---
title: 78.天譴 Death By Lightning
description: "Collected Pearls in the Dharma Garden (Fayuan Chulin) tells that during the Tang dynasty, there was a very skillful cook"
---

78.DEATH BY LIGHTNING

　　Collected Pearls in the Dharma Garden (Fayuan Chulin) tells that during the Tang dynasty, there was a very skillful cook from Changhu, Bohai. His name was Feng Yuan. The King of Khotan, barbarians in the west, came to pay tribute to the imperial court of China. Feng Yuan was ordered to prepare a state banquet for him and his retinue. Everybody ate and ate and ate until they were stuffed. They all said the food was great, but when the banquet was finished, there were almost one hundred goats left over. They had not even been slaughtered yet. The authorities were not quite sure what to do with them. The King of Khotan happened to here about this, and he requested that their lives be spared.

　　"It is my sincere wish that these goats be sent to Buddhist temples to live out their natural life spans."

　　Feng received the order to let them go, but he figured the King would be going back to his barbaric homeland before long, and after all, ninety some goats means a lot of money! So he did not obey this command. Instead, he sold the goats to a butcher. He was really quite happy about this windfall.

　　Eventually, he spent all of that money, and as time passed, he probably forgot all about it. He was really a good cook, so whenever the powerful politicians and rich people in the capital wanted a feast, they looked up Feng. He worked hard for his money, but his income was pretty good.

　　Then, during the summer of 661, Feng was taking a stroll outside the Xuanyan City Gate. All of a sudden, the wind came up to blow. The skies turned black, lighting flashed, thunder rolled, and rain poured down.

　　A particularly loud clap of thunder right by the city wall startled all the people around. When they recovered their wits, they saw a man kneeling in the rain. His hair was disheveled. His eyes were popping. His chin was pressing on his chest, like a convict's before his head is chopped off.

　　Then people looked again, and realized that his head had been almost chopped off! His head was split wide open, and his brains were dripping out of his skull! He looked like an executioner had cleaved his head.

　　"Hey, isn't that Feng Yuan, the famous cook?"

　　"You're right, it is," someone answered. "This must be the result he caused by killing all those goats that were supposed to be let free."

　　You can never escape for long from evil that you have brought down upon yourself.

78.天譴

　　《法苑珠林》里提到，唐代的時候，渤海長胡有一個技藝高超的廚子。他叫做馮遠。和闐王，西方的胡人，來中國朝見皇帝。馮遠奉命要為和闐王和他的隨從準備國宴。每個人都不停地吃，直到 吃的飽飽的。他們說那些菜實在是太好吃了，不過當宴會結束後，還剩了差不多一百只羊，它們還沒有被宰殺。管事者不知道拿這些羊怎 麼辦好。和闐王剛好聽到了，他要求放了這些羊。

　　「我真心希望，這些羊能被送到佛教寺院里，在那里頤養天年。」

　　馮接到了把羊放走的命令，但是他考慮到和闐王很快就要回到他的蠻荒之地去，而且九十幾只羊意味著一大筆錢！所以他沒有執行這個命令，而是把這些羊賣給了屠夫。他為自己得到的這筆橫財而高興。

　　他最後把這筆錢都花光了，隨著時間的流逝，他完全忘掉了這回事。馮確實是一個好廚子，每當京城里的達官貴人要舉行宴會，都會找他。他為了錢努力工作，而且往往他的報酬不菲。

　　661年的夏天，馮正在玄燕門外散步。忽然，狂風大作。空中烏云密布、電閃雷鳴，下起了傾盆大雨。

　　城牆上傳來一聲炸雷，周圍所有的人都嚇呆了。當他們回過神來，看到雨里跪著一個人。他頭髮散亂，眼睛瞪圓，下巴抵在胸膛上，就像要被砍頭的犯人一樣。

人們仔細一看，發現他的頭幾乎被劈下來了！他的頭上有一個很大的口子，腦漿正在從頭骨里滴出來！他看上去就像是被劊子手砍了頭。

　　「嘿，那不就是那個有名的廚子馮遠嗎？」

　　「是的，就是，」有人回答，「這一定他是殺了那些本應該被放生的羊得到的報應。」

　　一個人自己感招的惡報，是不可能逃得掉的。