釋氏稽古略 2.303

2.303

Taboo name: Jian. He received the abdication of the Zhou; see below under the xinchou year. Kaihuang (20 years); Renshou (4 years). In the spring of the tenth year of Kaihuang, a gengxu year, the Emperor visited Jinyang. An edict decreed: "From before the tenth year of Kaihuang until now, all monks and nuns who were privately ordained are permitted to leave the household." Soon an edict was issued to establish Shengguang Monastery in the capital for the fourth imperial prince, King Xiu of Shu. An edict summoned Dharma Master Tuqian and his community to reside there and receive offerings from the prince. Chan Master Zhishun had originally served Chan Master Chou and resided on Mount Bailu. In the tenth year he entered Mount Zanhuang to the north, and his fame spread far and wide. In this year, an edict stated: "The Emperor respectfully inquires after Chan Master Zhishun of Mount Zhanghong in Zhaozhou: May your practice of the Way remain pure and superior as you teach and guide the common people, enabling them to attain early completion. We deeply praise you. We propagate and protect the true Dharma day and night without wearying. Now We dispatch the Commander of the Unequalled Lu Yuanshou to personally convey Our intention and also to present incense and goods as detailed elsewhere" (from his principal biography). In the eleventh year, the Emperor issued a decree saying: "When the Tathāgata established the teachings, their purport resided in equality; when the bodhisattvas set their minds, fundamentally there was no distinction. Therefore they were able to bridge all kinds and deliver the multitude of living beings. Our position is that of a king of men, continuing and exalting the Three Jewels, ever mindful of the supreme principle, and propagating the Great Vehicle. All dharmas are vast and clear, their substance devoid of 'other' and 'self'; how much less in meritorious works could there be private and public? From now on, whenever meritorious deeds are undertaken, throughout all under Heaven let offerings and constructions be combined freely according to individual intention; let no distinction be made. May all Dharma doors return equally to the non-dual, and the worlds of the ten directions together attain bodhi" (Kaihuang ji). At that time Dharma Master Tanyan passed away. Yan was the imperial preceptor to three dynasties; near death, he submitted a memorial taking leave of the Emperor and entrusting him with external protection. The Emperor wept for him with grief. The civil and military officials wore white robes to attend his burial. The Secretariat Director Xue Daoheng composed a funeral elegy, which read in brief: "Formerly, when the Way was ruined and the mysterious net slipped its knots, he harbored his mind in secluded crags, steadfast and unyielding. High ranks and generous stipends could not turn his mind; stern awe and harsh laws were not enough to frighten his heart. When the holy Emperor opened the celestial fortune and the Semblance Dharma rose again, outstanding in black robes, he was celebrated as the foremost. Yielding the majesty of the Pole Star, he extended the righteousness of teacher and disciple. The Three Jewels were thereby protected and propagated; the two truths were thereby proclaimed. Truly he is worthy of following in the footsteps of Fotudeng and Kumārajīva, and surpassing Daoan and Huiyuan" (Bianzheng lun). In the spring, the second month of the thirteenth year, an edict ordered the construction of the Renshou Palace to the north of Zhengzhou in Fengxiang Prefecture, Shaanxi. King Xiu of Shu went hunting in the wilderness of Zhengzhou; his horse bolted into an ancient kiln, and the kiln was full of old statues of Buddhas and bodhisattvas. When the Emperor heard of it, he issued an edict: "Let all the statues be thoroughly investigated and inventoried by the local authorities, and transported to nearby monasteries. Let all the common people throughout the realm each donate one cash to entrust the officials with adorning them." He composed a dedicatory prayer, which read: "On the eighth day of the twelfth month, the Sui Emperor and disciple of the Buddha Yang Jian respectfully addresses the Three Jewels of the ten directions: We revere the Tathāgata, whose compassion and great Way deliver sentient beings, severing the source of depravity and evil, and opening the path of benevolence and goodness. From court to countryside, all rely upon him. Under the Zhou dynasty, constant norms were thrown into disorder and the holy traces were treated with scorn; stupas and monasteries were ruined and abandoned, scriptures and images were destroyed and lost. Consequently the foolish had no way to guide their confusion, and the wise had no way to seek the wondrously holy. We, the disciple, formerly relied on affinities with the Three Jewels and now receive this prosperous fortune, serving as the father and mother of the people and wishing to save the commoners, revealing once again the venerable countenances and exalting once more the spiritual transformation. Ruined foundations and damaged traces are newly adorned; abandoned images and left-behind scriptures are entirely ordered to be carved and composed. We, the disciple, now make wholehearted repentance before the Three Jewels: