莫與先矣。 初虎殮澄。 以生時錫杖及鉢內棺中。 後冉閔篡位開棺。 唯得鉢杖不復見屍。 或言。 澄死之月有人見澄於流沙。 虎疑其不死。 因發墓開棺視之。 唯見一石。 虎曰。 石者朕也。 師葬我而去矣。 未幾虎死。 後慕容雋都鄴。 處石虎宮中。 忽夢見虎嚙其臂。 意謂石虎為祟。 乃募覓虎屍於東明館掘得之。 屍殭不毀。 雋蹹（音踏）之罵曰。 死胡敢怖生天子。 汝作宮殿成。 而為汝兒所圖。 況復他耶。 鞭撻毀辱投之漳河。 屍倚橋柱不移。 秦將王猛乃收而葬之。 麻襦所言一柱殿也。 後符堅征鄴雋子暐為堅大將郭神虎所執實先夢虎之驗也。

Because of Fotudeng's prior admonition, [Shi] Hu was spared. When Shi Xuan's plot came to light and he was arrested, Fotudeng remonstrated with Hu, saying: 'Since he is Your Majesty's son, why inflict such severe calamity upon him? If Your Majesty can restrain your wrath and add compassion, you may still enjoy over sixty more years. If you must execute him, Xuan will become a comet descending to sweep through the palace of Ye.' Hu did not listen; he pierced Xuan's jaw with an iron lock, dragged him atop a pile of firewood, and burned him. He arrested over three hundred of his officials and attendants, had them all torn apart by chariots and dismembered, and threw them into the Zhang River. Fotudeng then instructed his disciples to discontinue the separate-room retreats. More than a month later, there was a demonic horse whose mane and tail both looked burnt; it entered the Zhongyang Gate and exited the Xianyang Gate, heading east toward the Eastern Palace, yet could not enter anywhere. It ran toward the northeast and vanished in an instant. Hearing of this, Fotudeng sighed and said: 'The calamity has arrived!' In the eleventh month, Hu held a grand banquet for his ministers in the front hall of the Dawu Palace. Fotudeng chanted: 'O palace, O palace! Brambles shall grow into a forest, soon to tear people's robes.' Hu ordered the stones of the hall floor lifted to inspect underneath, and indeed thorns were growing there. Fotudeng returned to the monastery, looked upon the Buddha image, and said with sorrow: 'I am grieved that I cannot adorn you [further].' Speaking to himself, he said: 'Can I have three years?' He answered himself: 'No, no.' He asked again: 'Can I have two years, one year, a hundred days, or one month?' He answered himself: 'No.' Then he spoke no more. Returning to his chamber, he said to his disciple Fazuo: 'In the wushen year, disaster and disorder will sprout; in the jiyou year, the Shi clan will be annihilated. Before the turmoil begins, I will follow the transformation [of death].' He immediately sent someone to take leave of Hu, saying: 'All physical things must pass away; this bodily life cannot be preserved. Carrying the body through its fleeting, blazing transition, my time of transformation has arrived. Having received such exceptional favor, I respectfully report this beforehand.' Grieved, Hu said: 'I had not heard that the Master was ill, yet he suddenly announces his end!' He immediately went out in person from the palace to the monastery to comfort him. Fotudeng said to Hu: 'To enter and leave birth and death is the common course of the Way. The length of one's span is fixed by allotment; it cannot be prolonged. The Way prizes complete practice, and virtue values lack of negligence. If one's karma and conduct have no defect, though dead one is as if alive; to disobey [the Way] merely to obtain prolongation is not what I desire. What remains unfulfilled in my mind is this: the state has set its heart upon the Buddha's principles and serves the Dharma without stint, raising monasteries and temples that are lofty, prominent, grand, and magnificent. Commensurate with this virtue, you ought to enjoy auspicious blessings. Yet the governance promulgated is fierce and harsh, and penal judgments are cruel and excessive; you openly violate the sacred scriptures and secretly disobey the precepts of the Dharma. Unless you discipline and reform yourself, there will ultimately be no blessed protection. If you humble your heart, alter your thoughts, and show kindness to the common people, the state's fortune will be prolonged, and both monks and laypeople will rejoice and rely upon it. Then I will finish my life and go to my end, dying without lingering regret.' Weeping and sobbing, Hu knew that he must pass away, and immediately had a vault dug and a tomb prepared for him. On the eighth day of the twelfth month, he died at the Palace Monastery of Ye. This was the fourth year of Yonghe