廣弘明集 19.54

19.54

皇上愛重大乘遨遊法藏。道同意合眷懷總持。親動王言妙踰綸紱。導明心之遠筌。標空解之奇趣。乃摛以翠縑刻為金篆。眾具寶飾品窮無價。芝英讓巧金碧相輝。雖榮光之翊河圖。方此非瑞。青玉之為仙簡。於焉己劣。皇太子承萬機之暇日。藉聽朝之閑覽。譬彼薰風願聞弘說。慇懃奏請然後獲從。以中大通五年太歲癸丑二月己未朔。二十六日甲申輿駕出大通門幸同泰寺發講。設道俗無遮大會。萬騎龍趨千乘雷動。天樂九成梵音四合。震震填填塵霧連天。以造于道場而建乎福田也。既而龍袞輟御法服尊臨。殿華紫紺座匹高廣。上界莫之擬。新學不能昇。天容有穆降詔音旨。弘捷疾之辯。騁無畏之辭。炙輠無窮連環自解。恣所請問渙然氷釋。滯義同遣疑網皆除。亦猶懸鏡之不藏衢樽之俟酌。加以長筵亘陛冠冕千群。充堂溢霤僧侶山積。對別殿而重肩。環高廊而接坐。錐立不容棘刺無地。承法雨之通潤。悅甘露而忘歸。如百川之赴巨海。類眾星之仰日月。自皇太子王侯。以下侍中司空袁昂等。六百九十八人。其僧正慧令等義學僧鎮座一千人。晝則同心聽受。夜則更述制義。其餘僧尼及優婆塞眾優婆夷眾男官道士女官道士白衣居士。波斯國使。于闐國使。北館歸化人。講肆所班供帳所設。三十一萬九千六百四十二人。又二宮武衛宿直之身。植葆戈駐金甲。並蒙講饌別錫泉府。復數萬人不在聽眾之例。外國道人沙呵耶奢。年將百歲。在檀特山中坐禪。聞中國應有大講故自遠而至。機感先通咫尺萬里。言語不達重譯乃宣。三藏之解聖情懸照。又波斯國使主安拘越。荒服遠夷延參近座。膜拜露頂欣受未聞。多種出家聞義為貴。即有四人同時落髮。先是保誌法師者。神通不測靈迹甚多。自有別傳天監元年上始光有天下。方留心禮樂未遑汾陽之寄。法師以其年九月。自持一麈尾扇及鐵錫杖奉上。而口無所言。上亦未取其意。于今三十餘年矣。其扇柄繫以小繩。常所綰楔。指迹之處宛然具存。至是御乃鳴錫昇堂。執扇講說。故知震大千而吼法者。抑有冥符。是時歲云芳春。每夕雨注。法鼓晨鳴輒便清朗。時過兩旬日盈三七。陽和協度雲景禎祥。至解講之辰四眾雲集。懺禮栽畢而正殿十方大像忽放光明。起自毫間遍於萬字左右。靈相炳發金儀炫燿。俄而左邊十方菩薩像續復放光。起右𭸕下達于肩上。聖御躬自虔禮大眾咸所觀瞻。故知現此面門證明義旨。若夫多聞弟子內聖垂風。右史記言實惟帝則。乃命近臣纂錄時事。凡厥諮諏罔不備舉。或通釋已遠而疑審方來。或宗致未開而啟請先至。其追審者皆是本習所懷。或隔日異辰義成先後。或雖申往復。終是一問聖旨。並隨方酬接。如響應聲。萬物為心事見乎此。後之學者宜曉斯趣。上弘法歲久。凡諸學僧遠近同集並會京師。而僧家之學師習相守。唯信口說專仗耳功。鮮能尋究經文依求了義。上每為之通解。神迷意得已在言先。裁引文句便至數十。精詳朗贍莫能追領。舊學諸僧黯如撤燭。弛氣結舌無人不然。萬眾仰觀一時心喜。諸如此事非翰墨所能述。又外國諸僧所論義者。不必關所立之義。直是素有心疑止來求決。或發偈誦然後諮疑。或請問既罷讚歎發願。或語畢還坐。眾俱不識。或諮竟便去。莫知所在。容服非常凡聖難測。是講也。東儲始啟止蒙七日。諸僧鑽仰欲罷不能。重復申請更蒙二七。而請益之眾顒顒不已。上以國務久擁。不允所祈。將欲解座。皇帝捨財遍施。錢絹銀錫杖等物。二百一種。直一千九十六萬。

His Majesty loved and esteemed the Great Vehicle, roaming freely through the treasury of the Dharma. He aligned with the Way and accorded with the truth, holding the dhāraṇī close to his heart. In person he gave voice to sovereign words, which were wondrous beyond silk cords and jade seals; they guided as a far-reaching snare for clarifying the mind, and marked the wondrous bent of understanding emptiness. He therefore had it set forth on emerald silk and engraved in golden seal-script. Adorned completely with manifold treasures, each item was of unsurpassed price. The lingzhi's beauty yielded to its artistry; gold and emerald outshone one another. Though the glorious luminescence that assisted the Yellow River Chart was wondrous, compared with this it was no omen; the celestials' tablets of green jade are in this surpassed. The Crown Prince, taking advantage of a day free from the ten thousand affairs and availing himself of a moment of leisure between court audiences, longed to hear the grand exposition as if yearning for the balmy breeze. He earnestly submitted a petition, and only then was it granted. On the twenty-sixth day, jiashen, of the second month, jiwei being the first day, in the guichou year, the fifth year of the Zhongdatong reign era, the imperial carriage went out through Datong Gate to visit Tongtai Temple to begin the lectures. A great non-discriminating assembly of monastics and laity was established. Ten thousand steeds galloped like dragons, a thousand carriages stirred like thunder. The heavenly music completed nine movements, and the Brahmā sounds converged from four sides. Resounding and vast, clouds of dust reached the sky, as they approached the bodhimaṇḍa and established the field of merit. Soon the dragon robe was laid aside, and the monastic robes were donned for the august presence. The hall was adorned with purple and blue, and the seat rivalled the high and broad throne. The celestial realms could not equal it, and novice scholars could not ascend it. The Heavenly Countenance was serene, and the imperial pronouncements were issued. He unfolded swift and sharp eloquence, and galloped through fearless phrases. The flowing axle was inexhaustible, and the linked rings spontaneously unlocked. According to whatever was asked, it was dissolved as ice. Obstructed meanings were together dispelled, and webs of doubt were utterly removed. It was just