釋氏稽古略 2.306

2.306

In the jiazi year, the fourth year of the Renshou era, in the first month, an edict stated: "We have respectfully received the primordial mandate to nurture the living people, revere and uphold the holy teaching, and revive good dharmas. The Tathāgata with great compassion covers and protects all kinds of beings, and all behold the relics to enlighten and guide living beings. We have already distributed them far and wide, erecting numinous pagodas everywhere; yet among the prefectures there are still those not reached. Now we again request bhadantas to escort the relics to the various prefectures, building pagodas as before, so as to share this karmic fortune with the common people." Thereupon, he ordered Vinaya Master Fazun and others to deliver the relics to more than thirty prefectures, including Bo and Jiang, entirely according to the previous pattern, with the date set for the eighth day of the fourth month to deposit them simultaneously into the pagodas (Shi jiao lu). The Emperor was about to escape the summer heat at the Renshou Palace. The diviner Zhangchou (double surname) Dayi (personal name) admonished him to desist, but the Emperor did not listen and consequently went to the Renshou Palace. In the fourth month, he fell ill. In the seventh month, he passed away (Imperial Annals). The Crown Prince Guang ascended the throne. While on the throne, the Emperor had forty-six canons of Buddhist scriptures copied, totaling 130,000 fascicles; repaired four hundred sets of old scriptures; made more than 600,000 gilded bronze and sandalwood statues; and repaired more than 1,509,000 old statues. Within the palace, embroidered and woven images, as well as painted images and five-colored pearl banners, were beyond count. He renovated more than 5,000 monasteries. There were twenty-four monastics and laymen who translated scriptures, and the scriptures and treatises produced approached five hundred fascicles (Shi jiao lu).