佛祖統紀 45.16

45.16

The first year of Jingyou [1034]. Wang Sui, Participant in Determining Governmental Matters, abridged the *Jingde chuandeng lu* into fifteen scrolls. The Institute for the Propagation of the Dharma compiled and catalogued it into the canon. ○ An edict ordered that postulants throughout the realm be tested on the recitation of the *Lotus Sūtra*, and those who passed were granted ordination. Song Shou and Xia Song, Participants in Determining Governmental Matters, were appointed to jointly supervise it. There was a postulant reciting the sūtra who could not pass; when asked how many years he had studied, he replied: "Ten years." The two officials laughed and pitied him; agreeing upon returning home each to take the sūtra and recite it, Shou took ten days and Song seven days without missing a single character (*Guitian lu*). ○ In this year, there were 385,520 monks and 48,740 nuns throughout the realm.