傳法正宗記 1.22

1.22

偈已復謂大迦葉曰。吾將金縷僧迦梨衣。亦付於汝。汝其轉授補處慈氏佛（亦云彌勒佛）俟其出世。宜謹守之。大迦葉聞命。禮足稱善。敬奉佛勅。一旦果往拘尸那城娑羅雙樹之間。告其大眾。欲般涅槃。會長者純陀懇獻供養。如來因之復大說法。而後度須跋陀羅已。而歷諸三昧起其座。褰僧伽梨示紫金光體。囑累大眾。遂右脇而臥。泊然大寂。其時四部弟子億萬。人天哀號追慕動大千界。天花大雨。而其地皆震。及內之金棺。待大迦葉。而世火不能然。迦葉適至。其足自棺雙出。慰其哀慕。既而金棺自舉周尸那城。却下以三昧火燔然自焚燼已。而舍利光燭天地。其會天者人者。神者龍者。皆分去塔之。稽夫。如來之生也當此周昭王之九年甲寅之四月八日。其出家也當昭王之二十七年壬申之二月八日。其成道也當昭王三十三年之戊寅。其滅度也當穆王三十六年壬申之二月十五日。化已凡一千一十七年。以漢孝明之永平十年丁卯之歲。而教被華夏。嗚呼如來示同世壽。凡七十九歲。以正法持世。方四十九年（舊譜云。世尊十九出家。六年雪山修行。三十成道。住世說法四十九年。七十九歲滅度。今以歲數推較。若秖六年修行。其成道則二十五歲。若云三十。則須并六年在二仙處學法。方可合其元數）化度有情其不可勝數。所說之法。經者律者論者。浩若百千大海。探者隨力而淺深皆得。然其推於悠遠。則極乎天地之終始。指其昵近。則盡乎髮膚之成壞。幽則窮乎鬼神。妙則通乎變化。大必周於天人。小不遺於昆蟲。其天下禍福之端。性命之本。盡於是矣。其為道大至也。其為教廣被也。自視鄙凡不足知之不敢讚之。念有生人已來未有尊於聖人者也。有聖人已來未有至於如來者也。昔列禦寇謂。孔子嘗語商太宰曰。西方之人有聖者焉。不治而不亂。不言而自信。不化而自行。蕩蕩乎民無能名焉。丘疑其為聖。弗知真為聖歟真不聖歟。太宰默然心計曰。孔丘欺我哉。以是驗之。而列氏之言。不為誕也。若如來之生與滅。及其出家成道。或當周昭王穆王之年。然周自武王至厲王。皆無年數。及宣王方有之。舊譜乃曰。昭王九年二十七年。三十三年。穆王之三十六年。或者頗不以為然。吾嘗辨之。故考太史公三代世表。視其敘曰。余讀諜記黃帝以來皆有年數。稽其曆譜諜終始。五德之傳古文咸不同。乖異夫子之弗論次其年月豈虛哉。以此驗。三代已前非實無年數。蓋太史公用孔子為尚書之志故不書其年。乃作世表。疑則傳疑。及後世學者之賢。若皇甫謐輩。復推而正之。故為釋氏之舊譜者。因之以書。此可詳也孰謂不然。