like a suspended mirror that conceals nothing, or a crossroads goblet awaiting someone to ladle it. In addition, the long mats spanned the steps, and capped officials gathered in thousands of groups. Filling the halls and overflowing the eaves, monastics piled up like mountains. Facing the side halls, shoulders pressed against shoulders; encircling the high corridors, they sat side by side. There was no room even to stand an awl, nor ground to place a thorn. Receiving the universal soaking of the Dharma rain, they delighted in the amṛta and forgot to return. It was like the hundred rivers rushing into the great sea, or the host of stars gazing up at the sun and moon. From the Crown Prince and princes down to the Palace Attendant and Minister of Works Yuan Ang and others, there were 698 people. The doctrinal monks presiding over the assembly, such as the Sangha Director Huiling, numbered 1,000. By day, they listened and received with one mind; by night, they further expounded the doctrinal meanings formulated. As for the other monks, nuns, the assembly of upāsakas, the assembly of upāsikās, male and female Daoist priests, and laymen and laywomen; envoys from Persia; envoys from Khotan; and surrendered people at the Northern Hostel: those assigned seats at the lecture hall and provided with rations numbered 319,642. Furthermore, of the armed guards of the two palaces on night duty, standing with feather-crested halberds and staying in golden armor, all were granted lecture meals and separately bestowed funds from the treasury; several tens of thousands more were not included among the audience. A foreign monk, Śāhāyaśa, nearly a hundred years of age, had been practicing dhyāna in Mount Daṇḍa. Hearing that there would be a great lecture in the Middle Kingdom, he came from afar; the response of their faculties had connected in advance, spanning ten thousand miles as if a single foot. Because their tongues could not communicate, it was proclaimed through double interpreters. The sage's mind shed light from afar upon his understanding of the Tripiṭaka. Moreover, the Persian chief envoy, Anjuwei, a barbarian from a remote and desolate region, was invited to take a near seat. Touching his head to the ground with bared crown, he joyfully received what he had never heard. Many of them renounced household life, deeming it precious to hear the doctrine: four people had their hair shaved at the same time. Prior to this, Dharma Master Baozhi possessed unfathomable supernormal powers and very many spiritual traces, which have their own separate biography. In the first year of the Tianjian reign era, when the Emperor first gloriously possessed the realm, he had just turned his attention to ritual and music and had no leisure for the lofty retreat of Fenyang. In the ninth month of that year, the Dharma Master personally held a deer-tail fan and an iron khakkhara to present to the Emperor, without saying a word. The Emperor did not take his meaning either. It has now been more than thirty years since then. The handle of that fan was tied with a small cord, where he regularly held and grasped it; the marks of his fingers remain just as they were. When it came to this occasion, His Majesty sounded the staff, ascended the hall, and held the fan to deliver the lecture. Thus one knows that shaking the great chiliocosm and roaring the Dharma indeed had a secret correspondence. At that time, it was fragrant spring. Every evening rain poured down, but as the Dharma drum sounded at dawn, it invariably turned clear and bright. When more than two decades of days had passed, full three sevens of days, the gentle warmth of the yang force matched the seasons, and the clouds and sun shone with auspicious omens. When the