of Emperor Mu of Jin. Gentry and commoners wept in sorrow, wailing and hastening [to the funeral] from across the entire state. His worldly age was one hundred and seventeen. He was buried at the Purple Path to the west of Linzhang, which was the tomb Hu had prepared. Soon afterward, Liang Du rose in rebellion. The following year, Hu died. Ran Min usurped power and slaughtered the Shi clan completely. Min's childhood name was Jinu ('Bramble Slave'), which was what Fotudeng had previously meant by 'brambles shall grow into a forest.' Fotudeng previously had a hole beside his left breast, four or five inches in circumference, which opened straight into his abdomen. At times his intestines would emerge from it, and he would plug the hole with cotton wool. When he wished to read at night, he would pull out the cotton, and the entire room would be brightly illuminated. Moreover, on fast days he would always go to the water's edge, draw out his intestines, wash them, and replace them inside. Fotudeng stood eight feet tall and was of noble bearing and great beauty; he possessed a wondrous understanding of the profound scriptures and broad mastery of worldly treatises. When lecturing, he merely indicated the principal themes, making the entire text from beginning to end lucid and readily comprehended. In addition, his compassion extended to the multitude of living beings, rescuing those in peril and suffering. During the tyrannical, cruel, and unprincipled reign of the two Shis, had they not lived at the same time as Fotudeng, who could say what might have happened? Yet the people received his benefit and used it daily without being aware of it. Dozens of renowned monks, such as Fotiao and Subhūti, came from Tianzhu and Kangju, not shrinking from journeys of tens of thousands of li, traversing the shifting sands on foot to call upon Fotudeng and receive his instruction. Shi Dao'an from Fanmian and Zhu Faya from Zhongshan both crossed passes and rivers to hear Fotudeng lecture, and all attained wondrous mastery of subtle principles and investigated the profound and minute. Fotudeng himself said that his birthplace was more than ninety thousand li from Ye, and that he had renounced household life and entered the Way for one hundred and nine years. Wine never passed his teeth; past noon he did not eat. He took no step that breached the precepts, and was free of desires and seeking. Those who pursued studies and followed him regularly numbered several hundred, and his disciples from first to last numbered nearly ten thousand. The Buddhist monasteries he founded throughout the provinces and commanderies he traversed numbered eight hundred and ninety-three. In the flourishing propagation of the Dharma, none surpassed him. When Hu initially encoffined Fotudeng, he placed the tin staff and bowl he had used in life inside the coffin. Later, when Ran Min usurped the throne, the coffin was opened; they found only the bowl and staff, and the corpse was no longer seen. Some say that in the month Fotudeng died, someone saw him in the shifting sands. Hu suspected that he was not dead, and so exhumed the tomb and opened the coffin to inspect it, finding only a stone. Hu said: 'The stone (shi) is me. The Master has buried me and departed!' Not long afterward, Hu died. Later, when Murong Jun made Ye his capital, he resided in Shi Hu's palace. Suddenly he dreamed of a tiger biting his arm, and suspecting it was Shi Hu haunting him as an evil spirit, he offered a reward to locate Hu's corpse and dug it up at Dongming Hall. The corpse was stiff and undecayed. Jun trampled on it and cursed, saying: 'Dead barbarian, how dare you terrify a living Son of Heaven! You completed the palace, only to be plotted against by your own son; how much less can you trouble others?' He had it flogged, disgraced, and thrown into the Zhang River. The corpse leaned against a bridge pillar and would not move. The Qin general Wang Meng then gathered and buried it. This was what Maru had meant by 'a palace with a single pillar.' Later, when Fu Jian attacked Ye, Jun's son Wei was captured by Jian's senior general Guo Shenhu ('Divine Tiger'), which was indeed the verification of the earlier dream of the tiger.