釋迦方志 2.103

2.103

Thus, the *Fozhuan* (Life of the Buddha) states: One hundred sixteen years after the Buddha's parinirvāṇa, in East India there was an iron-wheel-turning king who ruled over Jambudvīpa. Collecting the Buddha's holy relics, he commanded ghosts and spirits to erect one stupa for every one hundred million households, raising a total of eighty-four thousand across the four seas. Therefore, in this land of the Nine Provinces there are also surviving stupas; these are said to have been built by King Aśoka during the reign of King Li of Zhou. Thus the stupas flourished in the Zhou dynasty through more than twenty kings, until the thirty-fourth year of the First Emperor of Qin, when the scriptures and texts were burnt; King Aśoka's stupas were thereby lost, and the Buddhist sūtras circulating in the world were scattered to unknown locations. Furthermore, the scriptural catalogues of Shi Dao'an, Zhu Shixing, and others state that during the time of the First Emperor, there were foreign śramaṇas, Shi Lifang and others—eighteen worthy men—who carried Buddhist scriptures to convert the First Emperor. The First Emperor would not submit, and thereupon imprisoned them. At night, a sixteen-foot golden-vajra man came, smashed the prison, and brought them out. The First Emperor was terrified, bowed down, and apologized to them. Judging by this, we know that the Buddha-Dharma already existed before the Qin and Han. If we look into the twelve worthy men recorded by Dao'an, they are also among the seventy; today, seventy-two are found in the *Liexian zhuan*. According to the *Wenshu nihuan jing* (Mañjuśrī's Parinirvāṇa Sūtra), four hundred fifty years after the Buddha's parinirvāṇa, Mañjuśrī went into the Snowy Mountains to preach the Dharma for five hundred immortals. Furthermore, the "Treatise on Geography" and the "Account of the Western Regions" state that the Snowy Mountains are the Congling (Pamir Mountains). Below them, thirty-six states earlier submitted to the Han. The Congling Mountains stretch eastward continuously as far as Zhongnan. The place where Mañjuśrī came to convert the immortals was this very land. Examining and verifying this thoroughly, what Liu Xiang argued serves as proof. The "Treatise on the Suburban Sacrifices" in the *Hou Han shu* states: "'Fo' in the Han language means 'Awakened' (jue), intending to awaken all living beings. In summary, its teaching takes the cultivation of goodness and a compassionate mind as paramount, not killing living creatures and devoting itself entirely to purity. The refined among them become śramaṇas, which in the Han language means 'calming the mind.' They shave their hair, disfigure their appearance, leave home and go beyond the mundane world, sever emotional bonds, cleanse desire, and return to non-action. Furthermore, they hold that when a person dies, the spirit is not extinguished, but again takes on a physical form according to circumstances. The good and evil done will all meet retribution in future lives. What they value is doing good and cultivating the Way to refine the spirit; refining it without ceasing until one reaches the unborn, one may become a Buddha. His body is sixteen feet tall and golden in colour, behind his neck carrying the radiance of the sun and moon. His transformations are without constant form, penetrating everywhere; thus he can transform and reach all things, greatly delivering all living beings. There are several thousand fascicles of sūtras and books, taking emptiness and non-being as their fundamental tenet, encompassing both the subtle and the coarse with nothing excluded, proficient at broad, supreme, and vast discourses. What is sought lies within one's own body; what is clarified lies beyond seeing and hearing. It culminates in what is mysterious, subtle, profound, and far-reaching, difficult to fathom. Therefore, when princes and noblemen observe the juncture of life, death, and karmic retribution, none fail to be struck with terror and lose their composure." (The rest is as related in the *Han faben neichuan*.) The *Wei shu* states: Cai Yin obtained the *Sūtra in Forty-Two Sections* and a standing image of Śākya. Emperor Ming ordered artisans to paint copies, placing them on the Qingliang Terrace and upon the Xianjie Tomb, while the scriptural text was sealed in the stone chamber of the Orchid Terrace. When Cai Yin returned, he arrived in the Han carrying the sūtras on a white horse; on this account, the Baima Temple was founded west of the Yong Gate of Luoyang. The main purport of this sūtra generally states that all classes of living beings arise through actions and karmic deeds, and that there are three periods of time: past, present, and future. The stages of cultivating the Way and the levels of mental practice are not uniform; all proceed from the shallow to the deep, relying on the subtle to reach the manifest. All generally consist in accumulating benevolence, obedience, eliminating cravings, and practicing stillness to attain luminous understanding. When one begins cultivating the mind, one relies on the Buddha, Dharma, and Saṅgha to receive the Three Refuges. The Three Refuges are like the gentleman's Three Aves. There are also the Five Precepts: severing killing, stealing, sexual misconduct, lying, and drinking liquor, whose general meaning is identical to benevolence, righteousness, propriety, trustworthiness, and wisdom. It says that by upholding them, one is born in superior rebirths among humans and gods, leaving behind the manifold sufferings of ghosts and beasts. It states that the realms of good and evil are six in all; the practice lies in guarding the mind and rectifying body and speech, collectively termed the Ten Good Deeds. One who can fulfill these will obtain heavenly recompense in the near term and attain bodhi in the long run. The Buddha was born on the night of the eighth day of the fourth month from his mother's right flank. His extraordinary marks numbered thirty-two. After he departed this world, his disciples cremated his body with fragrant woods, and his holy bones broke apart into relics the size of grains, reddish-white in colour, which could not be broken when struck nor scorched when burned, frequently emitting light and spiritual miracles. Later, King Aśoka divided the Buddha's relics with supernatural power, causing ghosts and spirits to erect eighty-four thousand precious stupas. Today, Luoyang, Pengcheng, Fufeng, Shu Commandery, Guzang, Linzi, and other places all possess such stupas, all of which are miraculously marvelous. The *Wu shu* states: In the fourth year of Chiwu, there was a śramaṇa from Kangju named Kang Senghui, who went about preaching the Way. When he first arrived in the land of Wu, he set up a thatched hut, installed an image, and practiced the Way. When the people of Wu first saw him, they regarded him as strange and uncanny, and the authorities reported this to the throne.