佛祖統紀 1.95

1.95

Now, a surname (xing) is that by which the lineage of a hundred generations is bound together so that they do not diverge; a clan (shi) is that by which the branches from which sons and grandsons emerge are distinguished. As for the lineages and clans of India, there are four streams: the first is called kṣatriya, the royal caste; the second is called brāhmaṇa, those of pure conduct; the third is called vaiśya, the merchants (formerly called pishe); the fourth is called śūdra, the common multitude (formerly called shoutuo). Among these four castes, the former two are noble, and the latter two are low (this explanation comes from the *Records of the Western Regions*). Accompanying what is esteemed by the times, the Buddha was born among them. Śākyamuni appeared in an unyielding and fierce world, relying upon the royal caste to manifest majesty; Kāśyapa was born in a gentle and compliant time, dwelling in pure conduct to display virtue (*Mahāprajñāpāramitopadeśa*). In the past, asaṃkhyeya kalpas ago, there was a bodhisattva who was a king. His parents having died early, he ceded the kingdom to his younger brother and studied the way under the brāhmaṇa Gautama, adopting the Gautama surname. (This scripture translates it as 'pure and mature'; Master Ying translates it as 'most supreme'; these both derive their meaning from the teacher's virtue.) Returning to his country to beg for food, no one recognized him, and they called him Little Gautama. He made a hermitage in a sugar-cane grove outside the city. Thieves stole royal property and passed through the grove along their route. Pursuing the thieves by following their tracks, [the guards] seized Little Gautama. The king ordered that his body be pierced with a wooden stake and shot with arrows. Big Gautama, seeing this, grieved, prepared him for burial, and gathered the blood into balls of mud. Taking them back to the hermitage, he placed them in vessels on the left and right. Big Gautama said: "If this practitioner was truly sincere, may the heavenly deities have knowledge and cause the blood to transform into human beings." After ten months, the left transformed into a boy, and the right transformed into a girl. Because of this, they were named the Gautama clan, the surname of 'pure and virtuous' (*Twelve Wandering Sūtra*). In the past, there was a wheel-turning holy king named Mahā-īśvara (namely, the ninth clan Miśrī). Sons and grandsons succeeded one after another for eighty-four thousand kings. The last king was named Great Kusha. Growing old without a son, he entrusted the administration to his ministers, shaved his hair, and left the household; the multitude styled him the Royal Rishi. When the disciples went to beg for food, the Royal Rishi was too old to walk, so they placed him in a grass basket and hung him from a tree, being anxious about tigers and wolves. A hunter, seeing him from afar, thought he was a white bird and shot and killed him. His blood dripped upon the ground, and later grew two stalks of sugar-cane. Warmed and split open by the sun, one produced a boy, and one produced a girl. The disciples nurtured and protected them, reporting this to the ministers. The multitude said they were of royal seed, and ordered a diviner to prognosticate them. He named [the boy] Sujāta, styled King Ikṣvāku (Sugar-cane King); the girl was named Bhadrā, and established as the first queen. Also, because they were born from sugar-cane warmed by the sun, they were also called the Solar Lineage (*Bodhisattva-caryanidāna-sūtra*).