佛祖統紀 44.40

44.40

In the eighth month of the third year, with respectful thanks to the Sacred Ancestor, a general amnesty was declared throughout the realm. The text of the proclamation stated: "The wondrous Dao of the Ethereal Sovereign and the True Vehicle of the Western Indias both originate from the source of transformation; how could we dare forget to venerate them? All monks, nuns, Daoist priests, Daoist nuns, registered novices, and postulants throughout the realm shall be universally ordained." Lin Te, Right Vice Director of the Department of State Affairs, supervised the ordination certificates of the Bureau of Sacrifices. In that year, 230,127 monks, 15,643 nuns, 7,081 Daoist priests, and 89 Daoist nuns were ordained. ○ An edict ordered that an altar be established in the Tian'an Hall to give thanks to Heaven and Earth, gathering a great assembly of 13,086 monks and Daoist priests. The Emperor personally bestowed large coins of "medicinal silver" to them in person (medicinal silver is mercury; silver is commonly referred to as dried cinnabar/quicksilver). ○ The monk Daocheng of Mount Yuelun in Qiantang, on account of the court's extended grace of universal ordination, composed the Essentials of the Śākya Clan (Shishi yaolan) in three fascicles as a necessary guide on the community's monastic regulations for those who had left household life, circulating it in the world. ○ The translation tripiṭaka master Dharmapāla and others requested that the Imperially Commented Scripture in Forty-Two Sections and the Imperially Commented Bequeathed Teachings Sūtra be entered into the canon and promulgated. An edict granted permission. ○ Grand Councilor Wang Qinruo departed to govern Qiantang. Leading his subordinate officials, he went to Ling Mountains in Tianzhu to pay respects to Dharma Master Ciyun Zunshi, requesting him to preach the Lotus Sūtra. He sighed and said: "This doctrine is something I have never heard; this person is someone I have never seen!" He immediately petitioned to restore the old name of Tianzhu. The Master petitioned to designate West Lake as a pond for releasing life; every year on the eighth day of the fourth month, the people of the commandery would gather at the lake to release fish and birds, wishing longevity for the sovereign. ○ In the eleventh month, the Eastern Jurchen kingdom came to present tribute and begged to be bestowed the Tripiṭaka. An edict granted it to them. In the first month of the fourth year, Miyen and others, Lecturers on the Scriptures of the Right Street, requested that the imperially composed Collection of the Dharma Sound of Buddhist Canonical Texts (Shidian fayin ji) be annotated by monks in thirty fascicles and begged that it be appended to the Tripiṭaka. An edict granted permission. Initially, Yang Yi supervised the affair. In the collection there was the phrase "six kinds of tremors"; one monk annotated it with nearly three hundred characters, which was obscure, fragmented, and unsightly. Yi deleted it and added his own note: "The substance of the earth is inherently still; when it moves, there must be a change." People admired his conciseness. ○ The Western Indian monk Pushan arrived to present Sanskrit scriptures; he was bestowed purple robes. ○ Imperial Son-in-law Commandant Li Zunxu reported the lofty conduct of Dharma Master Zhili of Siming in giving up his life. The Emperor praised and admired him ceaselessly, specially bestowing the title "Fazhi" (Wisdom of the Dharma), and further proclaimed an imperial decree ordering him to remain in the world to propagate the teachings, forbidding him from giving up his life. At that time, Jianzhang and others from the Translation Institute, twenty-three people in all, each sent verses praising his moral virtue (the poems can be seen in the Record of Teachings and Practices of Siming, and are carved on stone at South Lake). ○ In the twelfth month, Hanlin Academician Yang Yi died. Yi had devoted his mind to Chan contemplation; from the time he fell ill, he abstained from meat and all pungent plants. On the day of his death, he composed a verse of the Emptiness Gate to reveal his aspiration. Those of discernment knew that he had attained the learning of the Buddha.