續集古今佛道論衡 1.62

1.62

案吳書。吳主孫權赤烏四年辛酉之歲。有沙門康僧會。是康居國人。大丞相之長子。志弘大道遊化諸國。初達吳地營立茅茨設像行道。吳人初見謂是妖異。有司奏聞。吳主曰。漢明帝夢神。號名為佛。是其遺風乎。即召僧會問之曰。佛有何神驗也　僧會對曰。佛晦靈迹出餘千載。唯有舍利。至心求者應現無方。吳主曰。若得舍利當為起塔。如其虛妄國有常刑　僧會對曰。舍利慈愍求即顯降。若無感者當以死期。何假王憲。乃請至七日至三七日。遂獲舍利。五色曜天。吳主即置舍利鐵碪上。令大力者以鐵鎚擊而試之。當即碪鎚俱陷於地。舍利無損。吳主復置舍利剛炭火中。舍利光明從火而出。作大蓮花照曜宮殿。吳主敬信僧會一遵其法。即造建初寺。為舍利起七寶塔。其地名佛陀里。江東佛法自是興焉。起黃初三年至吳赤烏四年。凡二十年。從永平十年至吳赤烏四年。合一百七十年。康會是吳地僧之始。教是吳地法之初。吳主孫權問尚書令都鄉侯闞澤曰。漢明帝夢神。遣中郎蔡愔等向西域尋訪佛教。至今可有幾年。闞澤對曰。從漢永平十年至赤烏四年。合一百七十年。吳主曰。佛教入漢已久。何緣今始傳至江東。闞澤對曰。漢明帝永平十四年。南嶽道士褚善信正朝之次。與諸山觀道士褚信同上一表乞與西域法師迦葉摩騰竺法蘭等比校。爾時佛教初到洛陽。漢明帝始立白馬寺興聖寺。法師迦葉摩騰竺法蘭翻譯眾經。始從漢讀。道士未達正法深淺不知。上表乞與對驗。明帝許之。至正月十五日。在白馬寺門南嶽諸道士設壇。將所學法名靈寶經置壇上。放火焚之。當時以正法力故。道士書典悉從火化無有遺者。復作種種伎術。施用無効。諸道士等皆大慚恥。南嶽褚善信費叔才等在會中自憾而死。自餘道士。明帝勅放還嶽。其時不預蘭法師說法者不得出家。爾時無人流布。後遭漢政凌遲兵戈不息。是以佛法一百七十年中而不通。今遇法師僧會入來教化。江東始得興行。吳主曰。孔丘老子二家得與佛道比對以不。闞澤對曰。臣建安年中。在洛陽遊學。曾入法舉寺禮拜。得遇法師。惠鏡垂照講大乘經。臣聞法愛樂。當時遂憑法師在寺。得聽法音首尾向三年。臣審知佛是無上法王。眾聖所歸。教加一切哀含萬像。深同巨海不簡細流。明同日月不嫌星燭。會觸即化遇物斯乘。天上人中自然尊大。縱使天有普覆之功。地有能載之力。皆是諸佛建立使之然也。臣又尋魯孔丘者。英才誕秀聖德不群。世號素王。制作經典。訓獎周世。教加來葉。師儒之風。澤潤今古。亦有逸民如許成子廣成子原陽子列子老子莊子等百家諸子書皆修身翫習。放暢山谷縱大其心。學歸淡泊。事乖人倫長幼之節。亦非安世化民之風。是以古人將為滯陷。蓋此之謂。至漢景帝。考諸百家。以黃子老子義體尤深內外明達。改子為經始立道學。勅訓朝野令諷誦焉。若將孔老二家遠方佛法。遠則遠矣。所以然者。孔老設教。法天制用不敢違天。諸佛設教。天法奉行不敢違佛。以此言之。實非比對明矣。

