歷代三寶紀 1.3

1.3

今依普曜本行等經校讐魯史。輕舉一隅敬貽來哲。庶宣聖跡應託善權。佛以莊王九年癸巳四月八日。現白象形從兜率降中天竺國迦毘羅城淨飯大王第一夫人摩耶右脇。是時諸天影潛衛從胎藏。祕隱世眼罕知。十年仲春二月八日夜鬼宿合時。於嵐毘園波羅樹下右脇而誕。生相既顯。故普曜云。普放大光照三千界。即左傳說。恒星不現夜明也。瑞應經云。沸星下現侍太子生。故左傳稱星隕如雨。本行經說。虛空無雲自然而雨。杜氏注解蓋時無雲。左傳又稱。與雨偕也。然姬周曆十一月為正。言四月者即今二月辛卯五日。魯史為謬。沙門道安著二教論。用姬曆推還合八日。唯以生時為成道歲。遂令佛世遠三十年耳。佛至僖王元年庚子年七。乘羊車詣學堂四年癸卯年十。與諸同齒釋族試力。惠王三年丁未年十四。啟父王遊。出城東門見病人迴。六年庚戌年十七。納妃求夷。八年壬子年十九。四月八日夜半踰城出家（十二遊經云。佛二十出家。增一阿含第二十四卷云。我年二十九。出家欲度人故。又云。年二十在外道中學。長阿含亦云。年二十九出家。推其大例如來在世七十九年。若二十九出家三十五成道。所可化物唯應四十五年。而禪要經云。釋迦一身教化眾生四十九年。諸經多云。十九出家。今以此為正。若以二十九出家三十五成道。經中蓋少。且云。二十年在外道中學。便是五十年方成道。是知為謬也）。十九年癸亥年三十。二月八日明星出時。朗然覺悟成無上道（般泥洹經下卷。佛語阿難。我成道來年亦自至四十有九。佛難可覩。一億四千萬歲乃有彌勒耳。禪要云。如來成道四十九年。是為一味。長阿含第五卷云。佛語須跋。我成佛已來已五十年）四十九年處在天人龍神世間。說法教化各令解脫得證四果。逆有流者數若恒沙。免離三塗生天人者不可稱計。眾生感緣既盡。佛以匡王四年壬子二月十五日後夜。於中天竺拘尸那城入般涅槃。自爾已來至今開皇十七年丁巳。一千二百五年世間眼滅（涅槃經及善見律並言二月十五日。菩薩處胎經云。二月八日泥洹。又云。初生得道乃至涅槃皆四月八日。先德舊譯悉言。應是二月。所以然者。王舍城去拘夷國城三千里。佛滅後七日方闍維弟子乃散。迦葉方向王舍城前夏安居集法藏。所將大眾若惠若愚俱至於王舍城始復檢簡。不容即日便至所在。而餘經皆云中夜涅槃。唯善見律獨言平旦。經解滅度。時節有所表明。將示眾生離於佛日。必在夜分若初夜時。時方未曉。即表後佛久乃出世。若在中夜。相去正等。後夜之時。不久佛出。彌勒方有億年。又非異劫。中夜為允）。

