釋氏稽古略 1.255

1.255

釋迦牟尼佛按。明教大師正宗記曰。天地更始。閻浮洲方有王者興曰大人。大人者沒後。王因之繼作而不已。古今殆不可勝數。後世有王者曰大善生。大善生出懿師摩。懿師摩出憂羅陀。憂羅陀出瞿羅。瞿羅出尼浮羅。尼浮羅出師子頰。師子頰出淨飯王。然此七世皆王獨懿師摩。淨飯號為聖王。如來即出於淨飯聖王者也。始如來以往世。會然燈佛於蓮華大城。然燈授之記曰。汝後成佛如我。號曰釋迦牟尼。更劫無數逮迦葉佛世。廼以菩薩成道。上生於覩史陀天。應其補處。號護明大士。及其應運適至。大士乃以迦毘羅國處閻浮提之中。白淨飯王真轉輪族。宜因之以生。即捐天壽。示乘白象從日中降神於其母摩耶夫人右脇而止。及其將生。摩耶乃往國苑無憂木下。其花方妍。夫人欲取之舉手。聖子乃自其右脇而誕。神龍澍水以澡之。地發金蓮以承之。聖子乃四方各蹈七步。以手上下指之曰。四維上下唯我最尊。王尋持之與謁天廟。天像起為之致禮還宮。大集賢者。為其名之號曰薩婆悉達。稍長命師傅。教以世書。未幾立為太子。為娶太子已大潔清。雖示同世娶。而非有凡意。以夙業緣乃指其妃之腹云。却後六年。汝當生一男。一旦命駕欲遊。雖更出四門。而皆有所遇。終以其老病死與沙門者感之。而出家之意愈篤。太子時年十九歲。二月八夜。乘馬出自北門。至檀特山。小息林間。遂釋衣冠。自以其所佩寶劍絕其鬚髮。誓曰。願共一切斷此煩惱。淨居天化人以僧伽梨致太子。因得法服服之。進入其山嘉處彌樓寶山居。其阿藍伽藍習不用處定。三年復進欝頭藍處。習非非想定。三年進象頭山。雜外道輩為之苦行。日食麻麥。居六年。以無心意無受行。而外道亦化。聖人乃自思之曰。今此苦行非正解脫。吾當受食而後成佛。即沐浴於尼連河。受牧牛氏女所獻乳麋。尋詣畢鉢木下。天帝化人擷瑞草以席其坐。以二月七日之夕（周建子為正月丑為二月漢正復建寅丑為十二月）入正三昧。八日明星出時示廓然大悟。乃成等正覺。陞金剛座。天帝師之請轉法輪。先是憍陳如五人侍從於山中。至此首與度之。故入鹿野苑談四諦法。然因是而得道果者亦億計。遂獨之摩竭提國。化優樓迦葉弟兄三人。時國主瓶沙王有竹林園。施佛為精舍。請如來館之。未幾王舍城舍利弗目犍連皆從受化。如來曰彼二來者當為我上足弟子。於是度之。初大迦葉入山習禪。至是趣竹林精舍。如來起迎謂眾曰。吾滅後。而法被來世六萬歲者此人之力也。是時如來成道已六載矣。後迎之還國。以見父王。父王大喜。因詔其族。五百貴子從之出家。及其還宮也。其子羅睺羅禮之。持聖人之衣而告眾曰。此正如來也。用是為母釋其群疑。其後以化期將近。乃命摩訶迦葉曰。吾以清淨法眼涅槃妙心實相無相微妙正法今付於汝。汝當護持。并勅阿難。副貳傳化無令斷絕。而說偈曰。法本法無法。無法法亦法。今付無法時。法法何曾法。偈已復謂大迦葉曰。吾將金縷僧伽梨衣亦付於汝。汝其轉授補處慈氏佛。俟其出世。宜謹守之。大迦葉敬奉佛勅。世尊一旦往拘尸那城娑羅雙木之間。欲般涅槃。會純陀長者懇獻供養。如來因之復大說法。度須跋陀羅。右脇而臥。泊然大寂。內之金棺。待大迦葉至。而後三昧火燔然。自焚燼已而舍利光燭天地。天人神龍分而塔之（正宗記）。又曰。稽夫如來之生也。當此周昭王九年甲寅之四月八日。其出家也當昭王之二十七年壬申之二月八日。其成道也當昭王三十三年之戊寅。其滅度也當穆王三十六年壬申之二月十五日。化已凡一千一十七年。以漢孝明帝永平十年丁卯之歲而教被華夏。嗚呼如來示同世壽凡七十九歲。以正法持世方四十九年化度有情。其不可勝數。若如來之生與滅及其出家成道。或當周昭王穆王之年。然自周武王至厲王皆無年數。及宣王方有之。舊譜乃曰。昭王九年二十七年三十三年。穆王之三十六年。或者頗不以為然。吾甞辯之。故考太史公三代世表。視其序曰。余讀諜記。黃帝以來皆有年數。稽其曆譜諜。終始五德之傳。古文咸不同乖異。夫子之弗論次其年月豈虛哉。以此驗三代已前非實無年數。蓋太史公用孔子為尚書之志。故不書其年。乃作世表嵩又評曰。其付法於大迦葉者。其於何時必何以明之。曰涅槃會之初。如來告諸比丘曰汝等不應作如是語。我今所有無上正法。悉已付囑摩訶迦葉。是迦葉者當為汝等作大依止。此其明矣（涅槃經第二卷）。正宗記又評曰。寶林傳燈二書。皆書天竺諸祖入滅之時。以合華夏周秦之歲甲。然周自宣王已前未始有年。又支竺相遠數萬餘里。其人化滅。或有更千餘歲。其事渺茫隔越吾恐以重譯比校。未易得其實。輒略其年數甲子。且從而存其帝代耳。唯釋迦文佛菩提達磨至于中國六世之祖。其入滅年甲稍可推校。乃備書也（出明教大師正宗記）傳法正宗記者宋杭州佛日禪師契嵩之所作也。師廣西道藤州鐔津李氏子。母鍾氏。七歲出家事東山沙門。十三得度。十九遊方下沅湘涉衡嶽。謁神鼎諲禪師。諲與語奇之。然無所契悟。遊袁筠間。受記莂於洞山聰公。遍參知識。夜則頂戴觀音像誦其號。必滿十萬乃寢。世間經書章句不學。而能作原教十餘萬言。明儒釋之道一貫。以抗宗韓排佛之說後居杭州靈隱永安蘭若。著禪門定祖圖。傳法正宗記。輔教編上仁宗皇帝萬言書。經開封府繳進。嘉祐七年三月十七日。賜付傳法院編次入藏下詔褒寵賜號明教大師。宰相韓琦大參。歐陽脩延見而尊禮之。歐曰。不意僧中有此郎既東還棲永安。神宗熙寧五年六月四日晨興寫偈曰。後夜月初明吾今喜獨行不學大梅老。貪隨鼯鼠聲。至中夜而化。闍維不壞者五。曰頂曰耳曰舌曰童真曰念數珠。其頂骨出舍利。紅白晶潔。是月八日。道俗合諸不壞者。葬於故居永安蘭若之左。壽六十六歲。僧臘五十三。詳見尚書屯田員外郎陳舜俞撰師行業紀。師字仲靈。號潛子。法嗣洞山聰禪師。聰嗣文殊真。真嗣德山密。密嗣雲門偃禪師（五燈會元）。釋迦牟尼如來賢劫第四佛也。

Śākyamuni Buddha. By examination: Master Mingjiao's Zhengzong ji states: When heaven and earth began anew, on the continent of Jambudvīpa there first arose kings called Great Persons. After the Great Persons passed away, kings succeeded one another because of them without end; from antiquity to the present, they can hardly be counted. In later generations there was a king called Mahāsammata. Mahāsammata produced Ikṣvāku. Ikṣvāku produced Ulkāmukha. Ulkāmukha produced Karikarṇi. Karikarṇi produced Nipurā. Nipurā produced Siṃhahanu. Siṃhahanu produced King Śuddhodana. However, of these seven generations, all of whom were kings, only Ikṣvāku and Śuddhodana were termed holy kings. The Tathāgata was precisely born from the holy king Śuddhodana. Formerly, in a past age, the Tathāgata met Dīpaṅkara Buddha in the great city of Padmāvatī. Dīpaṅkara bestowed upon him the prediction, saying, 'In the future you shall become a Buddha like me, named Śākyamuni.' Passing through innumerable kalpas down to the era of Kāśyapa Buddha, he thereupon accomplished the Way as a bodhisattva and ascended