南嶽總勝集 3.17

3.17

宰相劉晏。少好遊術。精懇不倦而無所遇。嘗聞異人多在市肆間。以其喧雜可混迹也。因遊長安。至一藥舖。偶問曰。常有三四老人。紗帽拄杖。來取酒飲訖即去。兼覓藥看。亦不多買。某意非凡俗者。劉公曰。早晚當至。曰明日合來。劉公平旦往。少頃果有道流三人到。引滿飲酒。談謔極歡。旁若無人。良久曰。世間還有得似我輩否。一人云。王十八。遂去自後每記之不可求。及作刺史往南中過衡山縣。時春初風景和暖。喫冷淘一盤。香菜茵蔯之類。甚為芳潔。劉公異之。訊郵吏曰。側近莫有衣冠居否。此菜何所得。答曰。縣有官園子王十八能種。所以館中常有好菜蔬。劉公忽驚記所遇道人之說。乃曰。園近遠行去得否。曰即館後。遂往問見王十八。衣犢鼻灌畦狀貌山野望劉公趨拜戰慄漸次問其鄉里家屬曰飄蓬不省。亦無親族。劉公益異之。令坐索酒與喫。固不肯却歸。乃詣縣自請同往嶺外縣令都不喻當時發遣。王十八亦不甚拒。破衣草履登舟而行。劉公漸與之熟。令妻子見拜之。同坐茶飯。形容衣服日益穢敝。家人並竊惡之。夫人曰。豈茲有異。何為如此。劉公不懈去所詣數百里。患痢朝夕困極。舟船隘窄不離劉公之所。左右掩鼻罷食。不勝其苦。劉公都無厭忌之色。但憂慘而已。勸就湯粥。數日遂斃。劉公嗟歎涕泣。送終之禮無不精備。乃葬於路隅。後年官替歸朝。却至衡山縣。縣令郊迎。既坐曰。使君所將園子去尋却來。應是不堪驅使。劉公驚問。何時歸。曰後月餘日即歸云。奉處分放回。劉公大駭。當時步至園中。茅屋雖存都無所覩。隣人曰。王十八昨夜去矣。怨恨加甚。向屋再拜泣涕而反審。其到縣之日。乃途中疾卒之辰也。遣人往發塚。瘞所空存衣服耳。數月至京城。官居朝列。偶得重疾。近至屬纊家人妻子圍視號叫俄。聞扣門甚急。閽者走呼曰。有人稱王十八。令報歡躍迎拜。王十八微笑而入其臥所。疾已不知人久矣。乃盡令去障蔽等及湯藥。自於腰間取一葫蘆。開之出藥三圓。如小豆大。用葦筒引水半甌。灌而搖之。少頃腹中如雷鳴。逡巡開眼。蹶然而起。都不似先有疾。夫人日王十八。乃涕泗交下。牽衣再拜。若不勝情。妻妾僕使並泣。王十八悽然曰。奉愧舊情。故來相救。此藥一圓可延十載。至期某却來。自取啜茶一椀而去。劉公因請少淹留不可。又欲與之金帛。復大笑。後劉公拜相兼領鹽鐵。坐事貶忠州三十年。一旦有疾。王十八復來曰。要見相公。劉公感歎頗極。延入閤中。又懇求王十八。日所疾即愈。且還某藥。乃以鹽一兩投水飲之大吐。吐中有藥三圓。顏色與三十年前服者無異。王十八索香湯洗之。劉公堂姪侍疾側。遂攫其二圓吞之。王十八熟視笑曰。汝有道炁。我固知為汝掠也。趨出而去。不復言別。劉公尋病復數月。有詔至。乃卒高僧懶殘者。唐天寶初。衡岳寺執役僧也。食退即收所餘而食。性懶而食殘故號懶殘也。畫專一寺之工。夜止群牛之下。曾無倦色已二十年。時鄴侯李泌寺中讀書。察懶殘所為非凡物。聽其中宵梵唱響徹於上。李泌情頗知音。能辯休戚。謂懶殘經音悽惋而後喜悅。必謫墮之人。通名而謁。懶殘大詬覿面而唾曰。是將賊我。李公愈敬之雅拜。懶殘正撥牛糞出芋啖之。良久而曰。可以席地。取所啖芋之半以授焉。李公盡食之。後謂曰。慎無多語。領取十年宰相。公謝之而退。後月餘。刺史祭岳崇道甚嚴。忽中夜風雷而一峯摧倒。凡山路行所為大石橫攔。遂以十牛縻絆以挽之。又以數百鼓噪以推之。人力竭而石愈固。更無他塗可以修事。懶殘曰。不假人力略試去之。眾皆大笑。以為狂人。懶殘曰。何在見嗤試可乃已。寺僧笑而許之。遂履石而動。忽轉磐而下。聲若震雷。山路既開。眾僧皆羅拜。見者皆呼至聖。刺史奉之如神。懶殘悄然。乃懷去意。寺外虎豹忽爾成群。日有傷無由禁。懶殘曰授我箠。為爾盡驅除。眾曰。大石猶推。此物容易。因與之荊梃皆躡而觀之。才出門見一虎銜之登山噬之。人歎其不免數。初懶殘居巖久之。嘗作歌。其略云。世事悠悠。不如山坵。青松蔽日。碧㵎長流。山雲賞慕。夜月為鉤。臥藤蘿下。塊石枕頭。不朝天子。豈羨王侯。死生無慮。更復何憂。水月無形。我常自寧。萬法皆爾。不死不生。兀然無箇事。春來草自青。其後李泌果入相。一云。懶殘在石廩伏山妖。而售寶被訟。獄中卒。乃尸解也。

Prime Minister Liu Yan had in his youth a fondness for the arts of roaming [transcendents]. Though earnest and untiring, he met none. Having heard that extraordinary men often frequent marketplaces because the clamour and commotion allow them to conceal their traces, he went wandering in Chang'an and reached an apothecary. In an offhand way, the apothecary said: "There are often three or four old men wearing gauze caps and leaning on staves who come to get wine, drink it, and immediately depart. They also ask to look at the medicines, though they do not buy much. I suspect they are no ordinary folk." Duke Liu asked, "When will they arrive?" The shopkeeper replied, "They should come tomorrow." At dawn the next day Duke Liu went, and after a short while three Daoists indeed arrived. They filled their cups to the brim, drank, and bantered with utmost joy, acting as if no one else were present. After a long while one said, "Is there anyone in the world comparable to our kind?" Another said, "Wang Shiba." Thereupon they departed. From then on Liu ever kept this in mind, yet could not find him. Later, when serving as prefect, he passed through Hengshan County on his way to the south. It was early spring, and the scenery was warm and mild. He ate a plate of cold tossed noodles served with sweet herbs, artemisia, and the like, which were exceedingly fragrant and fresh. Duke Liu was astonished and asked the post station official: "Are there any gentry living nearby? Where did these vegetables come from?" The official answered: "In the county there is a public gardener, Wang Shiba, who is skilled at cultivating [vegetables]; thus the post station always has good greens." Duke Liu was startled, recalling what the Daoist he met had said. He asked, "How far is the garden? May one go there?" The official replied, "Right behind the post station." He then went to inquire and saw Wang Shiba, dressed in short breeches and watering garden beds, with a rustic and wild appearance. Seeing Duke Liu, he hastened forward to bow with trembling. When Liu gradually asked him of his native place and family, he replied: "Like drifting tumbleweed, I do not remember; nor do I have any kin." Duke Liu marvelled all the more. He bade him sit, called for wine, and gave it to him to drink, but Wang stubbornly refused and went back. Duke Liu then went to the county office and personally requested that Wang accompany him south of the ridges. The county magistrate had no idea why, and immediately dispatched him. Wang Shiba did not put up much