The Zhou house destroyed images, mutilated scriptures, slighted monks, and broke down monasteries; all such heavy sins We fully repent. We reverently donate one hundred and twenty thousand bolts of silk for all ruined and abandoned scriptures and images; may the Three Jewels bear witness and accept our repentance." The Empress also donated one hundred and twenty thousand bolts of silk. From princes and dukes down to court officials and chief commanders, as well as prefectural and county assistants, monks and nuns of various monasteries, elders of the capital, down to the black-haired commoners, each donated cash; on the following day a vegetarian feast was hosted to celebrate the scriptures and images (Kaihuang ji). An edict also ordered that a Buddhist monastery be established below each of the famous mountains in every prefecture, and granted them estate fields. In the fourteenth year, it was decreed that within the realm, wherever there was a mountain temple with one or more monks, all were permitted to receive a temple plaque; those privately ordained were to be registered in the household registers. It was also decreed that the śramaṇa Fajing and twenty bhadantas compile a catalogue of the scriptures in seven fascicles, marking nine general records to distinguish categories. Dharma Master Tanchong built a Buddha stupa eleven tiers high; on the thirtieth day of the tenth month he transformed without illness. In the tenth month, because the ancestral sacrifices of the Northern Qi, Later Liang, and Chen had been discontinued, an edict ordered Gao Renying, Xiao Cong, and Chen Shubao to perform sacrifices at the proper seasons, the required utensils being provided by the authorities. Chen Shubao accompanied the Emperor up Mount Mang in Luoyang, attended a banquet, and composed a poem saying: "The sun and moon illuminate Heaven's virtue; / Mountains and rivers strengthen the Emperor's abode. / For this great peace there is no repayment; / We pray to submit a document for the Eastern Feng [sacrifice]." He also submitted a memorial requesting the feng and shan sacrifices; the Emperor answered him with a gracious edict. In the fifteenth year, because monks and nuns occasionally committed faults, and the monastic Vinaya and Buddha's regulations did not permit laypeople to read them, the Emperor ordered the authorities to extract from the Mahāyāna and Hīnayāna scriptures all phrases restricting śramaṇas and compile them into the ten-fascicle Standards for the Canon of Scriptures, so as to encourage and guide the monastics, suppress evil, and promote good (Kaihuang ji). The Emperor and Empress built a joined-base stupa at the Fajie Nunnery in the capital, beneath which Buddha relics were enshrined. In the seventh month it emitted a great radiance. The Emperor invited Chan Master Fachun into the palace to confer the precepts on the Empress (Sanbao ji). The Emperor bestowed a letter upon the śramaṇa Huize and others of Shuanglin Monastery in Wuzhou, which read in brief: "We rule over all under Heaven and have re-established the teaching, wishing that the Three Jewels be eternally exalted and the four kinds of beings blessed. We imagine you masters proclaiming the holy Way, and your virtuous labor should be exceptional." In the sixteenth year, an edict invited Vinaya Master Hongzun to expound the Vinaya. At that time the multitude only venerated the Mahāsāṃghika Vinaya; the master then promoted the Dharmaguptaka Four-Part Vinaya, and gradually all followed and adhered to it. In the first month of the seventeenth year, the śramaṇa Baogui submitted the newly translated scriptures since Kaihuang to the throne; the Emperor personally composed a preface. The translation scholar Fei Changfang was a native of Chengdu. He was originally a monk; when Emperor Wu of the Zhou suppressed the teaching, he returned to lay life, and when the Sui arose, he continued in white robes. From time to time he participated in translation work, recording the words and meanings in writing. On the twenty-third day of the twelfth month of this year, he presented his compiled Record of the Three Jewels Through the Ages in one section of fifteen fascicles; an edict ordered it to be circulated. This record fully documents the scriptures translated through successive dynasties and the beginnings and ends of the translators, both monastic and lay. In this year, all those across the empire who had been privately ordained as monks and nuns were ordered to receive the precepts. In the eighteenth year, the Emperor again bestowed a letter upon the śramaṇa Huize of Shuanglin Monastery in Wuzhou, saying: "We have received Heaven's mandate to foster the commoners, revere the Three Jewels, and deeply wish to rescue and protect. We hope that all sentient beings of the ten directions will receive this meritorious karma and together attain benevolence and longevity. As you proclaim the holy teaching for all living beings, your sincere and bitter austerities deeply comfort Our heart. The benefits are vast and numerous; do not decline the labor." In the second month of the nineteenth year, Vinaya Master Zhiwen passed away. In the twentieth year, an edict decreed that those who destroyed images of the Buddha or the Dao were to be condemned as guilty of heinous rebellion (Sanbao ji).