北山錄 10.2.1

10.2.1

To the west of the Great Wilderness (within the Son of Heaven's royal domain of five hundred li is the dīan domain; five hundred li beyond is the hòu domain; five hundred li beyond is the suī domain; five hundred li beyond is the yào domain; five hundred li beyond is the huāng domain. The huāng domain is two thousand five hundred li from the capital. Here it refers to beyond the Great Wilderness, the regions of the farthest west), Shendu has different customs (meaning the customs and transforming influence of Western India differ from those of Zhina). In the beginning of primeval antiquity, before the Supreme Sage was born (referring to the Tathāgata), there were non-Buddhist ṛṣis who served as founders of religions in the world. Originally, there were the Sāṃkhya and the Vaiśeṣika (at first there was the Sāṃkhya non-Buddhist tradition, which established the doctrine of the twenty-five principles, and the Vaiśeṣika non-Buddhist tradition, which expounded the six categories and so forth); in the middle there were the six teachers (first, Pūraṇa Kāśyapa; second, Ajita Keśakambalin; third, Gośālīputra; fourth, Pakudha Kaccāyana; fifth, Sañjaya Belaṭṭhiputta; sixth, Nirgrantha Jñātaputra); and eventually ninety-five varieties (namely the non-Buddhists who conceived an 'I' inside the aggregates, apart from the aggregates, and so forth). Looking haughtily upon mountain crags and marshlands, they plotted to match themselves against us as adversaries, intending to bring harm to the true Dharma, repeatedly devour the dark companions, encroach upon the true realm, and fell and destroy the boats and bridges. Although they relied on their vast numbers, they were no match for our few; thus Śāriputra, in a single move, utterly crushed the cohorts of Raudrākṣa (vanquished them entirely. This refers to the Vaiśeṣika non-Buddhists. Because this ṛṣi was ugly in appearance and liked to go out begging food at night, he was called Ulūka. He established the six categories for Pañcaśikha. Later he transformed into a stone, which was shattered by Bodhisattva Dignāga, who reduced it to powder with a single roar). Therefore, striking disorder with uprightness, there is nothing that cannot be accomplished. Yet once the ramparts of pride stand tall, the weapons of heterodoxy are hard to lay down; gathering like screaming bands in dense thickets, people ford the deluded fords in vain, causing the billowing waves of the ocean of suffering to become vast and boundless, and casting fishing nets and corded arrows along perilous paths, unbroken and never ceasing (the corded arrow is a device for shooting birds; the net is a device for catching fish; 'ceasing' means reaching an end—practitioners do not reach it). The sages considered this a sorrow; the multitude of living beings forever lamented it. Alas, what could be done about it! Since the White Horse came from the west and the Sanskrit texts were presented to Luoyang (in the tenth year of the Yongping reign of Emperor Ming of the Later Han, Shemoteng [Kāśyapa Mātanga] and Zhu Falan [Dharmaratna], loading scriptures and images on a white horse, first arrived at Luoyang), faith and slander have fanned each other by turns, and rulers and ministers have not been of one mind (at that time, the Daoist masters of the Five Marchmounts, Chu Shanxin and others, sought a contest by burning scriptures and images). Moreover, as for the soils of distant realms, the Nine Domains call them the outer wasteland; as for the customs of the western quarter, the Four Seas regard them as barbarians (the Nine Domains are the Nine Provinces; the western quarter refers to the Western Kingdoms). Yet they, in turn, refer to the territories of the Central Florescence as 'the land of the Ruists' and the eastern verge of the Pamirs as a borderland. It is human nature for each to value where they reside and look down on other realms, so that all say, 'Why was the Buddha not born in the Central Kingdom?' (the people of Zhina themselves consider this land the Central Kingdom). By hearsay it is said: at the summer solstice in Central India, when measuring the shadow, it completely covers the gnomon (in Central India in the Western Heavens, at midday on the summer solstice, a pole erected in the sun casts no shadow; having obtained the very center of Jambudvīpa, the sun's course is directly overhead, hence they call it the center). Although in this land the Earl of Shao divined the site and the Duke of Zhou went to construct it (the Zhou originally had Haojing as capital; the Duke of Shao divined the site at Shanruo, and the Duke of Zhou came to Chengzhou to construct it, which is the present-day capital Luoyang), yet the Rites of Zhou