釋氏稽古略 1.494

1.494

佛教流通東土之始　永平七年。帝夢金人長大項有日光。飛至殿庭。旦問群臣。太學聞人傅毅奏曰。周昭王時。西域有佛出世。其形長一丈六尺。而黃金色。陛下所夢將必是乎。博士王遵推周書異記佐之。帝遂遣中郎蔡愔博士秦景等一十八人。使西域求佛法。蔡愔等至天竺隣境月氏國。遇梵僧攝摩騰竺法蘭二人奉佛經像來震旦（東土也）。遂同東還（永平十年至京）。摩騰入闕獻經像。帝大悅館于鴻臚寺。蘭亦間行而後至。帝於城西雍門外別立一寺。騰蘭居之。以白馬馱經而來遂名白馬寺。永平十四年。五嶽道士費叔牙褚善信等忌之。斥言虛偽。騰蘭白於帝曰。吾佛出世間。法水火不能壞請與方士驗之。帝勅叔牙等。盡出所有奇經祕訣。與沙門所持來經像就焚之。正月十五日火作。而沙門諸經完然不燼。方士稽首欽服。帝益異之。由是騰蘭習漢言。久之譯四十二章經十地斷結佛本生法海藏佛本行等五經。帝甞幸其寺。騰蘭進曰。寺東何館。帝曰昔有阜無因而起。夷之復然。夜有光怪。民呼為聖塚。因祀之疑洛陽神也。騰曰。按天竺金藏詮所誌。阿育王藏如來舍利於天下。凡八萬四千所。今支那震旦境中十有九處。此其一也。帝大驚。即日駕幸聖塚。而騰蘭隨往拜起。忽有圓光現塚上。三身現光中。侍衛呼萬歲。帝喜曰。不遇二大士。安知上聖遺祐哉。詔塔其上受制度於騰蘭。塔成九層。高二百尺。明年光又現。有金色手出塔頂尺許。如琉璃中見。天香郁然。帝駕幸拜瞻。光隨步武旋繞。自午及申而滅。於時皇弟楚王英喜為浮圖齋戒。甞奉縑贖繾。帝還之以助伊蒲塞桑門之盛饌（見漢書并費長房三寶紀）。永平十六年攝摩騰示寂。竺法蘭自譯經五部凡十三卷。帝在位十八年。壽四十八歲。永平十八年八月帝崩（本紀）。

The Beginning of the Propagation of Buddhism in the Eastern Land. In the seventh year of Yongping, the Emperor dreamed of a golden man, tall and large, with the light of the sun behind his neck, who flew into the palace courtyard. At dawn he questioned his assembled ministers. Fu Yi, a noted scholar of the Imperial Academy, memorialized: "In the time of King Zhao of the Zhou, a Buddha appeared in the Western Regions. His body was sixteen feet tall and golden in color. Might what Your Majesty dreamed of be this?" The Erudite Wang Zun supported this by citing the Zhou shu yi ji (Record of Anomalies from the Book of Zhou). The Emperor then dispatched eighteen men, including Palace Attendant Cai Yin and Erudite Qin Jing, on an envoy mission to the Western Regions to seek the Buddha's teachings. When Cai Yin and the others reached the Yuezhi country, which borders India, they met two Indian monks, Kāśyapa Mātaṅga and Dharmaratna, who were carrying Buddhist scriptures and images to Cīnasthāna (which is the Eastern Land). They then returned together to the east (arriving at the capital in the tenth year of Yongping). Kāśyapa Mātaṅga entered the palace and presented the scriptures and images. The Emperor was greatly pleased and lodged them at the Court of State Ceremonial (Honglu si). Dharmaratna arrived afterward by a different route. Outside the Yongmen Gate west of the city, the Emperor specially established a monastery where Kāśyapa Mātaṅga and Dharmaratna resided. Because the scriptures had been carried upon white horses, it was named the White Horse Monastery (Baima si). In the fourteenth year of Yongping, Daoist masters of the Five Sacred Peaks, including Fei Shuya and Chu Shanxin, envied them and denounced [the teaching] as false and deceptive. Kāśyapa Mātaṅga and Dharmaratna addressed the Emperor, saying: "Our Buddha appeared in the world; his Dharma cannot be destroyed by fire or water. We request to test it against the occultists." The Emperor ordered Shuya and the others to bring out all of their wondrous scriptures and esoteric recipes, to be burned alongside the scriptures and images brought by the śramaṇas. On the fifteenth day of the first month, the fire was lit; the scriptures of the śramaṇas remained intact and unconsumed by the fire, whereas the occultists bowed their heads and submitted with reverence. The Emperor regarded it with even greater wonder. From this time on, Kāśyapa Mātaṅga and Dharmaratna studied the Han language. After a long period, they translated five scriptures: the Sutra of Forty-two Chapters, the Shidi duanjie (Severing Fetters of the Ten Stages), the Fo bensheng (Buddha's Birth Stories), the Fahai zang (Storehouse of the Dharma Ocean), and the Fo benxing (Past Deeds of the Buddha). The Emperor once visited their monastery, and Kāśyapa Mātaṅga and Dharmaratna came forward and asked: "What building is east of the monastery?" The Emperor said: "Formerly, a mound arose without cause. When leveled, it rose again. At night there were strange lights, and the people called it the Holy Mound, worshipping it and suspecting it to be the spirit of Luoyang." Kāśyapa Mātaṅga said: "According to what is recorded in the Golden Storehouse Exegesis (Jinzang quan) of India, King Aśoka deposited the relics of the Tathāgata throughout the world in eighty-four thousand locations. In the territory of China—Cīnasthāna—there are nineteen places; this is one of them." The Emperor was astonished. That very day he went in person to the Holy Mound, accompanied by Kāśyapa Mātaṅga and Dharmaratna, who bowed and rose in reverence. Suddenly a circular light appeared above the mound, and the three bodies [of the Buddha] appeared within the light. The imperial guards shouted "Ten thousand years!" The Emperor said with joy: "Had I not met these two Great Beings, how could I have known of the supreme sage's bequeathed blessings?" He decreed that a stupa be built upon it, following the design of Kāśyapa Mātaṅga and Dharmaratna. The stupa had nine stories and stood two hundred feet high. The following year the light appeared again, and a golden hand extended about a foot from the top of the stupa, as though seen through lapis lazuli, while heavenly incense filled the air. The Emperor went there to bow and gaze in veneration. The light followed his steps, revolving around him, lasting from noon until late afternoon before fading. At that time, the Emperor's younger brother Ying, King of Chu, took pleasure in the fasts and precepts of the Buddha (futou). He once offered plain silk to redeem his faults, and the Emperor returned it to aid the lavish banquets of the upāsakas and śramaṇas (see the Han shu and Fei Changfang's Sanbao ji). In the sixteenth year of Yongping, Kāśyapa Mātaṅga manifested nirvana. Dharmaratna translated five works of scriptures on his own, totaling thirteen fascicles. The Emperor reigned for eighteen years and lived to forty-eight. In the eighth month of the eighteenth year of Yongping, the Emperor passed away (Basic Annals).