神僧傳 3.4

3.4

As for Beidu ("Cup-Crosser"), his surname and personal name were unknown. Because he often crossed waters riding in a wooden cup, people called him by this name. At first, in Jizhou, he did not cultivate minor disciplines. His divine power was extraordinary, and people of the world could not fathom its origins. Once, in the north, he lodged at a family's house. The family had a golden image, which Du stole and carried off. When the master of the house realized it, he pursued him; he saw Du walking leisurely, yet even pursuing him on a galloping horse, he could not catch him. When Du reached the Mengjin River, he floated his wooden cup on the water and, relying upon it, crossed the river; without depending on wind or oars, he was light and swift as if flying. In a short while he reached the bank and arrived at the capital. At the time he was seen, he was about forty years of age; tied with ropes, his clothes were tattered and barely covered his body. His speech would vanish and reappear, and his joy and anger were erratic. Sometimes he would break the bitter ice to bathe; sometimes he would wear shoes when climbing mountains; sometimes he would walk barefoot into the marketplace. He carried only a single reed hamper and had no other belongings. He once stayed with the man of the Way Fayi of Yanxian Monastery, and [Fa]yi accommodated him in a separate room. Later he wished to go to the Guabu River. At the riverbank, he approached a boatman asking to cross, but the boatman was unwilling to carry him. Du then placed both feet together in his cup, looked about, and chanted verses; the cup flowed naturally and crossed directly to the northern bank. Heading toward Guangling, he encountered an eight-precept retreat held at the house of a Mr. Li in a village. Having had no prior acquaintance, he went straight into the retreat hall and sat down, placing his reed hamper in the middle of the courtyard. Because of his ragged appearance, the assembly had no reverence in their hearts. Seeing the reed hamper blocking the way, Li wished to move it beside the wall, but several men lifting it could not move it. When Du finished eating, he picked it up and walked away, laughing and saying, "The Four Heavenly Kings of the Li family!" At that time, a servant boy peeked into the hamper: there were four small boys, all several inches tall, with upright features and clean, fresh clothing. Thereupon they pursued and searched for him, not knowing his whereabouts. Several days later, he was seen sitting under a dense grove of trees in the western region. Li bowed in homage and invited him to return to his house, making offerings to him day after day. Du did not strictly observe the dietary precepts; he drank wine and ate meat, even eating pungent herbs and minced raw fish, being no different from the vulgar. When the common people offered things to him, he might accept or not accept. Liu Xingbo of the state of Pei was the Regional Inspector of Yanzhou; he sent an emissary to invite him, and Du came carrying his hamper. Xingbo had men lift and inspect it, but more than ten men could not lift it. Xingbo looked inside himself and saw only a ragged cassock and a wooden cup. Later he returned to Li's house and stayed for another twenty-odd days. One clear morning, he suddenly said that he wished to obtain a kāṣāya and ordered it to be prepared by noon. Li immediately set about making it, but by noon it was not yet finished. Du said, "I will go out for a while," and did not return by nightfall. The entire region smelled an extraordinary fragrance; suspecting it was something strange, they searched for Du everywhere. They then found him beneath the northern cliff, lying dead on the ground upon his spread-out ragged kāṣāya. Lotus flowers grew both in front of his head and behind his feet, extremely fresh and fragrant, which withered overnight. The district joined together to bury him. Several days later, someone coming from the north said that he had seen Du carrying his reed hamper walking toward Pengcheng. Thereupon they jointly opened the coffin; only his boots and shoes were there. After arriving in Pengcheng, he met a layman named Huang Xin, who deeply believed in the Buddha-Dharma; seeing Du, he bowed in homage and invited him to return to his house. The family was extremely poor, having only barley rice. Du enjoyed it with contentment and stayed for half a year. Suddenly he said to Xin, "You may seek out thirty-six reed hampers; I need to use them." [Xin] replied, "Here we can have only ten; being poor, I have no means to buy them, so I fear I cannot prepare them all." Du said, "Just search your house; they should be there." Xin then searched thoroughly and indeed found thirty-six hampers. He lined them