維摩經略疏垂裕記 2.165

2.165

Second, explaining each in turn has seven parts: first, differing encounters with the Buddha, which has two parts: first, indicating and pointing out; second, under "One [who kept the] precepts...", the main explanation. Concerning "Vasu's coming": the first fascicle of that sūtra states: "At that time, Vasu came out of hell, leading ninety-two kotis of sinners to the Sahā world. The same was true throughout the ten directions. At that time, Mañjuśrī said to Śāriputra: 'These sinners engaged in unwholesome actions before the Buddha appeared in the world and experienced hell. Because [the Buddha] emitted great illumination at Puṣpacchatra, they availed themselves of this light and emerged from the Avīci Hell.' Śāriputra said: 'For a long time I have heard the Buddha say: This ṛṣi Vasu engaged in unwholesome actions and entered hell. Why is it now said that he has emerged from hell and obtained an encounter with the Tathāgata?' The Buddha said: 'Because I wish to shatter all sentient beings' grasping at fixed retribution. Good man! Do not say that Vasu is a person of hell. Why is this? *Va* means divine; *su* means wisdom. How could a person of divine wisdom suffer torment in hell? Furthermore, *va* means vast; *su* means penetrating. One who vastly penetrates all things abides in the ultimate; that such a one should suffer torment in hell—there could never be such a thing.'" Furthermore, *va* means high, *su* means wondrous; *va* means severing, *su* means wisdom; *va* means firm, *su* means gentle; *va* means kindness, *su* means compassion, and so forth, extensive as in the first phrase; the sūtra still elaborates on the initial causes and conditions of his slaughtering sheep. One should know that Vasu was an expedient person. Yet the expedient must lead to the real; thus one knows he was a person who was urgent in vehicle but lax in precepts. Under "Asking about the three...", this concerns the three evil destinies as the eight difficult conditions; how could he attain the Path? As for "Like Śrāvastī..." and so forth: the fourth fascicle of the *Mahāprajñāpāramitopadeśa* clarifies that Śrāvastī had nine hundred million people and three vihāras; because the Buddha wished to repay the kindness of his birthplace, he mostly resided in Śrāvastī. Yet among the nine hundred million people, only three hundred million saw the Buddha and heard the Dharma; the remaining six hundred million were as listed in the commentary, all failing to hear the sūtra due to being lax in the vehicle. Under "During the Zhou...", this refers to the tenth year of King Zhuang (Tuo), the sixteenth ruler of the Ji Zhou, which corresponds to the seventh year of Duke Zhuang in the *Spring and Autumn Annals* of Lu, summer, the fourth month, the *xinmao* day: at night the fixed stars were not seen, and in the middle of the night stars fell like rain. According to this, it was the time when the Tathāgata was born in the royal palace. Yet this land only saw auspicious omens, and neither saw the Buddha's body nor heard the Buddha's preaching—is this not laxity in the vehicle? Regarding "stars fell like rain": the *Spring and Autumn Annals* says: "In the seventh year of Duke Zhuang, summer, the fourth month, the *xinmao* day, at night the fixed stars were not seen; in the middle of the night stars fell like rain." Du Yu's commentary says: "'Fixed' means constant, referring to the commonly seen stars. On the fifth day, *xinmao*, of the fourth month, the moonlight was still faint, and the sunlight did not set with dusk as it usually did. At midnight there were clouds, and stars fell accompanied by rain; their number was great, all recorded as anomalies. That sunlight did not hide and the fixed stars were not seen, yet it is called the middle of the night, was known by the water clock." The *Zuo Commentary* says: "In summer the fixed stars were not seen because the night was bright. Stars fell like rain means they accompanied the rain." Former sages and worthies calculated the Buddha's birth year with varying lengths of time. According to the *Faxian Biography*, calculating the Buddha's birth, it corresponds to the twenty-sixth year, *jiawu*, of Wu Yi of the Yin dynasty. According to the "Fashang's Answers to the Inquiries of Goguryeo", it corresponds to the twenty-fourth year, *jiayin*, of King Zhao (Xia), the fifth ruler of the Former Zhou, citing the *Alternative Biography of King Mu, the Son of Heaven* as proof, which states that Xia's son Man succeeded him as King Mu, and upon hearing that the Buddha had appeared in Kapilavastu, he journeyed west and did not return. According to the *Record of the Semblance and Correct [Dharma]*, it corresponds to the forty-eighth year, *wuwu*, of King Ping (Yijiu), the seventeenth ruler of the Former Zhou. According to Daoxan of the Northern Zhou, who calculated using Kumārajīva's chronology and stone pillar inscriptions, it corresponds to the fifth year, *yichou*, of King Huan (Lin), the eighteenth ruler of the Former Zhou. According to Zhao Boxiu, who in the first year of the Da Zhou of the Liang met the Vinaya Master Hongdu at Mount Lu and obtained the dot-record of the assembly of sages after the Buddha's parinirvāṇa, it corresponds to the second year, *jiaxu*, of King Zhending (Liang), the twenty-ninth ruler of the Former Zhou. Furthermore, the *Record of Resonances and Penetrations* says: "The Buddha appeared in the world during the