resistance; wearing tattered clothes and straw sandals, he boarded the boat and departed. Duke Liu gradually became familiar with him, had his wife and children greet and bow to him, and sat together with him for tea and meals. Wang's appearance and clothes grew daily more filthy and ruined, and the servants secretly despised him. The wife said, "Can there be anything extraordinary about him? Why act like this?" Yet Duke Liu did not slacken. Several hundred leagues from their destination, Wang fell ill with dysentery, worsening from morning to evening. The boat was cramped and narrow, and he remained right beside Duke Liu. Those around held their noses and ceased eating, unable to bear the misery. Duke Liu showed no hint of loathing or avoidance, but merely felt grief and pity, urging him to take broths and gruel. After several days, he perished. Duke Liu lamented and wept bitterly. His funerary arrangements were complete in every detail, and he buried him beside the road. In a later year, when his post was relieved and he was returning to the court, he again arrived at Hengshan County. The county magistrate went out to the suburbs to welcome him. Once seated, the magistrate said: "The gardener whom you took along, sir, soon returned; he must have been unfit for your service." Astounded, Duke Liu asked, "When did he return?" The magistrate said: "A month or so after you left, he returned, saying he had been released by your orders." Duke Liu was greatly startled. He immediately walked to the garden; though the thatched hut remained, there was nothing to be seen. A neighbour said, "Wang Shiba left last night." Duke Liu's grief and regret increased all the more. Facing the hut, he bowed twice, wept, and then investigated: the day Wang arrived at the county was precisely the day he had died of illness on the journey. He dispatched someone to open the grave: at the burial site there were only empty clothes. Months later he reached the capital, where he took up his post in the court ranks. By chance he contracted a grave illness; as he drew his last breaths, his family, wife, and children gathered around weeping and wailing. Suddenly, urgent knocking on the door was heard. The gatekeeper ran in shouting, "Someone calls himself Wang Shiba!" He ordered him admitted and joyfully welcomed him with bows. Wang Shiba smiled slightly and entered his bedchamber; Liu had already been insensible for a long time. Wang ordered all screens, partitions, and medicines removed. From his waist he took a gourd bottle, opened it, and produced three pills the size of small beans. Using a reed pipe, he drew half a bowl of water, poured it into Liu's mouth, and shook him. In a short while there was a rumbling in Liu's belly like thunder; presently he opened his eyes, sprang to his feet, and seemed as though he had never been sick. The wife cried, "Wang Shiba!" Tears and mucus streaming down, she grasped his clothes and bowed twice, overcome with emotion. His wives, concubines, and servants all wept. Wang Shiba said sorrowfully: "Repaying our past bond, I have come to save you. One pill of this medicine can prolong your life by ten years. When the time comes, I shall return." He helped himself to a bowl of tea and departed. When Duke Liu pleaded with him to stay a little, he refused; when Liu wished to offer him gold and silk, he laughed heartily again. Later, Duke Liu was appointed prime minister and concurrently oversaw the salt and iron monopolies; on account of an incident, he was demoted to Zhongzhou for thirty years. One day he fell ill, and Wang Shiba came again, saying, "I wish to see the minister." Duke Liu was deeply moved and invited him into his chambers, pleading with him once more. Wang Shiba said: "Your illness will be cured, but you must return my medicine." He then threw an ounce of salt into water and made Liu drink it. Liu vomited profusely, and among the vomit were three pills whose colour was no different from those taken thirty years before. Wang Shiba asked for fragrant water to wash them. Duke Liu's paternal nephew, who was attending the sickbed, snatched two of the pills and swallowed them. Wang Shiba gazed intently at him, laughed, and said: "You