釋氏稽古略 4.303

4.303

諸天行位　秋八月二十一日。杭州上天竺慧覺法師齊璧入寂。石林葉夢得銘其塔。璧著普賢觀經疏三卷祖源記二卷。嗣子神渙．如湛．法久。渙甞考論諸天行位。以君臣賓主男女本跡為綱目。謂大梵尊天君臨三界統上冠下。諸天皆其臣屬也。大梵為三界主。三目摩醯為大千主。帝釋主地居三十三天。四王主領八部。雖君臣不同。要各有主義。若大辯在山澤。功德在北天園中。皆客寄耳。實無所主領也。梵釋四王是男天。功德大辯地神樹神皆女天。不可使男女失序。況鬼子母有女名。功德天有男名。散脂修摩今子居母上。可謂之以母從子。其可居天主之上乎。梵釋四王本是地住菩薩。金剛密跡本護千兄成佛。不揣其本而齊其迹可乎。知此四義然後始可與言天矣。煥有三弟子。曰總庵妙心．常齋法拜．覺庵簡言。言傳鑑堂思義。寶慶紹定間住上竺（釋統僧傳）。

Rank and Status of the Devas. In autumn, on the twenty-first day of the eighth month, the Dharma master Huijue, Qibi of Upper Tianzhu in Hangzhou, entered into quiescence. Ye Mengde of Shilin composed the inscription for his pagoda. Bi wrote the Commentary on the Sutra of Visualizing Samantabhadra in three fascicles and the Record of Ancestral Origins in two fascicles. His heirs were Shenhuan, Ruzhan, and Fajiu. Huan once examined and debated the ranks and positions of the devas, taking sovereign and minister, host and guest, male and female, and root and trace as his cardinal principles. He stated that the revered Deva Great Brahmā presides over the three realms as sovereign, ruling those above and crowning those below, and all other devas are his subjects. Great Brahmā is the lord of the three realms; Three-Eyed Maheśvara is the lord of the trichiliocosm; Śakra lords over the earth-dwelling thirty-three heavens; and the Four Heavenly Kings preside over the eight classes of beings. Although sovereign and minister differ, each essentially has his own domain of governance. By contrast, Great Eloquence (Sarasvatī) dwells among mountains and marshes, and Merit (Lakṣmī) resides in the gardens of the northern heavens; both are merely lodging guests and in fact govern nothing. Brahmā, Śakra, and the Four Kings are male devas; Merit, Great Eloquence, the Earth Spirits, and the Tree Spirits are all female devas: male and female must not lose their proper order. Furthermore, Harītī is designated as female, while Lakṣmī is designated as male. As for Saṃjñeya and Soma, that the son now ranks above the mother may be called 'the mother following the son'; but how could they rank above the lords of the heavens? Brahmā, Śakra, and the Four Kings were originally bodhisattvas of the stages; the Guhyapada Vajra-holders originally protected their thousand elder brothers to attain Buddhahood: how could one equalize their traces without considering their roots? Only when one understands these four principles can one begin to discuss devas with him. Huan had three disciples: Zong'an Miaoxin, Changzhai Fabai, and Jue'an Jianyan. Yan transmitted it to Jiantang Siyi, who resided at Upper Tianzhu during the Baoqing and Shaoding eras (Shitong sengzhuan).