[Pramāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/) › [Indian literature](https://indike.org/pramana/in) › [Buddhist Literature](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha) › [Taishō Tripiṭaka (Chinese Buddhist canon)](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho) › [大唐西域記](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.2087) › 7.17 # 大唐西域記 7.17 大唐西域記 7.17 - **Language:** Classical Chinese ### [7.17](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.2087.7.17) 其側不遠，大林中有窣堵波，是如來昔與提婆達多俱為鹿王斷事之處。昔於此處大林之中，有兩群鹿，各五百餘。時此國王畋遊原澤，菩薩鹿王前請王曰：「大王校獵中原，縱燎飛矢，凡我徒屬，命盡茲晨，不日腐臭，無所充膳。願欲次差，日輸一鹿。王有割鮮之膳，我延旦夕之命。」王善其言，迴駕而返。兩群之鹿，更次輸命。提婆群中有懷孕鹿，次當就死，白其王曰：「身雖應死，子未次也。」鹿王怒曰：「誰不寶命！」雌鹿歎曰：「吾王不仁，死無日矣。」乃告急菩薩鹿王。鹿王曰：「悲哉慈母之心，恩及未形之子！吾今代汝。」遂至王門。道路之人傳聲唱曰：「彼大鹿王今來入邑。」都人士庶莫不馳觀。王之聞也，以為不誠。門者白王，王乃信然。曰：「鹿王何遽來耶？」鹿曰：「有雌鹿當死，胎子未產，心不能忍，敢以身代。」王聞歎曰：「我人身鹿也，爾鹿身人也。」於是悉放諸鹿，不復輸命，即以其林為諸鹿藪，因而謂之施鹿林焉。鹿野之號，自此而興。 > Not far from this, in a great forest, is a stūpa. It was here that Devadatta and Bodhisattva, in years gone by, were kings of deer and settled a certain matter. Formerly in this place, in the midst of a great forest, there were two herds of deer, each 500 in number. At this time the king of the country wandered about hunting through the plains and morasses. Bodhisattva, king of deer, approaching him, said, "Mahārāja! you set fire to the spaces enclosed as your hunting-ground, and shoot your arrows and kill all my followers. Before the sun rises they lie about corrupting and unfit for food. Pray let us each day offer you one deer for food, which the king will then have fresh and good, and we shall prolong our life a little day by day." The king was pleased at the proposition, and turned his chariot and went back home. So on each day a deer from the respective flocks was killed. Now among the herd of Devadatta there was a doe big with young, and when her turn came to die she said to her lord, "Although I am ready to die, yet it is not my child's turn." The king of the deer (i.e., Devadatta) was angry, and said, "Who is there but values life?" The deer answered with a sigh, "But, O king, it is not humane to kill that which is unborn." > — Samuel Beal 1884, Si-yu-ki: Buddhist Records of the Western World > She then told her extremity to Bodhisattva, the king of deer. He replied, "Sad indeed; the heart of the loving mother grieves (is moved) for that which is not yet alive (has no body). I to-day will take your place and die." Going to the royal gate (i.e., the palace), the people who travelled along the road passed the news along and said in a loud voice, "That great king of the deer is going now towards the town." The people of the capital, the magistrates, and others, hastened to see. The king hearing of it, was unwilling to believe the news; but when the gate-keeper assured him of the truth, then the king believed it. Then, addressing the deer-king he said, "Why have you come here?" The deer-king replied, "There is a female in the herd big with young, whose turn it was to die; but my heart could not bear to think that the young, not yet born, should perish so. I have therefore come in her place." The king, hearing it, sighed and said, "I have indeed the body of a man, but am as a deer. You have the body of a deer, but are as a man." Then for pity's sake he released the deer, and no longer required a daily sacrifice. Then he gave up that forest for the use of the deer, and so it was called "the forest given to the deer," and hence its name, the "deer-plain" (or, wild). Leaving this place, and going 2 or 3 li to the south-west of the sanghârâma, there is a stupa about 300 feet high. > — Samuel Beal 1884, Si-yu-ki: Buddhist Records of the Western World - [Previous: 7.16](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.2087.7.16) - [Next: 7.18](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.2087.7.18) - [Up: 7](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.2087.7) ## Translations (1) - [Si-yu-ki: Buddhist Records of the Western World](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.2087~en-beal.7.1.9) — Samuel Beal 1884, English --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.2087.7.17](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.2087.7.17) · Pramāṇa