to be born in Tuṣita Heaven, fulfilling the status of succession to the post, named Great Being Prabhāpāla. When his time of responding [to the world] arrived, the Great Being took Kapilavastu as lying in the center of Jambudvīpa, and King Śuddhodana as belonging to the true lineage of a wheel-turning king, suitable to be born through. He forthwith relinquished his celestial life-span, manifested riding a white elephant, and descended from the sun into his mother Lady Māyā's right flank, where he rested. When he was about to be born, Māyā went beneath an aśoka tree in the royal park. Its blossoms were just then splendid; when the lady raised her hand wishing to pluck them, the holy child was born from her right flank. Divine dragons rained water to bathe him; the earth brought forth golden lotuses to uphold him. The holy child then took seven steps in each of the four directions, pointed with his hands above and below, and said, 'In the four directions, above, and below, only I am supreme.' The king soon took him to visit the divine temple; the divine statues rose to pay homage to him. Returning to the palace, they held a great gathering of worthies to name him, entitling him Sarvārthasiddha. When he grew somewhat older, teachers were ordered to instruct him in worldly texts. Before long he was installed as crown prince. A wife was wedded for him; the crown prince was already completely pure, and though he manifested following the worldly convention of marriage, he had no mundane desire. Due to past karmic connections, he pointed to his consort's belly and said, 'After six years, you shall bear a boy.' One day, he ordered his carriage wishing to go on an excursion; though he went forth successively through the four gates, in each he met with someone. In the end, moved by the aged, the sick, the dead, and the śramaṇa, his intention to renounce the household became even firmer. The crown prince was nineteen years old at the time. On the night of the eighth day of the second month, he rode his horse out through the northern gate, arriving at Mount Daṇḍaka. Resting briefly amid the forest, he then cast off his robes and crown, and with the jewelled sword he wore severed his beard and hair himself, vowing, 'May I, together with all beings, sever these afflictions.' A transformation person of the Śuddhāvāsa Heavens presented a saṅghāṭī robe to the crown prince, who thus obtained the Dharma robe and put it on. Proceeding into an auspicious place in the mountain, the jewelled mountain Sumeru, he dwelt there. At [the place of] Ārāḍa Kālāma he practiced the absorption of nothingness for three years; he proceeded again to the place of Udraka Rāmaputra and practiced the absorption of neither-perception-nor-non-perception for three years; he proceeded to Mount Gayāśīrṣa, mingling with non-Buddhists to practice austerities, eating hemp and barley daily. He dwelt there for six years, practicing with neither mental intention nor sensory reception, and the non-Buddhists were also converted. The sage then thought to himself, 'Now this austerity is not true liberation. I should receive food and afterward attain Buddhahood.' He immediately bathed in the Nairañjanā River and received milk rice offered by the cowherd maiden. Soon he went beneath the pippala tree. The lord of devas transformed a person to gather auspicious grass to serve as his seat. On the