reign of Jie of the Xia." Fei Changfang, the Hanlin Scholar of Translation under the Sui, said: "Now, collating the Lu annals according to sūtras such as the *Lalitavistara* and the *Abhiniṣkramaṇa*, the Buddha assumed the form of a white elephant on the eighth day of the fourth month in the ninth year, *guisi*, of King Zhuang, descending from Tuṣita to the right side of Queen Māyā, the principal consort of King Śuddhodana in the city of Kapilavastu in central India. In the tenth year, the mid-spring second month, on the night of the eighth day, at the time of the conjunction with the Puṣya mansion, he was born from the right side beneath the plakṣa tree in the Lumbinī Grove. His birth marks being manifest, the *Lalitavistara* says: 'He emitted great light everywhere, illuminating the three-thousandfold world,' which is what the *Zuo Commentary* describes as 'the fixed stars were not seen because the night was bright.' The *Ruiying [benqi jing]* says: 'A bubbling star appeared below to attend the prince's birth,' which is why the *Zuo Commentary* states that stars fell like rain. The *Abhiniṣkramaṇa Sūtra* says: 'From the sky without clouds, rain fell naturally,' and Du's commentary notes: 'Probably at that time there were no clouds,' which the *Zuo Commentary* also terms 'accompanied the rain.' However, the Ji Zhou calendar took the eleventh month as the first month of the year; what is called the fourth month is actually the fifth day, *xinmao*, of the present second month; the Lu annals were in error." The śramaṇa Dao'an composed the *Treatise on the Two Teachings*, and calculating with the Ji Zhou calendar, it still matches the eighth day. It was only because he took the time of birth to be the year of attaining the Way that he made the Buddha's era thirty years too distant. When the Buddha reached the first year, *gengzi*, of King Xi, he was seven years old and rode a goat-cart to the schoolroom. In the fourth year, *guimao*, he was ten years old and tested his strength against his peers of the Śākya clan. In the third year, *dingwei*, of King Hui, he was fourteen years old, asked his royal father for an outing, went out the eastern gate of the city, saw a sick person, and turned back. In the sixth year, *gengxu*, he was seventeen years old and married his consort Gopā. In the eighth year, *renzi*, he was nineteen years old, and at midnight on the eighth day of the fourth month, he leaped over the city wall to renounce household life. In the nineteenth year, *guihai*, he was thirty years old, and on the eighth day of the second month, when the morning star appeared, he was radiantly awakened and attained the unsurpassed Path. For forty-nine years he remained in the world preaching the Dharma. Sentient beings' conditions for resonance having been exhausted, on the fifteenth day of the second month in the later part of the night, in the fourth year, *renzi*, of King Kuang, the Buddha entered parinirvāṇa in the city of Kuśinagara in central India. At the time the Buddha arose, the sentient beings of this land neither heard nor saw him; that they were urgent in precepts but lax in the vehicle lies right here. From the Buddha's entering nirvāṇa to the present eighth year of Dazhong Xiangfu of the Great Song, the cyclical year *yimou*, it has been one thousand six hundred and sixty-one years, taking his birth during the reign of King Zhuang of the Zhou and his extinction during the reign of King Kuang as definitive. This follows Fei Changfang and the present commentary by Master Zhizhe, and does not adopt the chronologies of the various other schools. Furthermore, the stele for the Dhūta Temple by Wang Jianqi of the Southern Qi in the *Wen Xuan* states: 'The two Zhuangs of Zhou and Lu personally witnessed the mirror of the night sky; the two Mings of Han and Jin both inscribed the ornaments of red and blue.' Viewed from this, Jianqi and Zhizhe both held that the Buddha was born during the reign of King Zhuang of the Zhou; it was not Changfang alone. If so, the Semblance Dharma still has three hundred and thirty-nine years remaining, because the Semblance Dharma lasts one thousand years. In accordance with the Tripiṭaka teaching and the *Samantapāsādikā*, which say: 'Why did the Buddha not deliver women? Out of reverence for the Dharma. The Correct Dharma was to last one thousand years; by delivering women, it was reduced by five hundred years, but by instituting the practice of the eight respectful rules, it again became a full thousand years. After that, the Semblance Dharma also lasts one thousand years, and the Final Dharma lasts ten thousand years. For five thousand years, practitioners study the three penetrative knowledges and attain the four fruits; from six thousand years onward, they study but do not attain the Way. After ten thousand years, the texts of the scriptures will naturally disappear entirely, leaving only shaven heads and kāṣāya robes.' In the era of the Correct Dharma, the flavor of the Great Vehicle was pure; arriving at the Semblance era, the flavor became somewhat dilute. If one enters the Final Dharma, there is no Great Vehicle; male and female slaves renounce household life and defile pure conduct, and evil kings rule the world, levying taxes on monks and nuns. Since this is not yet the case today, we still reside in the Semblance Dharma. Later students should know such dates and eras; future readers should not find them overly cumbersome.