法苑珠林 31.16

31.16

西晉杯度沙門。不知何許人。出自冀州。年可七十許。隱匿姓字。不甚修行。時人未重也。嘗寄宿一家。家有金像。杯度晨興輒持而去。主人策馬追之。度自徐行而騎走不及。至河乘一小杯以過孟津。因號曰杯度。後在彭城人每見之。常在途路。莫有知其居處所在。擔一籚簞行止自隨或於凝雪之辰叩氷盥浴。膚色煇然不以寒慘。義熈中暫在廣陵。刺史沛國劉蕃素聞其名。因人要來猶擔此簞。使人舉視重不能勝。蕃自起看正有敗納衣耳。度辭去一手挈簞若提鴻毛。永嘉初中卒。羅什聞度在彭城。嘆曰。我與此子戲別已數百年矣。於時乃寤什亦神人也。

The śramaṇa Beidu of the Western Jin was of unknown origin. He came from Jizhou and was about seventy years of age. He concealed his surname and personal name, and did not practice much religious cultivation, so people of the time did not hold him in high regard. Once he lodged at a family’s home that possessed a golden image. Rising in the morning, Beidu simply took it and walked off. The master of the house spurred his horse to pursue him; though Beidu walked along slowly, the horseman galloped without being able to catch up with him. Arriving at the river, he rode upon a small cup to cross the Mengjin Ford; on account of this, he was styled “Cup-Crossing” (Beidu). Later, when he was in Pengcheng, people frequently saw him; he was constantly on the roads, and no one knew where he lived. Carrying a reed basket, he went about his journeys alone, or during freezing snowfall he would break the ice to wash and bathe, his skin radiant and not distressed by the cold. During the Yixi reign-era, he stayed temporarily in Guangling. Liu Fan, the regional inspector and a native of Pei Commandery, had long heard of his name. Inviting him through an intermediary, Beidu still carried this basket. When people were ordered to lift and examine it, it was so heavy they could not bear its weight. Fan got up himself to look, only to see nothing but a worn, patched robe. When Beidu took his leave and departed, he lifted the basket with one hand as though holding a goose feather. He passed away around the beginning of the Yongjia reign-era. When Kumārajīva heard that Beidu was in Pengcheng, he sighed and said: “It has been several hundred years since that boy and I playfully parted!” Only then did people realize that Kumārajīva was also an extraordinary being.