Having spoken the verse, he further addressed Mahākāśyapa, saying: "I also entrust to you the gold-threaded saṃghāṭī robe. You shall hand it down to the Maitreya Buddha of the next rank (also called Buddha Maitreya); wait for him to appear in the world, and guard it prudently." Mahākāśyapa, hearing the command, bowed at his feet, praised it as excellent, and reverently upheld the Buddha's edict. One day, [the Buddha] went indeed to the twin śāla trees at Kuśinagara. He told the great assembly that he was about to enter parinirvāṇa. It happened that the elder Cunda earnestly presented an offering, and relying on this, the Tathāgata once more expounded the Dharma at length. After that, he delivered Subhadra; then, passing through various samādhis, he rose from his seat, lifted his saṃghāṭī robe to show his body of purple-gold light, exhorted the great assembly, and then lay down on his right side, passing serenely into great tranquility. At that time, among the four classes of disciples, tens of thousands of millions, gods and humans wept and yearned, shaking the great chiliocosm. A great rain of heavenly flowers fell, and the earth all trembled. When they placed him in the golden coffin to wait for Mahākāśyapa, worldly fire could not burn it. When Kāśyapa finally arrived, the [Buddha's] feet emerged together from the coffin of themselves to comfort his sorrow and longing. Then the golden coffin rose of itself, circumambulated the city of Kuśinagara, came down again, and was burnt to ashes by the fire of samādhi bursting ablaze of itself. When the burning was done, the relics illuminated heaven and earth. Those gathered—gods, humans, spirits, and nāgas—each divided and took [portions] away to build stūpas for them. Examining this: the Tathāgata's birth occurred on the eighth day of the fourth month in the jiayin year, the ninth year of King Zhao of the Zhou; his renunciation occurred on the eighth day of the second month in the renshen year, the twenty-seventh year of King Zhao; his attainment of the Way occurred in the wuyin year, the thirty-third year of King Zhao; and his extinction occurred on the fifteenth day of the second month in the renshen year, the thirty-sixth year of King Mu. From the conclusion of his transformation, altogether 1,017 years passed before, in the dingmao year, the tenth year of the Yongping era of Emperor Xiaoming of the Han, the teaching was spread to China. Alas, the Tathāgata manifested a lifespan identical to the world's: altogether seventy-nine years; maintaining the world with the true Dharma for just forty-nine years. (An older chronicle says: "The World-Honoured One renounced household life at nineteen, practiced austerities on the Snowy Mountains for six years, attained the Way at thirty, dwelt in the world expounding the Dharma for forty-nine years, and entered extinction at seventy-nine years of age." Now calculating by the count of years, if he practiced for only six years, his attainment of the Way would have been at twenty-five years of age; if it is said to be thirty, one must include the six years spent studying the Dharma with the two hermits so that it matches the original number.) Those sentient beings he converted and delivered are countless. The Dharma he preached—sūtras, vinayas, and treatises—is as vast as a hundred thousand great oceans; those who explore it, following their capacity, obtain it whether shallow or deep. Extending to the remote, it reaches the extremes of the beginning and end of heaven and earth; pointing to the near at hand, it fully covers the formation and decay of hair and skin. In obscurity, it exhausts ghosts and spirits; in wonder, it penetrates transformations. In greatness, it certainly encompasses gods and humans; in minuteness, it does not leave behind insects. The origins of calamity and fortune in the world, the foundation of nature and life, are completely present here. Its Way is exceedingly great; its teaching is widely spread! Seeing myself as vulgar and ordinary, insufficient to know it, I do not dare to praise it. Thinking back, since there have been living human beings, none have been more venerated than the sage; since there has been a sage, none have reached the Tathāgata. Long ago Lie Yukou said that Confucius once said to the prime minister of Song: "Among the people of the West there is a sage. He does not govern, yet there is no disorder; he does not speak, yet he is naturally trusted; he does not transform, yet [the Way] is naturally practiced. So vast is he that the people can find no name for him. I, Qiu, suspect he is a sage, but do not know whether he truly is a sage or truly is not." The prime minister remained silent and thought in his heart: "Confucius is deceiving me!" Testing it by this, Master Lie's words were not fabricated. As for the Tathāgata's birth and extinction, along with his renunciation and attainment of the Way, perhaps they corresponded to the years of King Zhao and King Mu of the Zhou. However, from King Wu to King Li of the Zhou, there were no recorded years; only with King Xuan did they begin to exist. The older chronicles nevertheless state: "the ninth, twenty-seventh, and thirty-third years of King Zhao, and the thirty-sixth year of King Mu." Some people have rather disagreed with this. I once examined it; thus, investigating the Grand Historian's Table of the Three Dynasties, looking at his preface, it says: "I have read genealogical records; since the Yellow Emperor there have all been year counts. Examining the beginning and end of their calendar tables and genealogies, the transmissions of the Five Virtues and the ancient scripts all differ. Is it without cause that the Master [Confucius] did not arrange their months and years in order?" Verifying it by this, it is not that there were truly no year counts before the Three Dynasties. Rather, because the Grand Historian took Confucius's purpose in compiling the Book of Documents, he did not record their years, but composed the chronological tables, transmitting doubts where there was doubt. When virtuous scholars of later generations, such as Huangfu Mi and his peers, once again deduced and rectified them, those who made the older chronicles of the Śākya clan accordingly recorded them on that basis. This can be understood in detail; who can say it is not so?