集神州三寶感通錄 1.36

1.36

二十雜明神州山澤所藏。珍異神寶。如上所列。育王寺之諸塔沈隱未形。其徒不一。如後列之。滄州長河中塔稱育王。名非虛立。豈唯骨塔。靈像亦爾。吳宜涼三州俱山現像郊比屬山近復出佛。愚俗謗為虛誕。故知謗者虛焉。豈有人造妖訛。山中藏三丈石佛。特是諸謗者坎井。焉知九海之天池哉。齊州臨邑縣東有甎塔。云是誌公所營。四面石獸。石獸迅殺可畏。周滅法時。令人百牟攙出。終不可脫。亦勞有損。今在彼云。高麗遼東城傍塔者。古老傳云。往昔高麗聖王出見案行國界。次至此城。見五色雲覆地即往。雲中有僧執錫住立。既至便滅。遠看還見。傍有土塔三重。上如覆釜。不知是何。更往覓僧。唯有荒草。掘深一丈得杖并履。又掘得銘上有梵書。侍臣識之云是佛塔。王委曲問。答曰。漢國有之。彼名蒲圖。王因生信。起木塔七重。後佛法始至。具知始末。今更損高本塔朽壞。斯則育王所統一閻浮洲處處立塔。不足可怪。倭國在此洲外大海中。距會稽萬餘里。有會承者。隋時來此學。諸子史統及術藝無事不閑。武德之末猶在。京邑貞觀五年方還本國。會問。彼國昧谷東隅佛法晚至。未知已前育王及不。會答云。文字不言無以承據。驗其事迹則是所歸。何者有人開發土地。往往得古塔露盤佛諸儀相。故知素有也。益州城南空慧寺金藏者。有穴在寺。近有道士素知有藏。來就守寺神乞。神令入穴取二升金粟。依言即入。唯見地下金甕行行相對。莫測其邊。寺僧通知無敢侵者。雍州渭南縣南山倒豺谷崖有懸石。文狀倒豺。因以名焉。谷有巖像於佛面。亦號像谷。古老傳云。昔有梵僧來云。我聞此谷有像面山七佛龕。昔七佛曾來此谷說法。澗內有瞻蔔華。常所供養。近永徽中南山龍池寺沙門智積。聞之往尋。至谷聞香。莫知何所。深訝香從㵎內沙出。即撥沙看。形似茅根裹夾沙土。然極芬馥。就水抖擻洗之。一㵎皆香。將返龍池佛堂中合堂皆香極深美。山下俗人時見此山。或如佛塔。或全如佛面挺出空際。故像顏之號非是虛立。像去嘉美谷甚近。即姚秦時王嘉美所住者也。坊州玉華宮寺南二十里許。大高嶺俗號檀臺山。上有古塔基甚宏壯。面方四十三尺。上有一層甎塔。四面開戶。石門高七尺餘。廣五尺餘。傍有破甎無數。古老傳云。昔周文王於此遊獵。見有沙門執錫持鉢山頭立住。喚下不來。王遣往捉。將至不見。遠看仍在時。乃勅掘所立處。深三丈獲鉢及杖而已。王重之為起甎塔一十三級。左近村墟常聞鍾聲。龍朔元年。京師大慈恩寺沙門惠貴。聞之便往。又聞鍾聲慷慨古迹。將事修理恨無泉貝懷惑猶豫。貴又感祥云。護塔善神曰。可即經始不勞疑慮。又感異僧曰。我是南方淨土菩薩。行化至此云。此塔自古至今已經四造。勿辭勞倦功用必成。惟須牢作不事華侈。三層便止。貴聞此告親事經營。塔側古窯三十餘所。猶有熟甎填滿。更尋塔南川中乃是古寺。背山面水一期幽栖之勝地也。自未修前鍾聲時至。即令營構依時發聲。三下長打如今僧事。龍朔三年掘得古銘云。周保定年塔崩。塔初成時南望見渭。又云。置塔經四百餘年崩。討周保定。至開皇元年。得二十年。開皇至今龍朔初得八十一年。又計銘記四百年後始崩。則塔是後漢時所造。後周無諡文者前周大遠。未知古老所傳周文是何帝代。但知塔甎巨萬終非下俗所立耳。

Twentieth: A miscellaneous exposition of the rare and marvelous divine treasures concealed within the mountains and marshes of the Divine Continent. As listed above, the various hidden stūpas of King Aśoka's monasteries have not yet all manifested, and their kinds are diverse; they are set forth below. The stūpa amidst the Changhe River in Cangzhou is attributed to King Aśoka, and its reputation is not an empty claim. Nor is it only bone relics and stūpas: numinous images are likewise so. In the three prefectures of Wu, Yi, and Liang, images have appeared in mountains; recently, in the mountains adjacent to their outskirts, Buddhas have emerged again. Foolish commoners slander this as absurd falsehood, yet one may know that it is the slanderers themselves who are false. For how could anyone manufacture a demonic fraud and hide a thirty-foot stone Buddha within the mountains? It is merely that these slanderers are frogs in a shallow well—how could they understand the Heavenly Pool of the Nine Seas? East of Linyi County in Qizhou, there is a brick stūpa said to have been built by Master Zhi. On its four sides are stone beasts, fierce and terrifying to behold. At the time of the Zhou proscription of the Dharma, men were ordered with hundreds of ropes to drag them out, yet in the end they could not dislodge them, and even suffered injury. They are still there today, so it is said. Concerning the stūpa beside Liaodong City in Gaoli, ancient elders pass down that in ancient times a sagacious king of Gaoli went forth to inspect his realm's borders. Arriving near this city, he saw five-coloured clouds covering the earth and immediately went there. Within the clouds was a monk standing with a staff, who vanished upon his arrival, though when looked at from afar he was visible again. Nearby stood a triple-eaved earthen mound-stūpa, topped like an overturned cauldron, though its nature was unknown. When they searched again for the monk, there were only wild weeds. Digging ten feet deep, they obtained a staff and sandals. Digging