神僧傳 1.21.2

1.21.2

Shi Le wished to go in person to resist Liu Yao. None of his officials and advisors, inside or outside [the court], failed to remonstrate with him. Le consulted Fotudeng about it. Deng said: "The bell on the stūpa finial says: 'Xiuzhitiligang pugukutudang.' This is the Jie language. Xiuzhitiligang means 'the army marches forth'. Pugu is Liu Yao's barbarian title. Kutudang means 'to capture'. This means that when the army marches forth, it will capture Yao." At that time Xu Guang heard these words of Deng's and earnestly urged Le to go. Le then left his eldest son Shi Hong together with Deng to guard Xiangguo, while he himself led the infantry and cavalry of the central army directly toward the city of Luoyang. No sooner had the two battle lines engaged than Yao's army suffered a great rout. Yao's horse sank in the water, and Shi Kan captured him alive and sent him to Le. At that time, Deng smeared a substance on his palm; looking into it, he saw a man bound in the midst of a great host, his elbows tied with red silk. He then told this to Hong. At that very moment, Yao was indeed captured alive. After Yao was subdued, Le illegitimately assumed the title of Heavenly King of Zhao and performed the affairs of an Emperor, changing the reign era to Jianping. This year was the fifth year of the Xianhe era of Emperor Cheng of Jin. After Le ascended the throne, he served Deng with ever greater devotion. At that time Shi Cong rebelled. In that year, Deng warned Le, saying: "This year there are worms in the scallions; eating them will surely harm people. You should order the common people not to eat scallions." Le issued an announcement throughout his territory strictly forbidding the eating of scallions. When it came to the eighth month, Shi Cong indeed fled. Le respected [Deng] all the more; whenever there was an affair, he always consulted him before acting, calling him the Great Upādhyāya. Shi Hu had a son named Bin, whom Le later adopted as his own son. Le loved him very deeply. Suddenly he fell violently ill and died; two days had already passed. Le said: "I have heard that when the Crown Prince of Guo died, Bian Que was able to bring him back to life. The Great Upādhyāya is a divine man of the state; we must urgently go and report this to him, and he will surely be able to bring about good fortune." Deng then took a willow branch and chanted incantations over it. In an instant [Bin] was able to rise, and after a short while he recovered. Because of this, Le's young children were mostly raised in Buddhist monasteries. Every year on the eighth day of the fourth month, Le would go in person to the monastery to bathe the Buddha and make vows on behalf of his sons. In the fourth month of the fourth year of Jianping, the sky was calm and windless, yet a single bell atop the stūpa rang on its own. Deng said to the assembly: "The sound of the bell says: 'The state will have a great mourning, not beyond this year.'" In the seventh month of that year, Le died. Crown Prince Hong succeeded to the throne. Before long, Hu deposed Hong and set himself up [as ruler], moving the capital to Ye and designating the reign era as Jianwu. He devoted his heart to serving Deng with even greater reverence than Le had. At that time, Deng resided in the Central Monastery within the city of Ye. He dispatched his disciple Fachang north to Xiangguo, while his disciple Fazuo was returning from Xiangguo. They met below Liangji Castle and lodged together, talking through the night across their carriages and mentioning the Upādhyāya. At dawn they parted. When Fazuo arrived, he first went in to pay respects to Deng. Deng met him with a smile and said: "Last night, did you and Fachang park your carriages together and talk about your master? The ancients had a saying: 'Is it not said that one must be reverent when hidden from view without altering, and cautious when alone without becoming slack?' Being hidden and alone is the root of reverence and caution; did you not know this?" Zuo was astonished and felt ashamed, confessing his fault. Thereupon, the people of the state would always say to one another: "Do not give rise to evil thoughts; the Upādhyāya knows you." Wherever Deng was, none dared to spit, blow their nose, or relieve themselves facing his direction. At that time, the Crown Prince Shi Sui had two sons in Xiangguo. Deng said to Sui: "Little Ami will soon fall ill; you should go and fetch him." Sui immediately dispatched a