金世成

金世成是长山人，向来不检点。忽然出家当了头陀，行为像疯癫一样，把吃脏东西当作美味。狗和羊拉下的粪便摆在面前，他就趴下去吃。自称是佛。愚昧的百姓和妇女认为他的行为很奇异，拜他为师的人数以千万计。金世成呵斥他们去吃屎，没有敢违抗的。他建造佛殿楼阁，花费的钱财不可计量，人们都乐意捐献。本县县令南公厌恶他的怪诞，把他抓起来鞭打，让他去修圣庙。他的门徒争相告知说："佛遭难了！"争着募捐来救他。宫殿一月之内就建成了，他聚敛金钱的速度，比酷吏追逼催呼还快。 异史氏说："我听说金道人，人们都顺着他的名字称呼他，说他是'今世成佛'。品行到了吃秽物的地步，到了极点了。鞭打他还不足以羞辱他，惩罚他反而恰好有好处，南县令执法多么好啊！然而学宫倒塌却要烦劳妖道来修，也是士大夫的羞耻啊。"

Jin Shicheng was a native of Changshan who had never behaved with propriety. Suddenly he became a wandering mendicant priest, behaving as if mad, finding pleasure in eating filth as though it were a delicacy. Whenever dogs and goats left their droppings before him, he would stoop and devour them. He styled himself a Buddha. The credulous common folk and women, marveling at his doings, became his disciples by the tens of thousands. When Jin ordered them to eat excrement, none dared disobey. He raised halls and pavilions, spending money without limit, which people gladly contributed. Magistrate Nan of the county, disgusted by his monstrous behavior, seized and flogged him, making him repair the Confucian temple. His disciples vied in announcing, "The Buddha is in trouble!" and vied in raising funds to ransom him. The temple was finished within a month, and his gathering of money was swifter than the harsh summons of a cruel tax-collector. The Historian of the Strange remarks: "I have heard of this Taoist Jin, whom people called by his name, saying he was 'a Buddha for the present age.' To go so far as to eat filth is the very extreme. Flogging him could not add to his shame, and punishing him served only a good end—how excellent was Magistrate Nan's handling of the law! Yet for the Confucian school to fall into ruin and require a monstrous priest to repair it is also a disgrace to the scholar-officials."