續集古今佛道論衡 1.4

1.4

On the eleventh day of the twelfth month of the twelfth year of Yongping, Emperor Ming held a vegetarian feast and practiced the Way at Baima Temple. The Emperor asked the Dharma Master Mātaṅga: "Can the days and months of the Buddha's birth, teaching the world, and extinction be known?" The Dharma Master replied: "On the fifteenth day of the seventh month of the guichou year, the Buddha night-entrusted his womb to Lady Māyā. On the eighth day of the fourth month of the jiayin year, in the Lumbinī Grove in Kapilavastu, he was born from his mother's right side. According to the Zhoushu yiji: On the eighth day of the fourth month in the jiayin year, the twenty-fourth year of the reign of King Zhao of Zhou, the rivers, springs, and pools suddenly surged and flooded, and the water in the wells all overflowed. The palaces, human dwellings, mountains, rivers, and the great earth all shook. That night, five-colored radiant vapor pierced the Supreme Subtlety [enclosure] and pervaded the four directions, turning entirely blue-green and red. King Zhao of Zhou asked the Grand Astrologer Su You: 'What omen is this?' Su You replied: 'A sage has been born in the west; therefore this auspicious sign has appeared.' King Zhao asked: 'What will become of All-under-Heaven?' Su You said: 'For the moment there is nothing; beyond a thousand years, the sounds of his teachings will reach this land.' King Zhao thereupon sent men to engrave stone to record it, burying it in front of the Heaven Shrine on the southern suburb. At this time, the Buddha was born in the royal palace. In the renshen year, at the age of nineteen, he went forth from the household."