釋迦譜 5.8

5.8

阿育王如禮法殯葬父王已。即立阿㝹樓陀為大臣。時修師摩王子聞父崩。背立阿育為王心生不忍。即集諸兵來伐阿育。時阿㝹樓陀大臣機關木象。又作阿育王像。以像騎象安置東門外。又作無烟火坑以物覆之。阿㝹樓陀大臣。語修師摩王子言。欲作王者。阿育在東門可往伐之。能得之者自然得作。王子即趣東門墮火坑。便即死亡。阿育王正法治化。時諸臣輩。我等共立阿育為王。故輕慢於王。不行君臣之禮。王亦自知諸臣輕慢。時王語諸臣曰。汝等可伐華菓之樹殖於刺棘。諸臣答曰。未曾見聞。却除華菓而殖刺樹。乃至王三勅令伐彼亦不從。爾時王即持利劍殺五百大臣。王將綵女出外園遊戲。見一無憂樹華極敷盛。王見已。此華樹與我同名。心懷歡喜。王形體醜陋皮膚麁澁。諸綵女輩憎惡王故。以手毀折無憂華樹。王從眠覺。見無憂樹華狼藉在地。心生忿怒。繫諸綵女以火燒殺。王行暴惡故曰暴惡阿育王。時阿㝹樓陀大臣白王言。王云何以手自殺諸臣綵女。王今當立屠殺之人。即宣教立屠殺者。彼有一山名曰耆梨。中有一織師子亦名耆梨。凶惡撾打繫縛男女。及捕水陸之生。乃至拒逆父母。是故世人傳云凶惡耆梨子。時王使語之言。汝能為王斬諸凶人不。彼答曰一切閻浮提有罪者。我能淨除況此一方。王即為作屋舍極為端嚴唯開一門。於其中間作治罪之法狀如地獄。時彼凶人啟王言。今從王乞願。若人來入此中者不復得出。答言如汝所願。爾時商主之子厭世間苦。出家學道遊行諸國。次第乞食誤入屠殺舍中。時彼比丘遙見舍裏。有火車鑪炭等治諸眾生。恐怖毛竪便欲出門。凶惡即往執比丘言。入此中者。無有得出於此而死。比丘心生悲悔泣淚滿目。乞我少時生命可至一月。彼凶不聽。如是日數漸減止於七日。彼即聽許。時此比丘知將死不久。勇猛精進坐禪息心。不能得道至於七日。時王宮內人。有事送付凶主。將是女人。著臼中以杵擣之。令成碎末。時比丘見是事。極厭惡此身。嗚呼苦哉。我身不久亦當如是。斷一切結成阿羅漢。時彼凶惡人語此比丘。期限已盡。比丘以偈答曰。我心得解脫。斷除諸有盡。今此身骸無復悋惜。爾時彼凶主。執彼比丘著鐵鑊油中。足與薪火火終不然。或復不熱。凶主見火不然。打拍使者而自然火。火即猛盛久久開鐵鑊蓋。見彼比丘鐵鑊中蓮華上坐。生希有心即以啟王。王便嚴駕將無量眾來看比丘。時彼比丘調伏時至。即身昇虛空猶如雁王。示種種變化。向王說偈。我是佛弟子。逮得諸漏盡。生死大恐怖。我今悉得脫。時阿育王聞彼比丘所說。於佛法所生大敬信傳云王訪諸臣民。叵有及見佛者不唯有波斯匿王妹。作比丘尼年百三十餘。見佛在世。王即往問。佛何功德耶。尼答曰。世尊威神備於經說。我時年十歲佛來入宮殿內。地皆作金色。我即作禮金釵墮地緬與光合。去後光歇尋之方得。又云佛有八種音聲。今海邊有鳥名曰羯隨。其音哀亮頗似萬一。王求得此鳥旬日不鳴。時青衣映鏡嚴莊。鳥見其像驚翥欲鳴。青衣轉鏡還便輟響。王曰若能使鳥鳴者。以為夫人。青衣即取諸鏡懸於四壁。鳥見影顧眄迴惶悲鳴。振迅清暢和雅。王聞之乃悟起正真道意。即拜青衣為第二夫人。婇女七千人咸皆歡喜。又白比丘言。佛未滅度時何所記說。比丘答言佛記大王。於我滅後過百歲。時於巴連弗邑有三億家。彼國有王名曰阿育。當王此閻浮提為轉輪王。正法治化。又復宣布我舍利於閻浮提。立八萬四千塔。佛如是記。然大王今造此大地獄殺害無量。王今宜應慈念一切眾生。佛之所記大王者。王當如法修行。時阿育王於佛所極生敬信。合掌向比丘作禮。我得大罪今向比丘懺悔。我之所作甚為不善。唯願佛子。受我懺悔捨心。勿復責我愚人。譬喻經云。時王宮內。常以四事供養二萬沙門。有外道梵志。門徒甚盛忌害沙門。欲加陵毀。乃選其眾中能幻化者。變為異道。所奉神名夷摩旦羅。一頭四面八目八臂。強猛兇壯多從醜類。先巡邑里次到城門。國中男女亡走失魄。王下輿却蓋迎之於城門。問其所欲得。鬼曰吾欲噉人。若惜民者。諸沙門悉不耕而食。費耗滋甚幸可見付。以充厨膳。王大恐懼遣使報僧。時有一沙彌名端正。年十三白諸比丘。我能降化之。即到鬼所而告之曰。諸大比丘尋次當來。汝欲顯奇可待食竟。時從鬼梵志二萬餘人。王大設供。沙彌斂肴吸饌搖牙而盡。尚未充飽因取從鬼以次吞之。並隨神足皆在祇桓。作幻梵志稽首謝過。求欲出家悉成沙門。後多得羅漢。王因此倍加信伏。時彼比丘度阿育王已。乘空而化。時王從彼地獄欲出。凶主白王言王不復得去。王曰汝今欲殺我耶。彼曰如是。王曰。誰先入此中。答曰我是。王曰若然者汝先應取死。王即勅人將此凶主。著作膠舍裏以火燒之。又勅壞此地獄施眾生無畏。

After King Aśoka had buried his royal father in accordance with ritual propriety, he immediately appointed Anuruddha as his chief minister. At that time, Prince Suśīma heard of his father's demise and that Aśoka had been set up as king behind his back; feeling unable to bear this, he assembled an army and came to attack Aśoka. Minister Anuruddha then fashioned a mechanical wooden elephant and also made a statue of King Aśoka, placing the statue mounted on the elephant outside the eastern gate. He also made a smokeless fire-pit and covered it with a cloth. Minister Anuruddha said to Prince Suśīma, "If you wish to be king, Aśoka is at the eastern gate; you may go and attack him. If you can capture him, you will naturally become king." The prince immediately hastened to the eastern gate and fell into the fire-pit, dying instantly. King Aśoka governed by the true Dharma. At that time, the ministers thought, "We collectively enthroned Aśoka as king," and therefore held the king in contempt and slighted him, not observing the etiquette between sovereign and subject. The king was also aware of the ministers' contempt. He then said to the ministers, "You should cut down the flowering and fruiting trees and plant thorn bushes instead." The ministers replied, "We have never heard of cutting down flowering and fruiting [trees] to plant thorn trees." Even after the king commanded them thrice to cut them down, they still refused to obey. The king then took a sharp sword and killed five hundred