集神州三寶感通錄 1.10

1.10

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.'