佛祖歷代通載 12.6

12.6

（三　壬子）　雁塔成。太宗二十二年。上在春宮日。天陰掌疼問及左右對曰。應是太子洞玄下針處于是思報昊天追崇福業。命有司擇地為母文德順聖皇后建慈恩寺。凡十餘院。一千八百九十七間。度僧三百員。勅奘三藏為上座。盛事如碑所載。至今永徽三年。帝用七宮亡者衣物財帛而建此塔於慈恩寺。其基四面各一百四十尺。倣西域制度而有五級。并象輪露盤高一百八十尺。層層中心皆葬舍利。不啻萬顆。上層以石為室。南面立碑。載二聖所製三藏聖教序記。乃尚書右僕射河南公褚遂良筆也○西域之制以塔為方墳。然有四類。輪王一級。聲聞四級。獨覺十二級。菩薩如來十三級。各有所表也。

(3. Renzi) The Wild Goose Pagoda was completed. In the twenty-second year of Taizong, when the Emperor was in the Eastern Palace, the sky was overcast and his palm ached. When he inquired of his attendants, they replied, 'This must be the spot where the Crown Prince inserted the needle during the Dongxuan procedure.' Thereupon, thinking to repay the boundless debt to Heaven and cultivate blessed deeds in posthumous devotion, he ordered the officials to select a site to build Ci'en Monastery for his mother, Empress Wende Shunsheng. It comprised more than ten courtyards and 1,897 bays, and ordained three hundred monks. He decreed Tripiṭaka Master [Xuan]zang to be the superior. The grand affairs were as recorded on the stele. Now, in the third year of Yonghui, the Emperor used the clothing, goods, and silks of the deceased from the seven imperial palaces to build this pagoda at Ci'en Monastery. Its base was 140 feet on each of the four sides. Modeled after the Western Regions' system, it had five tiers, and together with the parasol wheels and dew basin, stood 180 feet high. The center of every tier enshrined relics, no fewer than ten thousand grains. The top tier had a chamber made of stone, with a stele erected facing south, bearing the preface and record for the Tripiṭaka Holy Teaching composed by the Two Sages, penned by Chu Suiliang, Duke of Henan and Right Vice Director of the Department of State Affairs. (The system of the Western Regions regards stupas as square tombs. However, there are four classes: one tier for a cakravartin, four tiers for a śrāvaka, twelve tiers for a pratyekabuddha, and thirteen tiers for a bodhisattva or Tathāgata, each signifying a distinction.)