ministers. When the king took his palace maidens out to stroll in the park, he saw an aśoka tree whose flowers were in full, luxuriant bloom. Having seen it, [he thought,] "This flowering tree shares my name," and felt joyful in his heart. The king's body was ugly and his skin rough and harsh. Because the palace maidens hated the king, they used their hands to break and ruin the aśoka flower tree. When the king awoke from sleep and saw the flowers of the aśoka tree scattered in disarray on the ground, he was enraged. He had all the palace maidens bound and burned to death with fire. Because the king acted with violent cruelty, he was called Aśoka the Fierce. At that time, Minister Anuruddha addressed the king, "Why should the king kill ministers and palace maidens with his own hands? The king should now appoint an executioner." A decree was then issued to appoint an executioner. In that land was a mountain named Giri, and in it was a weaver's son also named Giri. He was ferocious and cruel, flogging and binding men and women, catching living creatures of water and land, and even rebelling against his parents. For this reason the people of the world said of him, "the ferocious Giri-putra." The king's envoy said to him, "Can you behead wicked people for the king?" He replied, "I could wipe out all the guilty people in the entire Jambudvīpa, let alone this single region!" The king then built for him a building that was extremely stately and magnificent, with only one gate opened. Inside it, he instituted punishments resembling the hells. Then the ferocious man requested of the king, "I now beg a boon from the king: if anyone enters here, he must never be allowed to leave." [The king] replied, "It shall be as you wish." At that time, the son of a merchant chief, weary of worldly suffering, went forth to practice the Path and traveled through various realms. As he went about begging for food in turn, he mistakenly entered the executioner's house. The bhikṣu saw from afar inside the house that there were fire-carts, furnace embers, and the like used to torture living beings. Terrified, with hair standing on end, he tried to leave through the gate. The ferocious man came forward, seized the bhikṣu, and said, "He who enters here never leaves, but dies in this place." Grief and regret arose in the bhikṣu's heart; with tears filling his eyes, [he said,] "Grant me life for a short while, say for one month." The ferocious man refused. As the number of days was gradually reduced, [the killer] stopped at seven days and granted permission. The bhikṣu, knowing that he would soon die, was brave and vigorous, sitting in dhyāna to quiet his mind, yet by the seventh day he had still not attained the Path. At that time, a woman of the king's inner palace who had committed an offense was sent and delivered to the executioner. Taking this woman, he placed her in a mortar and pounded her with a pestle, grinding her into powder. When the bhikṣu saw this, he felt extreme disgust toward this body: "Alas, what suffering! My body before long will also be like this!" He severed all fetters and became an arhat. Then the ferocious man said to the bhikṣu, "Your time has expired." The bhikṣu replied with a verse: "My mind has attained liberation; / all forms of existence are completely cut off. / Now for this skeleton