up in the courtyard; although the number was complete, many were broken and ruined. By the time Xin looked closely at them one by one, they were all new and intact. Du sealed them tightly and told Xin to open them; [Xin] then saw that they were all filled with coins and silk, worth about a million. Those with discernment said that these were the offerings Beidu had obtained by dividing his body into other lands, which he diverted to bestow upon Xin. Xin accepted them and used them entirely for merit. After about a year, Du took his leave. Xin prepared provisions for him. The next morning, he saw the provisions completely intact, but did not know where Du was. Later, traveling east, he entered Wu Commandery. On the road he saw a fisherman and approached him to beg for fish. The fisherman gave him a rotten one. Du played with it in his hands, turning it over and over, and threw it back into the water; it swam away alive. He also saw a net fisherman and again begged for fish from him. The net fisherman was angry, reviled him, and would not give any. Du then picked up two small pebbles and threw them into the water. In a short while, two water buffaloes fought inside the net; after the net was shredded to pieces, the buffaloes were seen no more, and Du had also vanished. Reaching the Song River, he turned a parasol upside down in the water, rode it, and crossed to the other bank. Passing through Kuaiji and Shan County, he climbed Mount Tiantai, returning to the capital after several months. In his wandering and dwelling, he was unpredictable; when invited, he might go or not go. At that time, in the southern prefecture, there was a Chen family that was quite well-off in clothing and food. Du went to their home and was received with great honor. Hearing that there was another Beidu in the capital, the five members of the Chen father and sons did not believe it, and went to the capital to look. He was indeed like the Beidu in their home, identical in appearance. The Chen family offered a box of ginger in honey, a knife, frankincense, hand-towels, and so forth. Du immediately ate up all the ginger in honey, while the other items remained as before in front of his knees. The five father and sons feared that he was the Beidu of their home, so they left two younger brothers behind in the capital to watch him, while the other three returned home. The Beidu at home was just as before, with incense, a knife, and the other items also in front of his knees, differing only in that he did not eat the ginger in honey. He then said to Chen, "The knife is blunt; you can sharpen it for me." The two younger brothers returned to the capital and said that that Du had already moved to Lingjiu Monastery. The [Du at their] home suddenly asked for two sheets of yellow paper to write a document; the writing did not form characters, and the backs were joined together. Chen asked, "Venerable Sir, what kind of deed are you writing?" Du did not answer, and in the end no one could fathom it. At that time, Zhu Lingqi, a person from the Wu region, was sent as an envoy to Gaoli. On his return, his ship encountered a storm and drifted for nine days, arriving at the shore of an island. On the island was a mountain, which was very tall and large. Entering the mountain to gather firewood, they saw a path trodden by people. Lingqi then led several men along the path to beg for alms. Walking for ten-odd li, they heard the sound of a chime stone and saw fragrant smoke. Thereupon they jointly recited the Buddha's name and bowed in homage. Shortly after, they saw a monastery that was extremely bright and magnificent, mostly adorned with the seven treasures. They also saw ten-odd stone men; thereupon they jointly bowed in homage and turned back. Walking a short distance, they heard the sound of preaching. They stopped and went back to look again, but they were still stone men. Lingqi and the others said to one another, "These are holy monks; we, being sinful people, cannot see them." Therefore, they jointly expressed utmost sincerity in repentance. Going back again, they then saw real men, who prepared food for Lingqi and the others. The taste of the food was vegetables, but its fragrance and deliciousness were unlike worldly food. When finished, they kowtowed and bowed in homage together, begging to return swiftly to their homeland. A monk said, "This place is more than two hundred thousand li from the capital; if you only have a sincere mind, do not worry that it will not be swift." He then asked Lingqi, "Do you know the man of the Way Beidu?" He replied, "I know him very well." [The monk] then pointed to a vase hanging on the northern wall with a pewter staff and an alms bowl, saying, "This is the dwelling place of Beidu. Now, by