佛祖統紀 43.12

43.12

In the tenth month, [the Emperor] personally launched an expedition against Li Chongjin in Yangzhou. In the twelfth month, the city fell. Because they had obstinately resisted, the Emperor intended to execute them all. Suddenly, an extraordinary monk came to the traveling palace gate, calling himself Qingfan of Longxing Temple, and presented a memorial begging for imperial clemency. The Emperor granted it. The following day, His Majesty went in person to make inquiries, and saw on the hall an arhat holding a draft memorial in his hand. The Emperor had a great awakening, and ordered a separate hall built to enshrine his image. (From the *Guangling zhi*.) Qian Chu, King of Wuyue, was by nature devoted to Buddhism. Admiring King Aśoka's construction of stupas, he used gilded bronze and refined steel to cast eighty-four thousand stupas, inside of which was enshrined the *Karaṇḍamudrā Dhāraṇī Sūtra*. (The efficacy of this sūtra and dhāraṇī states: "One who makes images or makes stupas and enshrines this dhāraṇī will have them turn into the seven treasures, which is equivalent to enshrining the whole-body relics of the Tathāgatas of the three times.") These were distributed throughout his domain, and the work was completed in ten years. (Today Buddhist monasteries and lay households both enshrine these stupas.) Earlier, the scroll teachings of the Tiantai school had been damaged and rendered incomplete through the turmoil of the Five Dynasties. King Chu of Wuyue dispatched envoys to Goryeo and Japan to seek them. By this time, Goryeo sent the Śramaṇa Chegwan carrying treatises, commentaries, and various texts to Luoxi to pay respect to Dharma Master Ji. The canonical texts of the unified school thus returned to China. Luoxi transmitted them to Baoyun, and Yun transmitted them to Fazhi. Fazhi lectured on them extensively, and consequently gained sole renown for reviving the teachings and contemplation. (From the *Biography of the King of Wuyue*.)