集神州三寶感通錄 3.77

3.77

西晉末。竺佛圖澄西域人。形貌似百歲者。左脇孔圍可四五寸。以帛塞之。齋日水邊抽腸胃出洗已內孔。夜則除帛光照一室。以讀書。雖未通群籍。與諸學士輒辯析無滯。莫不伏者。永嘉中遊洛下。時石勒屯兵河北。以殺戮為威。道俗遇害不少。澄往造軍門。預定吉凶。勒見每拜。澄化令奉佛減虐省。刑故中州免死者十而八九。勒與劉曜相拒搆隙。以問澄。澄曰。可生擒取何憂乎。麻油塗掌令視之。見曜被執以朱繩縛肘。後果獲之。如掌所見。至建平四年四月八日。勒至寺灌佛。微風吹鈴有聲。顧謂眾曰。解此鈴音不。鈴言國有大喪不出今年。至七月而勒死。石虎即位師奉過勒。錫以輿輦入出乘焉。所有祥感其相多矣。虎末年澄告弟子曰。禍將作矣。及期未至。吾且過世。至戊申年太子殺其母弟。虎怒誅及妻子。明年虎死。遂有冉閔之亂。葬於鄴西。一云澄死之日。商者見在流沙。虎聞開棺唯有衣鉢。澄在中原時。遭凶亂而能通暢仁化其德最高。非夫至聖何能救此塗炭。凡造寺九百八十餘所。通濟道俗者中分天下矣。

At the end of the Western Jin, Zhu Fotucheng was a person from the Western Regions. His appearance was like that of a centenarian. On his left flank was a hole about four or five inches in circumference, which he plugged with silk cloth. On fast days, he would draw out his intestines and stomach by the water's edge to wash them, and then replace them inside the hole. At night, he would remove the silk, and light would illuminate the entire room so that he could read scriptures. Although he had not mastered the myriad non-Buddhist books, whenever he engaged with scholars in debate and analysis, he was without hindrance, and there were none who did not submit. During the Yongjia era, he traveled to Luoyang. At that time, Shi Le was garrisoning troops north of the Yellow River, using slaughter to establish his awe, and not a few monastics and laity were harmed. Fotucheng went to his military headquarters to foretell good and bad fortune. Whenever Le saw him, he bowed. Fotucheng transformed him, causing him to revere the Buddha, lessen cruelty, and reduce punishments; thus eight or nine out of ten in the Central Plains were spared from death. When Le and Liu Yao were in opposition and formed a rift, Le asked Fotucheng about it. Fotucheng said, 'He can be captured alive; why worry?' He smeared sesame oil on his palm and bade him look into it; he saw Yao captured and his elbows bound with red cord. Later Yao was indeed captured, just as seen in the palm. When it reached the eighth day of the fourth month in the fourth year of Jianping, Le went to the temple to bathe the Buddha. A gentle breeze blew the temple bells with sound. Looking around, he said to the assembly, 'Do you understand the sound of these bells? The bells say that the state will have a great mourning before the year is out.' In the seventh month, Le died. When Shi Hu ascended the throne, he served Fotucheng with even greater reverence than Le had, bestowing upon him a carriage and litter to ride in when entering and exiting. His auspicious responses and portents were numerous. In the final years of Shi Hu's life, Fotucheng told his disciples, 'Disaster is about to arise; before that time arrives, I will pass away.' When it came to the wushen year, the crown prince killed his younger maternal brother; Hu in wrath executed him along with his wives and children. The following year Hu died, and then occurred the rebellion of Ran Min. [Fotucheng] was buried west of Ye. Another account says that on the day Fotucheng died, merchants saw him at the Flowing Sands. When Hu heard this, he opened the coffin, and there were only clothes and a bowl. When Fotucheng was in the Central Plains, encountering vicious turmoil, he was able to broadly propagate benevolent transformation; his virtue was supreme. Were he not an ultimate sage, how could he have rescued people from this wretched misery? In total, he established more than nine hundred and eighty temples; those monastics and laity he helped and liberated amounted to half the realm.