Now, following sūtras such as the Lalitavistara and the [Buddhacarita-]benxing [jing] to cross-check the Lu history, I casually present a single corner to respectfully transmit it to future philosophers, hoping to proclaim the sacred traces and the skillful means they relied upon. On the eighth day of the fourth month in the ninth year of King Zhuang, guisi, the Buddha manifested in the form of a white elephant, descending from Tuṣita to the right flank of Queen Māyā, the principal consort of the great King Śuddhodana of the city of Kapilavastu in Central Tianzhu. At that time, shadows of the various devas secretly guarded and escorted him into the womb, concealed from worldly eyes so that few knew. In the second month, the middle month of spring, of the tenth year, on the night of the eighth day when the Puṣya asterism conjoined, he was born from the right flank beneath the plakṣa tree in the Lumbinī grove. As the signs of his birth were clearly manifest, the Lalitavistara therefore says: “He radiated a vast great light, illuminating the three-thousandfold world,” which is what the Zuo Commentary describes as: “The fixed stars did not appear, and the night was bright.” The Ruiying jing says: “Comets appeared below to attend upon the prince’s birth,” and hence the Zuo Commentary states: “Stars fell like rain.” The Benxing jing says: “The empty sky was without clouds, and rain fell naturally,” and Mr. Du's commentary notes: “Presumably at that time there were no clouds”; the Zuo Commentary also says: “Falling along with the rain.” However, the calendar of the Ji Zhou took the eleventh month as the start of the year; what it calls the fourth month is actually the fifth day, xinmao, of the second month at present, and the Lu history is in error. When the śramaṇa Dao'an composed the Treatise on the Two Teachings, he used the Ji calendar to calculate and it still matched the eighth day; he only mistook the time of birth for the year of attaining the Way, which caused the Buddha's era to be thirty years too distant. In the first year of King Xi, gengzi, the Buddha was seven years old, and rode a goat cart to go to the hall of study. In the fourth year, guimao, at age ten, he tested his strength against his peers of the Śākya clan. In the third year of King Hui, dingwei, at age fourteen, he petitioned his father the king to go out on an excursion; passing through the eastern city gate, he saw a sick person and returned. In the sixth year, gengxu, at age seventeen, he took Yasodharā as his consort. In the eighth year, renzi, at age nineteen, at midnight on the eighth day of the fourth month, he leaped over the city wall and left home. (The Sūtra of the Twelve Excursions says that the Buddha left home at age twenty. The twenty-fourth fascicle of the Ekottarika-āgama says: “I was twenty-nine years of age when I left home because I wished to save people,” and also says: “At age twenty, I studied among the non-Buddhists.” The Dīrgha-āgama also says he left home at age twenty-nine. Calculating according to the general rule, the Tathāgata remained in the world for seventy-nine years; if he left home at twenty-nine and attained the Way at thirty-five, the period during which he transformed beings would have been only forty-five years. Yet the Chanyao jing says: “Throughout his single life, Śākyamuni taught and transformed sentient beings for forty-nine years.” Most sūtras state that he left home at nineteen; I now take this as correct. If he left home at twenty-nine and attained the Way at thirty-five, there are few sūtras [that say this]. Moreover, to say that he studied among the non-Buddhists for twenty years would mean that he only attained the Way at age fifty, which we know to be erroneous.) In the nineteenth year, guihai, at age thirty, on the eighth day of the second month when the bright morning star appeared, he was fully awakened and attained the unsurpassable Way. (In the lower fascicle of the Parinirvāṇa Sūtra, the Buddha told Ānanda: “Since I attained the Way, my years have naturally reached forty and nine. A Buddha is difficult to behold; only after one hundred and forty million years will there be a Maitreya.” The Chanyao says: “The Tathāgata's attainment of the Way was forty-nine years; this is of one single flavor.” Fascicle five of the Dīrgha-āgama says: the Buddha told Subhadra: “It has already been fifty years since I attained Buddhahood.”) For forty-nine years he dwelt among gods, humans, dragons, and spirits in the world, preaching the Dharma and transforming them, causing each to attain liberation and realize the four fruits; those who went against the stream of existence were as numerous as the sands of the Ganges, and those who escaped the three evil paths to be born among gods and humans were beyond count. When his karmic conditions with sentient beings had ended, the Buddha entered parinirvāṇa in the latter part of the night on the fifteenth day of the second month in the fourth year of King Kuang, renzi, in the city of Kuśinagara in Central Tianzhu. From then until the present seventeenth year of Kaihuang, dingsi, it has been 1,205 years since the Eye of the World was extinguished. (The Nirvāṇa Sūtra and the Samantapāsādikā both say the fifteenth day of the second month. The Sūtra on the Bodhisattva Dwelling in the Womb says he entered nirvāṇa on the eighth day of the second month, and also says that his initial birth, attaining the Way, and up to his parinirvāṇa were all on the eighth day of the fourth month. Former worthies and older translations all say that it ought to be the second month. The reason for this is that Rājagṛha is three thousand li away from the city of the state of Kuśinagara. Only on the seventh day after the Buddha's extinction was the jhāpita performed, after which the disciples dispersed. Only then did Kāśyapa head towards Rājagṛha for the summer retreat to compile the repository of the Dharma. The great assembly he led, both the wise and the dull, all arrived at Rājagṛha before the screening and selection could take place; it would have been impossible to reach that location on the very same day. Furthermore, the other sūtras all say that parinirvāṇa occurred at midnight; only the Samantapāsādikā alone says it was at dawn. When sūtras explain the parinirvāṇa, the timing signifies a specific meaning: to demonstrate that sentient beings are separated from the Sun of the Buddha, it must take place during the watches of the night. If it were in the first watch of the night, when dawn is still far off, it would signify that the next Buddha would only appear in the world after a very long time; if at midnight, the distance is precisely balanced; if in the latter watch of the night, a Buddha would appear soon. Since Maitreya will only appear after a hundred million years, yet not in a different kalpa, midnight is the most fitting.)