possess Daoist pneumatic energy; I knew indeed they would be seized by you." He hurried out and departed, uttering no word of farewell. Duke Liu soon fell ill again, and after several months, an imperial decree [commanding his suicide] arrived, and he died. As for the eminent monk Lancan: in the early Tianbao era of the Tang, he was a labouring monk at Hengyue Monastery. When the meal was over, he would collect what remained and eat it; being naturally lazy and eating scraps (can), he was nicknamed Lancan ("Lazy Remnants"). During the day he performed all the labour of the monastery, and at night he slept beneath the herd of oxen, never showing any sign of weariness for twenty years. At that time, Li Mi, the Duke of Ye, was studying in the monastery. Observing that Lancan's conduct was extraordinary, he listened in the dead of night to Lancan's Buddhist chanting, which resonated above. Li Mi had a keen ear for music and could discern auspiciousness and grief; deeming that the sound of Lancan's scriptural chant was plaintive at first and joyous later, he knew Lancan had to be a transcendent banished to the mortal realm. Li presented his name and went to pay homage. Lancan reviled him loudly, spat in his face, and said: "This fellow will ruin me!" Duke Li respected him all the more and bowed with elegance. Lancan was just then poking into cow dung, pulling out a taro root, and eating it. After a long while he said, "You may sit on the ground." Taking half of the taro he was eating, he handed it over. Duke Li ate it all. Lancan then told him: "Be careful not to speak much; receive and hold ten years as prime minister." Duke Li thanked him and withdrew. More than a month later, the prefect was conducting a sacrifice to the Sacred Peak, revering the Dao with utmost solemnity. Suddenly, in the dead of night, amid wind and thunder, a peak collapsed, and the road for walking on the mountain was blocked by a huge boulder. They harnessed ten oxen to haul it and had several hundred men shout and push it, yet human strength was exhausted while the rock stood ever firmer; there was no other route by which the ritual could be performed. Lancan said, "Without using human strength, let me test removing it." The crowd all laughed loudly, taking him for a madman. Lancan said, "Why mock me? Let me test it, and then we shall see." The monastery monks laughed and permitted it. He then stepped onto the rock and shifted it; suddenly the boulder rolled down with a sound like thunder. Once the mountain road was cleared, the monks all bowed in ranks, and all who saw it hailed him as a supreme sage. The prefect revered him like a god. Lancan grew quiet and conceived the intent to depart. Outside the monastery, tigers and leopards suddenly gathered in packs; daily they caused harm, and there was no way to stop them. Lancan said, "Hand me a staff; I will drive them all away for you." The crowd said, "He pushed even the great boulder; this matter is easy." So they gave him a bramble staff and followed softly to watch. No sooner had he left the gate than a tiger was seen clamping him in its jaws, climbing the mountain, and eating him. People sighed that he could not escape fate. Earlier, when Lancan lived in the crags for a long time, he once composed a song, which went in brief: / "The affairs of the world are drift and drag, / Better to dwell amid mountain crags. / Green pines shut out the sun's bright beam, / Long flows the azure mountain stream. / Mountain clouds are my pure delight, / The hook of the moon adorns the night. / Reclining beneath the clinging vine, / A boulder my pillow, I recline. / I pay no court to the Son of Heaven, / What care I for princes and dukes? / Birth and death hold no concern, / What further worry can there be? / The moon in water has no form, / I am ever peaceful in myself. / All phenomena are just like this: / Neither dying nor being born. / Motionless, without a single thing to do; / When spring arrives, the grass grows green of itself." / Later, Li Mi indeed became prime minister. Another account says: Lancan subdued a mountain demon at Shilun, and when he sold a jewel he was sued; he died in prison, which was a liberation from the corpse.