day came to conclude the lecture, the fourfold assembly gathered like clouds. As the repentance ritual had just concluded, the great statues of the ten directions in the main hall suddenly emitted bright light, starting between their brows and spreading around the swastikas on their chests. The spiritual marks shone forth, and the golden forms were dazzlingly brilliant. Shortly after, the statues of the bodhisattvas of the ten directions on the left side sequentially emitted light again, starting from the lower right ear down to the shoulder. His Sacred Majesty personally prostrated with reverence, and the great assembly all beheld it. Thus one knows that the appearance of light from these faces verified the doctrines expounded. Now, just as the disciple of vast learning [Ānanda] handed down the sage's legacy within, and the Scribe of the Right recorded the words of the Emperor as a sovereign model, imperial attendants were commanded to compile and record the events of the time. Every inquiry raised was completely noted. Sometimes, after a thorough explanation had long passed, doubts and clarifications were only then brought forward; sometimes, before the main thesis had opened, requests were already submitted. Those subsequent queries were all things harbored from their prior training. Sometimes, across different days and hours, doctrines were settled earlier or later; or though dialogue was exchanged back and forth, it all stemmed from a single question. His Majesty’s sacred intentions responded to each direction, just as an echo answers a sound. That he regarded the ten thousand things as his own mind was manifested in this. Later scholars should comprehend this principle. His Majesty had propagated the Dharma for many years. All the student monks gathered from near and far, converging in the capital. Yet the learning of the monastic order followed master-disciple traditions, relying only on verbal transmission and solely trusting the work of the ear; few could examine the sūtra texts to seek the definitive meaning. His Majesty would always provide an overarching explanation for them: when their spirits were bewildered, his comprehension had already preceded their words. Just citing textual phrases, he would reach several tens of passages; his meticulousness, clarity, and richness were such that none could catch up to or grasp them. The monks of the old learning felt as dim as if a candle had been removed, disheartened and tongue-tied—there was none who was not so. The ten thousand gathered looked up in reverence, their hearts rejoicing at once. Things such as this cannot be described by brush and ink. Furthermore, what the foreign monks debated did not necessarily concern the thesis established; they simply brought long-held inner doubts to seek resolution. Some spoke verses and only then made inquiries; some, having completed their questioning, offered praises and made vows; some finished speaking and returned to their seats, unknown to all in the assembly; some went away immediately after inquiring, with no one knowing where they were. Their appearance and dress were extraordinary; it was hard to tell whether they were ordinary or holy. In this lecture, the Crown Prince originally requested only seven days. As the monks looked up with deep aspiration and could not bear to stop, he petitioned again and was granted another two weeks. Yet the assembly seeking further instruction was yearning unceasingly. Because state affairs had long been suspended, His Majesty did not grant their request. As he was about to conclude the lecture series, the Emperor relinquished wealth and gave universal donations: coins, silk, silver, tin staffs, and other articles of 201 kinds, worth 10,960,000 cash.