北山錄 1.9.6

1.9.6

[The earth] is borne by water and floats upon it. (The earth is outside the water, and clouds float it; within, there is water, and within that again is heaven. Outside heaven there is water, which again is floated by clouds.) An inquisitive person asked: (Setting forth a premise to investigate it:) "Where Pangu cleaved [primordial chaos] into the foundation of the thick earth, upon what will it rest? Beyond the armillary sphere of heaven, who carries it again? While the scholars of one single school remain obstructed and sluggish, pondering nothing and worrying over nothing, (Yongyong [邕邕] denotes an obstructed and congested appearance.) how could they grasp the truth of this matter?" The Yellow River issues from Mount Kunlun. (The Shanhai jing states: "The Yellow River issues from Kunlun." It lies in the Great Yangtong kingdom. The Tibetan tongue calls Mount Kunlun Mount Menmoli, translated as the "Purple Mountain," five thousand li west of Chang'an. Again, Zhang Qian's biography records that, tracing the Yellow River to Bactria, he saw Qiong bamboo staffs, thereby knowing that it connected with the land of Shu. Only Du You's Tongdian clarifies this comprehensively.) Soaking and flowing through Mount Jishi, it was guided by Yu, traversing the Central Kingdom and gradually reaching the sea in the east. This is one source from Lake Anavatapta. (The water of today's Yellow River indeed issues from Lake Anavatapta.) That lake is situated north of Madhyadeśa; crossing the seven Black Mountains, it reaches the northern shade of the Great Snowy Mountains and the south of Mount Gandhamādana, held between the two ranges. (Ju [距] means to reach. The north of a mountain is called its shade. She [攝] means pressed closely. The waters flow, squeezed between the two mountains.) It is fifty yojanas square, with shores composed of the four treasures. From its four faces there flow out four great rivers: (From the eastern golden elephant's mouth flows the heavenly Sindhu River. From the southern silver ox's mouth flows the heavenly Śītā River. From Lake Anavatapta to the west flows the Vakṣu River. From the northern beryl lion's mouth flows out [the Gaṅgā]. Each enters the seas of the four quarters.) and the river flowing east branches off from the Congling Mountains, flowing concealed beneath. The wondrous branch of the Fusang tree rises into the Great Radiance; this is perhaps the Jambū tree. The largest measures a hundred yojanas, and its fruit is edible. (When the Buddha was in the world, an arhat obtained one; from the skin, stretching his arm the length of a cubit, he only then reached the fruit's pit. Dividing it, he bestowed it on the great assembly. Its color was like that of ripe mulberries.) It flourishes at the southernmost extremity of this continent. The vastness of the Kun and the Peng is perhaps of the kind of the makara fish and the garuḍa. (The "Carefree Wandering" chapter of Zhuangzi says: "There is a Kun fish that transforms into a Peng bird, flying toward the south with wings spread like clouds hanging from heaven." This is perhaps identical to the makara fish, golden-winged bird, and others in the scriptures. The garuḍa is indeed the king of golden-winged birds.) The King of Chu did not recognize the duckweed fruit. (King Zhao crossed the river and saw an object as large as a peck measure and as red as the sun, which struck the king's boat. None recognized it. He sent emissaries to ask Confucius, who said: "It is the duckweed fruit, which may be eaten; it appears when there is virtue.") The clan of Zang ordered sacrifices to the seabird yuanju. (The yuanju is a seabird; flying and encountering a windstorm, it came to rest at the eastern gate of Lu. Zang Wenzhong, acting as grand master, did not recognize it and ordered horses harnessed to sacrifice to it. Confucius said: "It is a yuanju; that bird is larger than a donkey.") Had they not met the sage Confucius, they would have deemed those two creatures bizarre and monstrous. (Hui [恢] means immense; gui [詭] means strange and monstrous.) Therefore, throughout the regions of the Xia, ancient and modern, from the lands of Yan to the lands of Yue, within the passes and beyond them, words denote identical things with different names. (Fang [方] means the four quarters; Xia means the Central