further, they obtained an inscription with Indic script upon it. An attendant minister recognized it and said it was a Buddha stūpa. When the king questioned him closely, he answered: "The Han land possesses them; there they are called putu." The king consequently gave rise to faith and raised a seven-tiered wooden stūpa. Later, when the Buddha Dharma first arrived, its full origins became known. Nowadays it has suffered damage and the original stūpa is decayed. Thus, King Aśoka erected stūpas everywhere across the single Jambudvīpa continent he united, so this is not to be wondered at. The country of Wa lies in the great ocean outside this continent, more than ten thousand li from Kuaiji. There was a monk named Huicheng who came here during the Sui to study; there was nothing among the classics, histories, traditions, or arts in which he was not proficient. At the end of the Wude era he was still in the capital, and only in the fifth year of Zhenguan did he return to his native land. When asked: "Your land is in the eastern corner of the Valley of Darkness, and the Buddha Dharma arrived late; is it known whether King Aśoka reached there before?" Huicheng answered: "Written records do not mention it, so there is nothing to rely upon. Yet examining its vestiges, it is indeed where he turned. Why? When people develop the soil, they frequently find ancient stūpa dew basins and various Buddha image icons. Hence we know they existed from of old." Regarding the gold depository of Konghui Temple south of the city of Yizhou: there is a cavern at the temple. Recently, a Daoist who previously knew of the depository came to ask it of the temple-guarding deity. The deity bade him enter the cavern and take two sheng of gold grain. Following his words, he immediately entered, and saw only rows of golden jars facing one another underground, boundless to behold. The temple monks all learned of it, yet none dared encroach upon it. In the cliff of Daochai Valley in the Southern Mountains of Weinan County in Yongzhou, there is a hanging rock whose texture and shape resemble an inverted jackal, hence its name. In the valley there is a cliff image in the form of a Buddha's face, also called Image Valley. Ancient elders pass down that of old an Indian monk came and said: "I have heard that in this valley there is an Image-Face Mountain with the shrines of the Seven Buddhas; in the past, the Seven Buddhas came to this valley to preach the Dharma. In the ravine are campaka flowers, which were constantly offered." Recently, during the Yonghui era, the śramaṇa Zhiji of Longchi Temple in the Southern Mountains heard of this and went to seek it out. Reaching the valley, he smelled a fragrance, not knowing whence it came. Deeply astonished that the fragrance issued from the sand within the ravine, he cleared away the sand to look: its shape resembled cogon grass roots mixed with sand and earth, yet it was extremely fragrant. Taking it to the water, he shook and washed it, and the entire ravine became fragrant. When he brought it back into the Buddha hall of Longchi, the whole hall became filled with an exquisitely deep scent. Commoners below the mountain occasionally see this mountain either like a Buddha stūpa or entirely like a Buddha's face jutting out into the air. Thus, the name of Image Face was