eve of the seventh day of the second month (the Zhou made the zi month the first month and the chou month the second month; the Han again made the yin month the first month and the chou month the twelfth month), he entered the true samādhi. When the morning star appeared on the eighth day, he manifested vast awakening, and thereupon attained equal, correct enlightenment. Ascending the vajra seat, the lord of devas took him as teacher and requested the turning of the wheel of the Dharma. Before this, Kauṇḍinya and the other five men had attended him in the mountains; at this time he delivered them first. Therefore he entered the Deer Park and expounded the Dharma of the Four Truths. Indeed, those who attained the fruit of the Way through this numbered in the hundreds of millions. He then went alone to the country of Magadha, converting the three Kāśyapa brothers, Uruvilvā[-kāśyapa and the others]. At that time, King Bimbisāra, the ruler of the country, had the Bamboo Grove park, which he donated to the Buddha as a monastery, inviting the Tathāgata to dwell in it. Before long, Śāriputra and Maudgalyāyana of Rājagṛha both received conversion from him. The Tathāgata said, 'Those two who are coming shall be my foremost disciples.' Thereupon he delivered them. Earlier, Mahākāśyapa had entered the mountains to practice meditation; at this point he proceeded to the Bamboo Grove Monastery. The Tathāgata rose to welcome him and told the assembly, 'After my parinirvāṇa, that the Dharma will cover future ages for sixty thousand years is through the power of this person.' At this time the Tathāgata had already accomplished the Way for six years. Later they welcomed him to return to his homeland to see his father the king. The father king rejoiced greatly and consequently decreed that five hundred noble sons of his clan follow him into homelessness. When he returned to the palace, his son Rāhula paid homage to him, held the sage's robes, and told the assembly, 'This is indeed the Tathāgata.' Through this he resolved the crowd of suspicions for his mother. Later, as the period of his teaching was drawing near its end, he commanded Mahākāśyapa, saying, 'I now entrust to you the pure Dharma eye, the wondrous mind of nirvāṇa, the subtle and wondrous true Dharma of the real mark without marks. You should protect and uphold it.' And he instructed Ānanda to assist him in transmitting the teaching so that it would not be severed. Then he spoke a verse: 'The original dharma of dharmas is no-dharma; / the dharma of no-dharma is also a dharma. / Now when the no-dharma is entrusted, / what dharma among dharmas was ever a dharma?' Having spoken the verse, he further said to Mahākāśyapa: 'I also entrust to you the gold-threaded saṅghāṭī robe. You must transfer it to Maitreya Buddha, who succeeds to the post. Await his appearance in the world and guard it with care.' Mahākāśyapa reverently received the Buddha's command. One day, the World-Honoured One went to Kuśinagara between the twin śāla trees, intending to enter parinirvāṇa. It happened that the elder Cunda earnestly offered food, and the Tathāgata consequently expounded the Dharma extensively once more, delivered Subhadra, lay down on his right flank, and serenely passed into the great quiescence. Placing him within a golden coffin, they waited until Mahākāśyapa arrived, and only then did the samādhi fire