傳法正宗記 1.22

1.22

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?