神僧傳 9.11

9.11

Śramaṇa Huaijun was of unknown origin. He was foolish and eccentric, yet he had foreknowledge of future events, his predictions proving true as if by divine power. During the Qianning era, for no apparent reason, he arrived in Badong. He was skilled in cursive calligraphy, his brushwork being natural and spontaneous. Sometimes on the walls of monasteries, Daoist abbeys, inns, and shops, he would write Buddhist scriptures, Daoist teachings, and even song lyrics and vulgar vernacular verses; nothing failed to flow from the tip of his brush. When someone spoke to him, he would only answer with 'a' and 'wei'. The local people treated him as a divine sage. Prefect Yu was distressed by his deluding the masses, threw him into prison, and interrogated him. [Huaijun] then submitted an official petition in the form of a poem. The meaning of its lines pointed to the west and east of the Min River, yet the phrasing was ornate and beautiful. The prefect marveled at it and released him. When he further examined its meaning, he suspected [the monk] was in the midst of the sea, and wondered whether he belonged to the lineage of Master Beidu. When travelers passed by, they would always moor their boats and pay him a visit, seeking to ascertain the auspiciousness or misfortune of traveling through the upper and lower Gorges, or the profit and loss in trade and commercial goods. When travelers earnestly prayed, he would merely write three to five lines, never speaking clearly, yet after the events, they were mostly verified. At that time, the senior officer of Jingnan, Zhou Chongbin, visited him. [Huaijun] wrote and left him [the words]: 'Handed over to the imperial capital for your interrogation.' Later, when entering to present tribute, due to the imperial army's southern expedition, [Zhou] was arrested by the Southern Office and ultimately executed. The military attendant Sun Daoneng visited him, and he wrote characters giving them to 'Zhulin Monastery'. That year, [Sun] passed away, and his burial was arranged at the old foundation of Zhulin Monastery. When Huangfu Xuan was prefect, [Huaijun] drew a person bearing a cangue with a woman beside him; soon after, [Huangfu] married a girl from a common family, suffered a lawsuit, and was imprisoned and brought to the prefecture. There was a certain Mu Zhaosi, who was of Persian descent. In his youth, he was fond of medical arts; accompanying his father, he went to visit him. [Huaijun] drew a Daoist riding the clouds holding a calabash gourd, and wrote: 'Commander Gao sends an official communication to the prefecture to promote Student Mu.' Later, because Mu's medical skills were effective, King Gaoconghui of Nanping ordered him to abandon Daoism and pursue Confucianism, temporarily appointing him to oversee the prefectural administration. When it happened that 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; / Your relatives ought to wash their eyes and watch!' / That year, the Gao clan pledged allegiance to Huaihai, and the heavy siege was lifted. Other extraordinary traces of his 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.' Many passersby saw it but paid it no heed. Suddenly he was murdered by someone, his head and body severed in different places. The prefect cremated him.