flare up, consuming his body by itself; when it was ashes, the relics illuminated heaven and earth. Devas, humans, and divine dragons divided them and erected stūpas for them (Zhengzong ji). It also says: 'Examining the Tathāgata's birth, it corresponds to the eighth day of the fourth month of the jiayin year, the ninth year of King Zhao of the Zhou. His renunciation corresponds to the eighth day of the second month of the renshen year, the twenty-seventh year of King Zhao. His accomplishment of the Way corresponds to the wuyin year, the thirty-third year of King Zhao. His nirvana corresponds to the fifteenth day of the second month of the renshen year, the thirty-sixth year of King Mu. A total of one thousand and seventeen years after his passing, in the dingmao year, the tenth year of the Yongping reign of Emperor Xiaoming of the Han, his teachings reached China. Alas, the Tathāgata manifested a worldly lifespan of seventy-nine years in all; for forty-nine years he sustained the world with the true Dharma, converting and delivering sentient beings in numbers beyond count. As for the Tathāgata's birth and extinction, as well as his renunciation and accomplishment of the Way, perhaps they correspond to the years of King Zhao and King Mu of the Zhou. However, from King Wu of the Zhou down to King Li, there are no exact year counts; only with King Xuan do they first appear. Old records, then, state the ninth, twenty-seventh, and thirty-third years of King Zhao, and the thirty-sixth year of King Mu; some people strongly disagree with this. I once debated this: therefore, examining the Grand Historian's "Chronological Table of the Three Dynasties", and reading its preface, it says, "When I read the genealogical records, there were year counts from the Yellow Emperor onward. Examining the chronological tables and genealogies, from beginning to end regarding the transmission of the Five Virtues, the ancient texts are all divergent and contradictory. That the Master did not arrange their months and years in sequence—could that have been in vain?" By this it is verified that prior to the Three Dynasties it was not really that there were no year counts; rather, the Grand Historian adopted Confucius's purpose in compiling the Shangshu and therefore did not record their years, but instead composed the chronological tables.' [Qi]song also commented, saying: 'As for his entrusting the Dharma to Mahākāśyapa, at what time was it, and how must it be shown? It is said: At the beginning of the Mahāparinirvāṇa assembly, the Tathāgata told the monks, "You should not speak like this. All of the unsurpassed true Dharma that I now possess has been fully entrusted to Mahākāśyapa. This Kāśyapa shall serve as a great refuge for you all." This makes it clear' (Nirvāṇa Sūtra, fascicle 2). The Zhengzong ji further comments, saying: 'The two texts Baolin [zhuan] and Deng[shi] both record the times of the Indian patriarchs' entering extinction to match the cyclical years of the Zhou and Qin in China. However, before King Xuan of the Zhou, there were never fixed years; moreover, China and India are distant by several tens of thousands of li. When those figures passed away, it was sometimes more than a thousand years apart. The events being vague and separated by distance, I fear that by collating through multiple translations it is not easy to attain the truth; hence