not established in vain. The image is very close to Jiamei Valley, which is where Wang Jia lived during the Yao Qin. About twenty li south of the Yuhuagong Temple in Fangzhou, on the Great High Ridge commonly called Mount Tantai, there is an ancient stūpa foundation of grand scale, forty-three feet square. Atop it is a single-tiered brick stūpa with doors open on four sides, its stone gate over seven feet high and over five feet wide. Beside it are countless broken bricks. Ancient elders pass down that in antiquity King Wen of Zhou hunted here and saw a śramaṇa holding a staff and carrying an alms bowl standing atop the mountain. He called him down, but he would not come. The king sent men to seize him, but as they drew near, he vanished, yet when viewed from afar he was still there. Thereupon, the king ordered the spot where he stood to be excavated; digging thirty feet deep, they found only a bowl and a staff. Revering them, the king erected a thirteen-tiered brick stūpa for them. Nearby villages often heard the sound of a bell. In the first year of the Longshuo era, the śramaṇa Huigui of the Great Cien Temple in the capital heard of this and went there. Hearing the bell and sighing over the ancient vestige, he was about to undertake repairs, but regretted that he had no funds and harboured doubts and hesitation. Huigui then experienced an auspicious manifestation: the benevolent deity guarding the stūpa said, "You may begin immediately without anxiety." He also experienced a manifestation of a remarkable monk who said: "I am a bodhisattva of the southern pure land, travelling and transforming living beings here. This stūpa has already been rebuilt four times from antiquity to the present. Do not shrink from toil, for your merit will surely be accomplished. Only ensure it is solidly built, not indulging in luxury; three tiers will suffice." Hearing this announcement, Huigui personally undertook the management. Beside the stūpa were over thirty ancient kilns, still filled with fired bricks. Further searching the valley south of the stūpa, it proved to be an ancient temple, nestled against the mountains and facing the waters, an exceptional site for secluded dwelling. Even before the restoration, the sound of a bell would come at times; he then ordered the construction, striking the bell according to the hours, three long sequences of strikes just as in current monastic affairs. In the third year of Longshuo, an ancient inscription was excavated which stated that the stūpa collapsed during the Baoding era of the Zhou, and that when the stūpa was first completed, one could gaze south to see the Wei River. It also said: "The stūpa stood for over four hundred years before collapsing." Calculating from the Zhou's Baoding era to the first year of Kaihuang gives twenty years, and from Kaihuang to the beginning of the Longshuo era is eighty-one years. Furthermore, calculating that the inscription records it collapsed after four hundred years, the stūpa must have been constructed during the Later Han. In the Northern Zhou there was no posthumous title of "Wen", and the Western Zhou was too distant, so it is unknown which emperor or era the "King Wen of Zhou" handed down by the elders refers to. One only knows that the millions of stūpa bricks could never have been erected by common folk.