集神州三寶感通錄 1.10

1.10

東晉咸安二年。簡文立塔三層。孝武上金相輪露盤。冥祥記云。簡文有意興搆。未遂而崩。即三層之塔。疑是先立至孝武太元末。有并州西河沙門劉慧達本名屑荷。見於僧傳。來尋古塔莫知其地。乃登越城四望。獨見長干有異氣。便往禮拜而居焉。時於昏夕每有光明。迂記其處掘之入地丈許。得三石碑長六尺。中央一碑鑿開方孔。內有鐵銀金三函相重。於金函內有三舍利。光明映徹。及爪甲一枚。又有一髮。申可數尺。旋則成螺光彩照曜。咸以為育王之所藏也。即從就塔北。更築一塔。孝武加為三層。故寺有兩塔。西邊是育王古塔也。丹陽尹王雅奉五斗米。道常謂宜黜佛法除毀塔寺。其日下詔。令會稽王道子將雅觀焉。時沙門正行舍利至雅撥翻其鉢而舍利附于器內。終不墜落。王更貯清水燔香。呪曰。王丹陽酷不信法。世尊威靈願有以津示。應聲光明煥然騰發。雅自此後雖未能精至。終身不復誣訾佛法。梁大同中。月犯五車老人星見。改造長干寺阿育王塔出舍利髮爪。天子幸寺設大無礙法會。下詔曰。天地盈虛與時消息。萬物不得齊其蠢生。二儀不得恒其覆載。故勞逸異年懽慘殊日。去歲失稔斗粟貴騰。民在困窮運臻斯濫。原情察理或有可矜。下車問罪聞諸往誥。責歸元首寔在朕躬。若皆以法繩則自新無路。書不云乎與其有殺不辜寧失不經。易曰。隨時之義大矣哉。今真形舍利復見於世。逢希有之事。起難遭之想。今出阿育王寺設無礙會。耆年童齒莫不欣悅。如積飢得食。如久別見親。幽顯歸心遠近顒仰。士女霞布冠蓋雲集。同時布德允叶人靈。凡天下罪無輕重。皆赦除之。今潤州江寧故地但有甎基三層并剎佛殿。餘則榛木荒叢。非人所涉示。是古基而已。頻有大蟲。發塔基者多自死。而草深人希惟有惡獸。於中產育。或銜鹿而血污塔者。尋被打撲號呌驚人。今去永安坊張侯橋七八里。余本住京師曲池。日嚴寺。寺即隋煬所造。昔在晉蕃作鎮淮海。京寺有塔未安舍利。乃發長干寺塔下取之入京。埋於日嚴塔下。施銘於上。于時江南大德五十餘人咸言。京師塔下舍利非育王者。育王者乃長干本寺而不測其是非也。至武德七年日嚴寺廢。僧徒散配房宇官收。惟舍利塔無人守護。寺墌屬官事須移徙。余師徒十人配住崇義。乃發掘塔下得舍利三枚。白色光明大如黍米。并瓜一枚。少有黃色。并白髮數十餘。有雜寶瑠璃古器等。總以大銅函盛之。檢無螺髮。又疑爪黃而小如人者。尋佛倍人爪赤銅色。今則不爾。乃將至崇義寺佛堂西南塔下。依舊以大石函盛之。本銘覆上埋于地府。余問隋初南僧。咸曰。爪髮梁武帝者。