your means, I give the bowl to him, and also write a letter to put in a case." There was also a green bamboo staff. He said to Lingqi, "Just throw this staff into the water in front of the boat, close up the boat, and sit quietly; without expending any labor, it will certainly cause you to arrive quickly." Thereupon they bid farewell. He ordered a novice to see them off to the gate, saying, "Going seven li by this path, you will reach the boat; you need not follow the former road." Just as he said, turning west and walking about seven li, they reached the boat, and everything was done as shown. They only heard the boat passing over the mountain peaks and treetops, not seeing any water at all. After three days, it stopped at the Huai River at Shitou, and the whereabouts of the bamboo staff were no longer seen. The boat entered the Huai River and reached Zhuque; there they saw Beidu riding the railing of the Great Pontoon Bridge, striking it with a stick and saying, "Horse, horse, why don't you walk?" The onlookers were very numerous. Lingqi and the others paid homage to him from afar in the boat. Du then came down to the boat himself to take the letter and the bowl. Opening the letter to look at it, none of the characters were recognizable to anyone. Du laughed loudly and said, "Are they making me return?" He threw the bowl into the clouds and caught it back, saying, "I haven't seen this bowl for four thousand years!" Du stayed mostly at Yanxian Monastery with Fayi. At that time, the world considered this bowl a miraculous object and vied to go see it. A maidservant of Yu Chang stole goods and fled. After pursuing her in four directions without capturing her, they asked Beidu. He said, "She is already dead, in an empty grave by the river in Jincheng." Going to look, it was indeed as he had said. Kong Ningzi was then a Gentleman Attendant at the Yellow Gate; suffering from dysentery at home, he sent a messenger to invite Du. When Du finished his incantation, he said, "It is difficult to cure; I see four ghosts, all wounded and severed." Ningzi wept and said, "Formerly, during Sun En's rebellion, my family was destroyed by soldiers; both my parents and my uncle suffered cruel deaths." Ningzi indeed died. There was also the wife of Qi Xie, née Humu, who was ill; many treatments failed to cure her. Later they invited monks to hold a retreat; at the retreat seats, a monk urged them to welcome Beidu. Once Du arrived, with a single incantation the patient immediately recovered. Qi Xie submitted to him, served him as his master, and thereupon wrote a biographical record. His divine anomalies from the past cannot all be recorded. In the ninth month of the third year of Yuanjia, he bid farewell to Xie to go east; he left behind ten thousand coins and goods, entrusting them to Xie to ask him to hold a retreat. Thereupon he departed. When he reached Lake Chishan, he fell ill and died. Xie immediately held a retreat for him, and also retrieved the corpse, burying it at Mount Fuzhou in Jiankang. In the fourth year, there was Shao Xin of Wuxing, who was very devoted to the Dharma. Stricken with typhoid fever, no one dared to attend to him; he then wept sorrowfully and was mindful of Avalokiteśvara. Suddenly he saw a monk come, who said he was a disciple of Beidu. He told him, "Do not worry; my master will soon come to see you." [Xin] replied, "Du has been dead for a long time; how could he possibly come?" The man of the Way said, "What difficulty is there in his coming?" Thereupon, from the end of his belt, he took out about a box of powder and gave it to him to take; the illness was immediately cured. There was also Du Seng'ai, who lived beneath Nangang; he had previously served Beidu. His son became critically ill, and he thought with regret that he could not have Du recite divine incantations for him. The next day, he suddenly saw Du arrive, speaking as usual; he immediately incanted for the sick boy, and he recovered. In the third month of the fifth year, Du came again to Qi Xie's house. Lü Daohui heard of it and was astonished; Du Tianqi, Shuiqiu Xi, and others all saw him and were greatly startled, immediately standing up to pay homage. Du said to the crowd, "The year will bring great calamity; you should diligently cultivate meritorious karma. The man of the Way Fayi is of great virtue; you may go to him and restore old monasteries to avert disasters." In a short while, there was a monk at the gate calling Du; he then took his leave, saying, "This poor monk must head toward the region between Jiao and Guang, and will not come again." Qi Xie and the others bowed and saw him off earnestly, and thereupon his traces ceased. In recent generations, people also say that someone occasionally sees him.