北山錄 1.9.4

1.9.4

If a woman sees a man, they look at each other and immediately go to another place, where a mañjūṣaka tree instantly covers them over. The act of desire is then fulfilled. If it does not cover them over, they know that they are blood relatives and do not dare to violate [the taboo]. When a child is born, it is not breastfed but set down at a crossroads; passers-by put their fingers into its mouth for it to suckle. Within seven days it is fully grown, and without hatred or love they transform following the natural course. Shenqing investigated what [the Yellow Emperor] dreamt, and it seems to compare to the northern continent). It lies outside the Nine Realms (the nine regions of mankind), in the midst of the vast sea (amid the great sea to the north of Mount Sumeru). It was not something known to Tianlao, Limu, or Taishanji (all three being ministers of the Yellow Emperor). Dihong (Emperor Hong) stilled his mind and subdued his body, seeking the way to nourish life and govern things; hence his spirit wandered there. If it were not the northern continent, it would not match what he dreamt. Therefore, the lesser sages of our teaching (referring to practitioners of the small and intermediate vehicles) [know] eighty thousand [kalpas] each of past kalpas and future kalpas, and see and hear two thousand worlds (seeing things of two thousand worlds with the divine eye, hearing sounds of two thousand worlds with the divine ear, and so on). Intermediate sages can know three thousand [worlds] (referring to the bodhisattva vehicle). The Great Awakened One, however, exhausts [all] (exhausts without remainder; there is nothing not known, nothing not seen). The sun, moon, and stars are arrayed in the empty firmament (arrayed means shining brightly; empty firmament means the space realm). The sun and moon know neither rise nor fall (they are ever in the sky; but they revolve around the four continents, and because Mount Sumeru blocks them, there are dark and bright [periods]); the stars know neither wane nor wax. In a single day and night, they illuminate the four great continents (the sun and moon constantly illuminate two continents; as when the sun newly rises on the southern continent, it is midday on the eastern continent, dusk on the northern continent, and midnight on the western continent. When it is noon on the southern continent, it is dusk on the eastern continent, midnight on the northern continent, and sunrise on the [western] continent. When the sun sets on the southern continent, it is midnight on the eastern continent, noon on the western continent, and dawn on the northern continent. The other continents follow this analogy). Tending south or north, they divide cold and heat (in summer the sun is closer to the north and the moon closer to the south; in winter the moon is closer to the north and the sun closer to the south; spring and autumn are equal). Held by the power of the wind, they neither stop nor fall (all are supported and rotated in the air by the vailambha winds without falling; below halfway up Mount Sumeru). Above dwell the various devas. The length of their nights and dawns corresponds quite closely to the equinoxes, solstices, beginnings, and closures of the water clocks and gnomons of this land (this is explained in the treatises of the Western Country such as the *Abhidharmakośa* and *Satyasiddhi*. The equinoxes are the spring and autumn equinoxes; the solstices are the winter and summer solstices; the beginning of spring is called “beginning”; the beginning of winter is called “closure”). The sun is fifty-one yojanas across, the moon fifty yojanas; the stars are at largest one yojana, and at smallest one krośa (a yojana is also called a yujana; here it means the journey a sage-king should travel in one day, either thirty li or forty; a krośa is here translated as the ground of a cow’s lowing, two li; in the Hīnayāna, one yojana is sixteen li; tiny means very small). Their lower faces make use of fire jewels and water jewels (make use of means employ; the fire jewel is the sun, and the water jewel is the moon). Yet in the years of Lu, stars fell like rain (on the fifth day of the fourth month in the seventh year of Duke Zhuang of Lu, they fell like rain); and in the capital of Song, the fallen stones numbered five (in the *Zuozhuan*, the first month of the sixth year of Duke Xi of Lu: fallen stones at Song were five; all say these were falling stars). These were sudden omens and anomalies. The Ruists say that outside the southeastern seas (in the *Huainanzi*, the *Jishengfu*, and so forth), in the midst of the Great Wilderness and between the Sweet Springs, lies the state of Xihe. There is a woman named Xihe, who gave birth to ten suns and constantly bathes the suns in the Sweet Springs. In the age of Yao, ten suns rose together, and he commanded Yi to shoot them (Yi was the ancient title of an archery official). Nine birds dropped dead to the ground (the crows within the suns). When utmost virtue sprouts forth, the sun and moon are like joined jade disks, and the five planets are like a string of pearls (the five planets are the Year Star [Jupiter], the Dazzling Deluder [Mars], the Great White [Venus], the Hour Star [Mercury], and the Guard Star [Saturn]; when there is a ruler of utmost virtue, the sun and moon are like joined jade disks). The host of stars moves from east to west, while the sun and moon run counter to heaven and move toward the east (the host of stars turns rightward with the celestial plate, from east to west; the sun and moon go against the celestial plate, from west to east). Taihao drew the eight trigrams (Fuxi). Communicating with the spiritual and luminous, he made written tallies to replace knotted cords. Nüwa patched the sky and established the celestial poles. Gonggong and Zhuanxu vied to be emperor; Gonggong buttressed his head against Mount Buzhou, breaking the pillar of heaven and snapping the cord of earth. Thus the heavens leaned toward the northwest, where the sun, moon, and stars incline; and the earth did not fill the southeast, where the hundred rivers and torrents return (the hundred rivers all return to the xun [southeast] direction). Yang Zhu said: “The affairs of primeval antiquity are obliterated; who could record them? (Record means to chronicle; their obliteration leaves nothing to record.) The affairs of the Three Sovereigns seem to exist, yet seem lost. The affairs of the Five Emperors seem like waking, yet seem like dreaming. The affairs of the Three Kings are partly hidden and partly apparent (not necessarily complete and fully provided).” Now, with Yangzi’s discernment (discernment means distinguishing), where can I turn to verify them? (Verify means to trust as true.) Zhongni said: “For the Five Emperors, one relies on explanations; for the Three Kings, one relies on standards.” This means that what is far off can only be known through spoken explanations, whereas what is near was cultivated through laws and measures (matters already past can only be known through spoken words, their truth and falsehood lacking verification; the Three Kings being close to recent antiquity, their laws and measures may be followed, yet whether they are fitting or not is uncertain). In the Central Kingdom, among the summits and heights of the realm under heaven, none was ever greater than the hills of Kunlun (Mount Kunlun: according to the *Shanhaijing*, it is where the Yellow River originates; Zhang Qian of the *Hanshu* sought it but did not find it). Above are the clouds of the five directions, and below are the waves of five colours. None but great men, spirits, and immortals come and go there. Thus Huangdi climbed it, gazed south, and returned (Xuanyuan). King Mu feasted the Queen Mother at the Jasper Pool (the Jasper Pool is on Mount Kunlun; King Mu of Zhou gathered and feasted with the Queen Mother there; the Queen Mother wore a sheng-crown, had a leopard’s tail and tiger’s teeth, and presided over the ghosts of pestilence among mortals); only from there did he descend—how towering, exhausting the power of creation! (This refers to Mount Kunlun.) Yet the Śākyan lineage specifically proclaims Mount Sumeru for its greatness. That mountain rises eighty thousand yojanas out of the sea water; its height and breadth are equal, and it is formed of the four jewels (height means tallness; breadth means width; the four jewels are yellow gold to the east, vaiḍūrya to the south, white silver to the west, and sphaṭika jewel to the north). On its lower four sides are terraces, the uppermost of which contains the palaces of the Four Great Heavenly Kings (below are the three heavens of Constant Intoxication, Garland-Bearing, and Firm-Hand). They serve as the outer bastion for Śakra, defending against the asuras.