states: 'The Grand Master of Instruction's office [records that] the shadow on the day of the solstice is one foot and five inches' (although the capital Luoyang is the heart of Zhina, at midday on the day of the summer solstice a pole erected still casts a shadow of one foot and five inches; in other regions it is even longer). It is called the center of the earth, where heaven and earth unite, where the four seasons intersect, where wind and rain converge, and where yin and yang harmonize; when the myriad things flourish in peace, only then is the royal capital established. Now, Yangcheng County in Henan has obtained the center of the Central Xia, yet its shadow still leaves a remainder. Regions that are not Yangcheng exceed one foot and five inches even further. And for every thousand li in heaven, there is one inch on earth; therefore, how could it be fixed for all time whether this land or that of the Western Regions, ten thousand li away, is barbarian or Xia? When the Yi and Luo rivers were transformed, they became barbarian (the Zuo zhuan says there were the Rong of the Yi and Luo rivers, and also the campaign against the Rong of Luhun, both in Luoyang); when Wu and Yue were transformed, they became Xia (Wu and Yue were originally barbarian, yet Goujian and Fuchai both became hegemons of the Central Kingdom). Therefore, when the Supreme Sage rides the times, he is fundamentally not limited by regions or customs; he simply takes the great chiliocosm and Jambudvīpa as his inner domain. If here is suitable, then here; if there is suitable, then there. Could it be said that because Kings Wen and Wu were not in Luoyang, they were not sovereigns of all under heaven? (King Wen resided among the Western Rong; King Wu resided beneath Qi). Furthermore, in the Western Regions, when there is no wheel-turning king, all under heaven is divided among four lords: the east takes humankind as paramount, precisely because ritual and music originate from this land, and benevolence and righteousness top the eight wildernesses. Designating something as 'central' is not necessarily dependent on geography. He Chengtian of the Song asked Huiyan, 'What calendar does the Buddha's country use?' Yan said, 'There, at midday on the day of the summer solstice, there is no shadow; among the five elements, they venerate the virtue of Earth; eight inches make a foot; one ounce equals twelve ounces of this land; and the chen month is established as the start of the year' (Huiyan personally went to the Western Heavens and returned, hence he was able to clarify this matter). When examining the equinoxes and solstices (the spring and autumn equinoxes and the winter and summer solstices), eclipses, constellations, and the balancing of yin and yang, he indeed deemed it to be so. But because the Tripiṭaka masters who came from the west crossed the seas through multiple translations and underwent hardships and perils, scorning a hundred deaths to attain a single life, once they arrived they did not even know where their homeland was, which is truly lamentable. When the texts they translated were compared with the scriptures within our realm, they ran contrary to what is seen and heard, and profoundly diverged from people's desires. Seeking to make those of accumulated delusion bend like grass before the wind was like rolling a pill up a steep slope—it merely increased their resentment, which was truly difficult as well (because the translating Tripiṭaka masters came from afar and did not fully command the language of this land, their phrasing was plain and their literary style lacked elegance, as in the scriptures translated by An Shigao and others. Those who did not understand immediately disparaged them, adding to slander and abuse, which was regrettable). Now, when Yongmen Zhou took advantage of Mengchang's agitated sorrow and played the zither for him, as soon as the zither sounded, Mengchang's tears fell copiously without end (Yongmen is in Qi; Mengchang is Tian Wen, a prince of Qi. Zhou played the zither for him, and when the zither sounded, his tears could not be stopped). But when crooked and foolish men take advantage of princes' and marquises' doubts and estrangement to wag their tongues for them, as soon as their lips open, calumny and slander shake things up without end (this describes how those who disparage the religion take advantage of the times when government officials doubt our teachings; seizing the opportunity, they flap their lips to defame them, causing princes and marquises to turn their hearts and give credence to them). It is for this reason that one must borrow their exalted positions and grand talents, so that their words serve as a standard for all things.