and frame, / I have no lingering regret or attachment." At that time, the executioner seized the bhikṣu and placed him in an iron cauldron of oil, piling on firewood; yet the fire would not catch at all, or else it did not become hot. Seeing that the fire would not burn, the executioner beat the attendant, and of itself the fire flared. The fire became fierce and raging. After a long while, he opened the cauldron's lid and saw the bhikṣu sitting upon a lotus blossom inside the iron cauldron. Filled with a sense of wonder, he reported this to the king. The king immediately mounted his carriage and led an immeasurable multitude to come and see the bhikṣu. The bhikṣu, realizing that the time to tame [the king] had arrived, ascended into the sky like the king of geese, displayed various wondrous transformations, and spoke a verse to the king: "I am a disciple of the Buddha; / I have attained the exhaustion of all outflows. / From the great terror of birth and death, / I am now entirely liberated." When King Aśoka heard what the bhikṣu said, he gave rise to great reverent faith toward the Buddha's Dharma. A tradition says: The king inquired among all his ministers and subjects whether there was anyone who had seen the Buddha, and there was only King Prasenajit's younger sister, who had become a bhikṣuṇī, over one hundred and thirty years old, who had seen the Buddha in the world. The king went to ask her, "What were the Buddha's meritorious qualities?" The nun replied, "The majestic power of the World-Honoured One is fully set forth in the sūtras. When I was ten years old, the Buddha entered the palace halls; the ground turned entirely golden. I bowed in homage, and my golden hairpin fell to the ground, its color blending indistinguishably with the light; only after he left and the light ceased could I search for and find it." She also said, "The Buddha possessed eight kinds of voice. Nowadays there is a bird by the seashore named kalaviṅka, whose plaintive and resonant sound is somewhat similar to one ten-thousandth of it." The king sought and obtained this bird, but for ten days it did not sing. At that time, a maidservant was dressing before a mirror; seeing its reflection, the bird fluttered in surprise and was about to sing, but when the maidservant turned the mirror away, it ceased its sound. The king said, "Whoever can make the bird sing shall be made queen." The maidservant then took various mirrors and hung them on the four walls. The bird, seeing the reflections, looked about, turned round in confusion, and sang plaintively, shaking its feathers swiftly, its voice pure, melodious, and harmonious. When the king heard it, he was awakened to the aspiration for the true Path and appointed the maidservant as his second queen; the seven thousand palace maidens were all delighted. [The king] also addressed the bhikṣu, saying, "What prophecy did the Buddha give before his parinirvāṇa?" The bhikṣu replied, "The Buddha prophesied concerning the Great King: 'More than one hundred years after my demise, in the city of Pāṭaliputra there will be three hundred million households. In that realm there will be a king named Aśoka, who will rule this Jambudvīpa as a wheel-turning king, governing by the true Dharma. He will also broadly distribute my relics across Jambudvīpa and erect