Xia. Yan is in the north, Yue in the south. Their spoken languages and designations differ.) How much more, then, between foreign lands—how could they fully agree? (Shen [矧] means how much more. Wei [韙] means to agree or be correct.) At the base of Sumeru, the waters of eight merits form a vast ocean. (First, clear; second, cold; third, soft; fourth, light; fifth, fragrant; sixth, devoid of foul smell; seventh, drinking it does not harm the throat; eighth, it does not harm the belly.) Its depth and breadth match those of Sumeru. (Sumeru enters the water by eighty-four thousand [yojanas]; the ocean is also eighty-four thousand deep.) The ocean encircles the mountain. Along the outer rim of the ocean is Mount Yugandhara, encircling the ocean like a wheel, with a height and thickness half that of Sumeru. (These mountains encircle Mount Sumeru like chariot wheels, called the Seven Golden Mountains. The first is Yugandhara, the second Īṣādhara, the third Khadiraka, the fourth Sudarśana, the fifth Aśvakarṇa, the sixth Vinataka, the seventh Nimindhara. They rise forty-two thousand yojanas above the water.) Above, they are level with the sun and moon. The remaining mountains and oceans encircle them alternately, steadily diminishing and narrowing, (Successively halved in turn.) until outside the seventh mountain lies the salt ocean. (These are the so-called Yugandhara Ocean, Īṣādhara Ocean, Khadiraka Ocean, Sudarśana Ocean, Aśvakarṇa Ocean, Vinataka Ocean, and Nimindhara Ocean. Another list gives: 1. the Salt Ocean, 2. the Milk Ocean, 3. the Curd Ocean, 4. the Clarified Butter Ocean, 5. the Honey-Water Ocean, 6. the Auspicious Ocean, and 7. the Wine Ocean.) The four great continents face the four sides of the Wondrously High, each lying in one quarter of the salt ocean. This is called a small world. (That is, one four-continent [world].) A thousand small worlds are called a small-thousand [world]. (A thousand four-continent [worlds], a thousand six-desire heavens, and a thousand Brahmā worlds are called a small-thousand world.) A thousand times a small-thousand is called a medium-thousand. (A thousand small-thousand worlds and a thousand second-dhyāna [heavens] are called a medium-thousand world.) A thousand times a medium-thousand is a great-thousand. (A thousand medium-thousand worlds and a thousand third-dhyāna [heavens] are called a great-thousand world.) From this we know that heaven and earth are boundless, and that within the streaming forms of the manifold beings, what can be claimed to lie outside the six directions? The Ruist robes and the black monastic robes each argue for their own preeminence. (You [優] means superior.) There was a Master Pursuing Mystery, endowed with the learning of the Ruists and whose home was rich in Daoist scriptures. He said: "Recently, I have evaluated these: only the expanse of the Śākya clan is so immense that I have nothing by which to liken or discuss it. Although the offshoots of the sages all partook of the dregs, (Zao [糟] means wine dregs; po [粕] means oil residue. Both denote the remaining dregs of the sages.) when it comes to the sweet and the sour, the rich and the lean, (Yu [腴] means fat; ji [瘠] means lean.) who would not say they differ? Thus, remote kalpas cannot be calculated by Lishou, (Lishou was an ancient master of calculation.) and the Radiant Luminary cannot be overtaken by Kuafu. (The Radiant Luminary is the sun. Kuafu chased the sun, but failing to reach it, drank from the Yellow River until parched and exhausted, throwing down his staff, which turned into the Deng forest.) Those regions of the sun, vermilion cliffs, caves of the moon, and dark wastes are merely the borders of the four seas. (Jie [截] means edge. The east is the region of the sun; south, vermilion cliffs; west, the caves of the moon; north, the dark wastes.) The armillary sphere, the celestial vault, the high dome, and the night-sky theory (These are all names from ancient historical treatises on astronomy.) merely record a single clod of creation. In ancient times, the sages of the Central Kingdom (meaning Boyang, Confucius, and others) knew what was to come and stored what had passed, examined the past and knew the future, plumbed the divine and comprehended transformation, probed beginnings to encompass ends. If the time was not right,