I have omitted their year counts and cyclical characters, and simply preserved their imperial eras. Only for Śākyamuni Buddha, Bodhidharma, down to the six patriarchs in China can the years and cyclical dates of their entering extinction be somewhat deduced and collated, so they are fully recorded' (From Master Mingjiao's Zhengzong ji). The Chuanfa zhengzong ji was composed by Chan Master Qisong of Fori in Hangzhou under the Song. The master was a son of the Li clan of Tanzin in Tengzhou, Guangxi circuit. His mother was of the Zhong clan. At seven years old, he left home to serve a śramaṇa of Dongshan. At thirteen, he was ordained. At nineteen, he traveled abroad down the Yuan and Xiang rivers and crossed Mount Heng, calling upon Chan Master Shending Yin. Yin spoke with him and found him remarkable, yet he had no awakening. Traveling between Yuanzhou and Junzhou, he received prediction and verification from the venerable Cong of Dongshan. He called upon knowledgeable teachers everywhere; at night he placed a statue of Avalokiteśvara upon his head and recited her name, never sleeping until he reached ten thousand times. He did not study the worldly classics and commentaries, yet was able to compose the Yuanjiao of more than one hundred thousand words, elucidating that the Ways of Confucianism and Buddhism are of one thread, to counter Han [Yu]'s school of anti-Buddhist discourse. Later he resided at the Yong'an hermitage on Lingyin in Hangzhou, authoring the Chanmen dingzu tu, Chuanfa zhengzong ji, and Fujiao bian, presenting a memorial of ten thousand words to Emperor Renzong. Submitted through Kaifeng prefecture, on the seventeenth day of the third month of the seventh year of the Jiayou reign, it was decreed to be sent to the Institute for the Translation of Sutras for compilation into the canon, and an edict was issued praising and honoring him, bestowing the title Master Mingjiao. The grand councilor Han Qi and participant in determining governmental affairs Ouyang Xiu received him and treated him with reverence. Ouyang Xiu said, 'I did not expect that among the monks there would be such a man!' After returning east to dwell at Yong'an, on the morning of the fourth day of the sixth month of the fifth year of the Xining reign of Shenzong, he wrote a verse: 'In the coming night, the moon will be bright; / today I rejoice to walk alone. / I will not follow the old master of Damei, / greedily chasing the sound of a flying squirrel.' At midnight he transformed. Five parts remained indestructible through jhāpita: his skull, ears, tongue, genitals, and recitation beads. His cranial bone produced relics, red and white, crystalline and pure. On the eighth day of that month, monastics and laity collected the indestructible parts and buried them to the left of his former residence, Yong'an hermitage. His age was sixty-six; his monastic age was fifty-three. The details are seen in the Record of the Master's Deeds and Conduct composed by Chen Shunyu, Vice Director of the Bureau of State Farms in the Ministry of Revenue. The master's courtesy name was Zhongling; his sobriquet was Qianzi. He was the dharma heir of Chan Master Cong of Dongshan; Cong was the heir of Zhen of Wenshu; Zhen was the heir of Mi of Deshan; Mi was the heir of Chan Master Yan of Yunmen (Wudeng huiyuan). Śākyamuni Tathāgata was the fourth Buddha of the Auspicious Kalpa.