eighty-four thousand stupas.' Such was the Buddha's prophecy. Yet now the Great King has built this great hell and slaughtered countless beings. The king ought now to be compassionate and mindful of all sentient beings. Concerning what the Buddha prophesied of the Great King, you should practice in accordance with the Dharma." Then King Aśoka gave rise to extreme reverent faith toward the Buddha. He pressed his palms together, bowed in homage to the bhikṣu, and said: "I have incurred great guilt; I now repent before the bhikṣu. What I have done is exceedingly unwholesome. I only pray that the Son of the Buddha will accept my repentance with an attitude of equanimity, and no longer reprove me, a foolish person." The Avadāna Sūtra states: At that time, the king's palace regularly provided the four requisites to twenty thousand śramaṇas. There were non-Buddhist brahmans whose followers were very numerous, who envied and resented the śramaṇas and wished to humiliate and destroy them. They selected from among their assembly one who was skilled in illusory transformations to manifest as an exotic divinity whose revered deity was named Yamarāja, having one head, four faces, eight eyes, and eight arms, fierce and ferocious, followed mostly by hideous beings. He first patrolled the hamlets and neighborhoods, and then arrived at the city gate. The men and women in the realm fled in terror, losing their wits. The king descended from his carriage, put away his parasol, and received him at the city gate, asking what he desired. The spirit said, "I wish to devour humans. If you begrudge your subjects, all the śramaṇas do not plow yet eat, consuming and wasting far too much; it would be auspicious if you would hand them over to me to supply the kitchen meals." The king was terrified and sent a messenger to inform the Saṅgha. At that time there was a novice named Duanzheng, thirteen years of age, who said to the bhikṣus, "I can subdue and transform him." He immediately went to the spirit's place and told him, "The great bhikṣus will arrive one after another; if you wish to display your marvels, you can wait until the meal is finished." At that time, there were more than twenty thousand brahmans following the spirit. The king prepared a lavish feast. The novice devoured the delicacies and swallowed the food, crunching them completely with his teeth, yet was not yet sated. He then took the spirit's followers and swallowed them one after another, and by his supernormal powers they all ended up at Jetavana. The brahmans who had practiced the illusion bowed their heads in apology, sought to go forth from the household life, and all became śramaṇas; later, most attained arhatship. Because of this, the king had twofold faith and submission. When that bhikṣu had converted King Aśoka, he departed into the sky through transformation. As the king was about to leave that hell, the executioner said to the king, "The king may no longer leave." The king asked, "Do you wish to kill me now?" He replied, "Yes." The king said, "Who entered here first?" He answered, "I did." The king said, "If so, you ought to die first." The king immediately commanded his men to put the executioner into a house of pitch and burn him with fire. He also ordered the destruction of this hell, granting fearlessness to all sentient beings.