In the second year of Xian'an of the Eastern Jin, Emperor Jianwen erected a three-storey stūpa, and Emperor Xiaowu added a golden wheel and dew basin to it. The Mingxiang ji states: Emperor Jianwen intended to build it, but died before fulfilling his intent. That three-storey stūpa was suspected of having been erected earlier. By the late Taiyuan reign of Emperor Xiaowu, there was a monk from Xihe in Bingzhou named Liu Huida, whose original name was Xiehe, as recorded in the Biographies of Monks. He came looking for the ancient stūpa but did not know its location. Thereupon he climbed the fortress of Yuecheng to gaze in all four directions, and only saw an extraordinary aura at Changgan. He then went there to worship and take up residence. At dusk and evening, light would constantly appear. Having made a mental note of the place, he dug into the ground for about ten feet and found three stone steles, six feet in length. In the center stele, a square hole had been chiseled out, inside which were three nested caskets of iron, silver, and gold. Inside the golden casket were three śarīras, their light translucent and bright, as well as a fingernail, and also a hair. Uncoiled, it stretched several feet; coiled, it formed a spiral, gleaming with dazzling radiance. Everyone considered them to have been enshrined by King Aśoka. Thereupon, to the north of the stūpa, another stūpa was constructed. Emperor Xiaowu augmented it to three storeys; thus the temple had two stūpas, the one on the west being King Aśoka's ancient stūpa. Wang Ya, the Governor of Danyang, revered the Five Pecks of Rice Daoism and constantly asserted that the Buddhadharma should be abolished and stūpas and temples destroyed. On that day, an imperial edict was issued ordering the Prince of Kuaiji, Wang Daozi, to take Ya to view it. Just as the monks were carrying the śarīra in procession, Ya knocked over their bowl, but the śarīra clung to the inside of the vessel and never fell down. The prince then filled it with fresh water and burned incense, praying: 'Governor Wang of Danyang is severely lacking in faith in the Dharma. May the awe-inspiring numen of the World-Honoured One manifest something to guide him.' In response to his words, light blazed forth and leaped upward. From then on, although Ya could not become devoted and sincere, he never again slandered the Buddhadharma for the rest of his life. During the Datong reign of the Liang, when the moon encroached upon Wuche and Canopus appeared, the King Aśoka stūpa at Changgan Temple was rebuilt, and the śarīras, hair, and nail were brought out. The Son of Heaven visited the temple to hold a Great Unhindered Dharma Gathering, and issued an edict stating: 'Heaven and Earth wax and wane, ebbing and flowing with the seasons. The myriad things cannot share an identical wriggling existence, and the Two Primal Forces cannot perpetually maintain their covering and bearing. Therefore, toil and ease differ from year to year, and joy and sorrow from day to day. Last year the harvest failed and a peck of grain soared in price; the people are in dire straits and the fortune has reached such excess. Looking into the circumstances and examining the principles, some deserve pity. Stepping down from one's carriage to inquire into guilt is heard in ancient proclamations; the blame falls upon the sovereign and truly rests upon our own person. If all are restrained strictly by law, there will be no way for them to reform themselves. Does not the Book [of Documents] say: "Rather than slay the innocent, it is better to err on the side of irregularity"? The Changes says: "Great indeed is the meaning of according with the times!" Now the true-form śarīras have reappeared in the world; meeting with this rare event, thoughts of that which is hard to encounter arise. Now they are brought out at King Aśoka Temple to hold an Unhindered Gathering; neither the aged nor the young fail to rejoice, like the starved obtaining food, like meeting kin after long separation. In the unseen and the manifest, hearts turn in devotion, and near and far gaze up in reverent anticipation. Men and women spread out like clouds and caps and carriages gather like mist. Bestowing virtue at the same time truly accords with humans and spirits. All crimes under Heaven, whether light or heavy, are hereby pardoned and eliminated.' Today at the former site in Jiangning, Runzhou, there are only three tiers of brick foundations together with a spire and Buddha hall; the rest is an overgrown tangle of hazel and brush where no humans tread, showing only ancient foundations. Frequently there are tigers; many of those who dig at the stūpa foundations die naturally. The grass is deep and humans are few; only fierce beasts give birth and rear young among it, or carry deer whose blood defiles the stūpa, upon which they are immediately struck and beaten, howling and frightening people. It is now seven or eight li from the Zhanghou Bridge in Yong'an Ward. I originally resided at Quchi in the capital, at Riyan Temple. The temple was built by Emperor Yang of the Sui. Formerly, when he was in the feudatory of Jin guarding the Huai and sea regions, there was a stūpa at the capital temple where śarīras had not yet been enshrined. Thereupon, he excavated beneath the stūpa of Changgan Temple, took them to the capital, and buried them beneath the Riyan stūpa, placing an inscription on top. At that time, more than fifty eminent monks from Jiangnan all said that the śarīras beneath the capital stūpa were not those of King Aśoka, but that those of King Aśoka were at the original temple of Changgan; their truth or falsity could not be determined. In the seventh year of Wude, Riyan Temple was abolished. The monks were dispersed and reassigned, and the rooms and buildings were seized by the government. Only the śarīra stūpa had no one to guard it. The temple lands fell to the government, and the matter required relocation. My master and disciples, ten in all, were assigned to reside at Chongyi Temple. We then excavated beneath the stūpa and obtained three śarīras, white in color, luminous, and the size of millet grains; along with a nail, slightly yellow; and several tens of white hairs, as well as miscellaneous gems, lapis lazuli, ancient vessels, and so forth, all contained in a large bronze casket. Upon inspection, there was no spiral hair. We also doubted that the nail was yellow and small like a human's; for generally a Buddha is twice the size of a human and his nails are the color of red bronze, whereas this was not so. We then brought them to beneath the stūpa to the southwest of the Buddha hall at Chongyi Temple, contained them as before in a large stone casket, covered it with the original inscription, and buried it in the earth. When I asked southern monks from the beginning of the Sui, they all said: 'The nail and hair belong to Emperor Wu of the Liang.'