According to the Book of Wu: In the fourth year of the Chiwu era of the Wu ruler Sun Quan, the year xinyou, there was a śramaṇa named Kang Senghui. He was a native of the kingdom of Sogdiana (Kangju) and the eldest son of its grand prime minister. Having resolved to propagate the Great Way, he traveled to convert various lands. When he first arrived in the territory of Wu, he erected a thatched hut, set up an image, and practiced the Way. When the people of Wu first saw him, they regarded it as demonic and uncanny, and the officials reported it in a memorial. The ruler of Wu said, 'Emperor Ming of the Han dreamed of a deity named the Buddha. Is this not a vestige of that tradition?' Thereupon he summoned Senghui and questioned him, asking, 'What miraculous proof does the Buddha possess?' Senghui replied, 'The Buddha's spiritual traces were veiled over a thousand years ago, leaving only his śarīra. For those who seek with utmost sincerity, they respond and manifest without limit.' The ruler of Wu said, 'If you obtain a śarīra, I shall erect a stupa for it; but if it is falsehood, the state has its established punishments.' Senghui replied, 'The śarīra is merciful and compassionate; if sought, it will manifest and descend. If there is no resonant response, I should meet my death—why would the king's statutes need to be applied?' He then requested a period of seven days, extending up to three times seven days, and at last obtained a śarīra, which radiated five-colored light into the sky. The ruler of Wu immediately placed the śarīra on an iron anvil and ordered a man of great strength to test it by striking it with an iron hammer; straightway, the anvil and the hammer both sank into the ground, while the śarīra remained undamaged. The ruler of Wu then placed the śarīra into a fierce charcoal fire; radiant light from the śarīra emerged from the fire, forming a great lotus that illuminated the palace halls. The ruler of Wu revered and believed in Senghui and fully complied with his Dharma. He thereupon built the Jianchu Temple and erected a seven-jeweled stupa for the śarīra; the site was named the Buddha Ward. From this time on, the Buddha-Dharma flourished east of the Yangzi River. From the third year of the Huangchu era to the fourth year of the Wu Chiwu era, there were twenty years in all. From the tenth year of the Yongping era to the fourth year of the Wu Chiwu era, there were one hundred and seventy years in total. Kang Senghui was the beginning of the Saṅgha in the land of Wu; the teaching was the beginning of the Dharma in the land of Wu. The ruler of Wu, Sun Quan, asked Kan Ze, the Prefect of the Masters of Writing and Marquis of Duxiang, 'Emperor Ming of the Han dreamed of a deity and dispatched Cai Yin, a Gentleman of the Palace, and others toward the Western Regions to search for the teachings of the Buddha. Up to the present, how many years have passed?' Kan Ze replied, 'From the tenth year of the Han Yongping era to the fourth year of Chiwu, there have been one hundred and seventy years in all.' The ruler of Wu said, 'The Buddhist teachings entered the Han long ago; for what reason have they only now begun to spread to the east of the Yangzi River?' Kan Ze replied, 'In the fourteenth year of the Yongping era of Emperor Ming of the Han, when the Daoist master Zhu Shanxin of the Southern Sacred Peak was attending the court, he and Zhu Xin, a Daoist master from the various mountain abbeys, jointly submitted a memorial begging to compete in a contest with the Dharma masters from the Western Regions, Kāśyapa Mātaṅga and Dharmaratna. At that time, the Buddhist teachings had just arrived in Luoyang, and Emperor Ming of the Han had just established Baima Temple and Xingsheng Temple; the Dharma masters Kāśyapa Mātaṅga and Dharmaratna were translating the various sūtras, which were just beginning to be read in Chinese. The Daoist masters had not yet grasped the True Dharma and were ignorant of its depth; they submitted a memorial begging to be tested against them. Emperor Ming granted it. On the fifteenth day of the first month, before the gate of Baima Temple, the various Daoist masters of the Southern Sacred Peak erected an altar, placed the methods they had learned, named the Lingbao Scriptures, upon the altar, and set fire to burn them. At that time, owing to the power of the True Dharma, the Daoist scriptures and records were all consumed by the fire, leaving nothing behind. They also performed various arts and techniques, but applying them yielded no effect. The various Daoist masters were all filled with great shame and humiliation. Zhu Shanxin and Fei Shucai of the Southern Sacred Peak died of self-reproach during the gathering. As for the remaining Daoist masters, Emperor Ming decreed that they be dismissed and returned to their peaks. At that time, those who had not attended Dharma Master Dharmaratna's exposition of the Dharma were not permitted to leave household life. At that time, there was no one to disseminate it widely. Later, suffering from the decline of the Han government and unceasing warfare, the Buddha-Dharma was therefore blocked for one hundred and seventy years. Now, having encountered Dharma Master Senghui who came to teach and transform, it has at last begun to flourish east of the Yangzi River.' The ruler of Wu said, 'Can the two schools of Kong Qiu and Laozi be compared with the Buddhist Way or not?' Kan Ze replied, 'During the Jian'an era, I traveled and studied in Luoyang, and once entered Fajv Temple to pay obeisance; I was fortunate to meet a Dharma Master whose mirror of wisdom shed its light as he lectured on the Mahāyāna sūtras. When I heard the Dharma, I delighted in it, and thereupon stayed with the Dharma Master at the temple, being able to listen to the sounds of the Dharma for nearly three years from beginning to end. I know with certainty that the Buddha is the unsurpassed Dharma King, the refuge of all the sages. His teaching extends to all, compassionately embracing the myriad phenomena; in depth it is identical to the great ocean, rejecting no minor stream; in brightness it is identical to the sun and moon, not scorning stars or candles. Meeting any touch, it transforms; encountering any object, it takes it up. Naturally honored and great both in the heavens and among men, even if Heaven possesses the merit of universally covering and Earth possesses the power of being able to support, these are all established and made so by the Buddhas. Furthermore, when I investigate Kong Qiu of Lu: he had exceptional, preeminent talent, and sage virtue that surpassed the crowd; the world calls him the Uncrowned King. He instituted scriptures and canonical records, instructing and encouraging the Zhou era, his teaching extending to future generations; his model as a master of the Ruists has enriched both past and present. There were also recluses such as Xu Chengzi, Guangchengzi, Yuanyangzi, Liezi, Laozi, and Zhuangzi, whose writings among the Masters of the Hundred Schools were all practiced and savored for self-cultivation; giving free rein [to themselves] in mountain valleys and giving full scope to their minds, their learning returned to quietude and indifference, but their conduct went contrary to the human relations and the decorum between seniors and juniors, nor was it a style that brought peace to the world and transformed the common people. Therefore the ancients regarded it as an obstruction and a pitfall—this is surely what was meant. Coming to Emperor Jing of the Han, he examined the Hundred Schools, and taking the principles and substance of Huangzi and Laozi to be especially profound and thoroughly understanding within and without, he changed their works from "masters" to "classics" and first established Daoist studies, issuing decrees instructing the court and the countryside to chant them. If one were to place the two schools of Confucius and Laozi alongside the Buddha-Dharma of distant realms, the difference is vast indeed! Why is this so? When Confucius and Laozi established their teachings, they took Heaven as their model and instituted practices, not daring to contravene Heaven. When the Buddhas establish their teachings, the heavenly beings take the Dharma as their model and practice it, not daring to contravene the Buddha. Speaking from this, it is plain that they cannot truly be compared.'