courier to go and look; [the child] had indeed already fallen ill. The imperial physician Yin Teng and a foreign Daoshi claimed that they could cure it. Deng told his disciple Faya: "Even if a sage were to appear again, he could not cure this illness, how much less such people as these!" After three days, he indeed died. Shi Sui, indulged in drink, was planning rebellion. He said to his eunuchs: "The Upādhyāya has spiritual powers; if he exposes my plot, when he comes tomorrow we must eliminate him first." On the fifteenth of the month, as Deng was about to enter to pay respects to Hu, he said to his disciple Senghui: "Last night a heavenly deity called to me, saying: 'If you enter tomorrow, on your return do not visit anyone. If I happen to visit someone, you must stop me.'" Whenever Deng entered, he would always visit Sui. Sui, knowing Deng was coming, was waiting anxiously for him. When Deng was about to ascend the Southern Terrace, Senghui pulled his robe. Deng said: "This matter cannot be stopped." Before he was even comfortably seated, he arose. Sui tried firmly to detain him, but could not keep him, and the plot was thus foiled. Returning to the monastery, Deng sighed: "The Crown Prince's rebellion is almost formed. Wanting to speak of it, it is difficult to speak; wanting to endure it, it is difficult to endure." He then took occasion to admonish Hu calmly, but Hu never understood. Soon after, the matter came to light, and only then did [Hu] realize Deng's words. Later, Guo Heilüe led troops to campaign against the Qiang of the northern mountains of Chang'an and fell into the midst of the Qiang and Di. At that time Deng was sitting in the hall with his disciple Fachang by his side. Deng looked sorrowful and his expression changed, saying: "Lord Guo has fallen into the enemy's hands." He instructed the assembly of monks to chant incantations and make vows, and Deng himself also chanted incantations and made vows. In an instant he said again: "If he exits to the southeast he will live; in other directions he will be trapped." Again he chanted incantations and made vows. After a short while he said: "He has escaped." More than a month later, Heilüe returned and recounted that when he fell into the Qiang encirclement, he fled to the southeast until his horse was exhausted. He happened to meet one of his subordinates, who yielded his horse to him, saying: "You, my lord, ride this; I, a lowly man, will ride your horse. Whether we survive or not is up to fate." Heilüe obtained his horse and thus escaped. When they calculated and verified the day and hour, it was precisely the time when Deng was chanting incantations and making vows. Shi Bin, the Duke of Yan and illegitimate Grand Commander, was made Shepherd of Youzhou by Hu to garrison it. Bands of villains gathered there, and he gave free rein to violence. Deng warned Hu, saying: "The heavenly deity said last night: 'Quickly recall the horses and send them back. By autumn, Qi will suffer paralysis and rot.'" Hu did not understand these words, but immediately ordered all places to gather the horses and send them back. That autumn someone slandered Bin to Hu. Hu summoned Bin and gave him three hundred lashes of the whip, and killed his birth mother, Lady Qi. Hu drew his bow and fitted an arrow, watching the punishment of Bin himself; thinking the punishment too light, Hu personally killed five hundred [of Bin's men]. Deng remonstrated: "The mind must not be given free rein; the dead cannot be brought back to life. According to the rites, one does not kill with one's own hand lest it wound benevolence. How could the Son of Heaven carry out punishments with his own hand?" Hu then stopped. Later, the Jin army advanced beyond the Huai and Si rivers; Longbei and Wacheng were both pressed and invaded. The three fronts reported emergencies, and the people were anxious and disturbed. Hu then said in anger: "I serve the Buddha, yet on the contrary this brings foreign invaders; the Buddha has no divine power!" The next morning Deng entered early. Hu asked Deng about the matter. Deng then rebuked Hu, saying: "In a past life, your majesty was once a great merchant leader. Arriving at a monastery in Kapiśa, you once provided offerings at a great assembly in which there were sixty arhats. I myself also took part in this assembly. At that time, a man of the Way told me: 'When this host's life ends, he will be reborn as a chicken, and afterward become a king in the land of Jin.'"