北山錄 3.2.2

3.2.2

Although of old there were disembowellings, amputations, boilings, and burnings, none surpassed this cruelty (in ancient times, King Zhou of Shang disembowelled pregnant women, severed the shins of morning-waders, instituted the punishment of the roasting pillar, burned and roasted the loyal and good, and cut out the hearts of worthy men; yet if compared to this, they were not yet extreme). Coveting valour to foster evil, he could surpass [all in] vicious virtue (beneath the Southern Mountain there was a man so ferocious and evil that he was fit to be an executioner-jailer; when summoned, his parents did not consent, so he killed them and came). Meeting one who had attained the Way, who transformed him through spiritual powers, he hastily reformed his errors (at first, all criminals in the realm who violated the law, whether light or heavy, were plunged into misery; later, anyone passing near the prison was seized and executed. At that time, a śramaṇa went round the neighbourhood begging for food; the prison guard seized and took him in. Terrified, the śramaṇa begged to worship and repent for seven days. Suddenly he saw a man brought in bound, his hands and feet severed, his body torn to pieces. Having seen this, he felt profound sorrow and grief, cultivated the contemplation of impermanence, and attained the fruit of an arhat [aśaikṣa]. Although cast into a boiling cauldron, he was as if in a clear pool, with a great lotus blossom as his seat. Hearing of this, the king rushed to observe it, profoundly praising the divine assistance. He later killed the prison warden and thereupon abolished the prison). The Venerable Gupta further enlightened and guided him through cause and effect (Gupta refers to "opening"; Guiding refers to "leading on the Way"; the Fifth Patriarch Upagupta opened and guided him by means of cause and effect). Reflecting deeply, his dread increased; looking back in contemplation, he sought to make amends. Thereupon he opened the urns of the eight kings and erected eighty thousand wondrous stūpas (after the prison was abolished, Gupta daily increased his skillful guidance, extensively expounding the karmic cause of offering earth and the Tathāgata's former prophecy of the merit of erecting stūpas; he then assembled spirits and gods, uniting their strength and mind, using the relics collected by the eight kingdoms together; he commanded the spirits and gods that when the appointed day arrived, the sun would be eclipsed in the shape of a hand; at midday, when it was fitting to deposit the relics, the arhat stretched forth his hand to block the sun, and the construction was thus completed). Because of the merit of offering earth, this king was exalted in stature and lofty in rank, yet he went so far as to indulge [evil]. Mahādeva expelled the worthy and holy, thereby causing the Saṅgha to divide into two schools (after Mahādeva entered the palace, he daily received favour and patronisation; on the night of the prātimokṣa recitation he disputed with the monks, and King Aśoka sided with him; thus it divided into the two schools of the Mahāsāṃghika and Sthavira). When the Buddha's Dharma was first fractured, although the primary culprit and great scourge did not originate with the king himself, nevertheless, as a ruler he was peculiarly devoid of foresight, and thus he cannot escape sharing the guilt in his own person (from this point on, the Dharma diverged from its single flavour. "Primary" means the head; "scourge" means resentment. It was because the sovereign could not determine guilt and correct wrongs that this fault occurred). To the north of Shendu (Du has the sound of "du" in the Han texts; that is to say, India; or called Xian-gen, which in the Tang language means "moon"; the moon has one thousand names; living beings drift and cycle endlessly in the long night, and the holy and worthy transform and guide creatures just as the moon illuminates the night; for this reason that land was named) lies the kingdom of Gandhāra (that is, North India; five hundred li from Magadha; without frost or snow; its people love practicing arts and honour non-Buddhists; it is the birthplace of Asanga and Vasubandhu). Its king was named Kaniṣka (four hundred years after the Buddha's nirvāṇa). Hegemonic yet possessing propriety, broadly knowledgeable yet capable of faith, he took the Arhat Pārśva as his model and master (The Record of the Transmission of the Dharma Treasury says: The bhikṣu Pārśva throughout his life never lay down, his ribs never touching the mat; contemporaries called him Venerable Pārśva). He compiled and refined the agreements and differences in the principles and doctrines of the various schools, and composed the Mahāvibhāṣā (in two hundred fascicles). Although states have kings and every age has monks, to abide in faith and practice faith—this is called not being fawning (glibness of speech is called "fawning"; for the ruler of a state to dwell in loyalty and faith and practice reverent faith is called not being flattery and fawning. The king at first did not believe in guilt and merit; while hunting he saw two cowherd boys building a stūpa; when he questioned them, they said: "The Buddha prophesied that here a king would enshrine my relics"; the great king's past planting of roots having matched this, he thereupon gave rise to faith and deeply revered the Buddha's Dharma). Clergy and laity made use of it, and the great undertaking was gloriously acclaimed (the people of the Western Lands, both monks and laity, all study this treatise). In recent times, King Harṣa is next to him (King Harṣa was the king of Magadha at the beginning of the Tang dynasty; "subordinate" means next). In the Zhou and Qin eras, the source of truth was distantly obstructed, and the spiritual ford was long barred. The sovereigns were at odds with the Way, and the court did not promote the worthy; Boyang and Nifu met with no recognition (in the Zhou and Qin eras, although Confucius and Laozi were great worthies, neither was employed). Shang Yang and Li Si gave free rein to their cruelty (they were both violent and cruel ministers, and neither met a natural death). And the lineage of the Śākya was prudent regarding such tribulations, and therefore did not arrive (that Buddhism did not arrive was because it knew the tribulations of the tyrannical Qin; however, transformation through resonance has its proper time and cannot be forced). Furthermore, the Han inherited the decay of the Qin, winning all under heaven on horseback; relying on the power of heroes, the imperial enterprise was accomplished (Emperor Gaozu of Han grasped a three-foot sword to win all under heaven). Thus, when discussing merits, [the generals] all drew their swords and whispered in pairs; Gaozu was troubled by this (in the fifth year of Han, after the battle of Gaixia, when he was about to enfeoff for merits, the generals vied with each other, drawing their swords and whispering in pairs; Gaozu, because Yong Chi had once shot at him and was an enemy, enfeoffed him first; when the generals knew there was hope, they settled down). For this reason, Shusun Tong summoned the scholars of Lu to establish the rituals for the imperial audience. Looking up to the emperor's carriage, not one of the hundred officials failed to tremble in awe; this checked the abuses of that time, thereby elevating the majesty of the Lord of Ten Thousand Chariots (this was to venerate the Son of Heaven and restrain the feudal lords). Thus the Grand Emperor bowed in return (he was Gaozu's father), and the House Steward received gifts; claiming it to be a hegemonic enterprise, he bequeathed his designs to his descendants. In the ways of emperors and kings, honoring a teacher and abasing propriety [before him] was something not yet heard of (previously, when Shusun Tong and others instituted Han rituals, they had not yet seen the matter of respecting a teacher, valuing the Way, and humbling propriety to act as a subject). Now, the Yellow Emperor asked after the Way from Guangcheng (Xuanyuan asked after the Way from Guangchengzi), and Yao of Tang followed the wind to Juci (King Yao paid homage to the Master of Juci; both appear in the Nanhuai Zhenjing); were these not matters of the most exalted? When it came to the restoration of the Han house, Emperor Zhuang shone brightly (the second ruler of the Later Han, Emperor Ming, was named Zhuang; "brightly" means clearly). [Envoys] were received at the Court of State Ceremonial and handled by the Minister of Ceremonies (when Kaśyapa Mātanga and others arrived from the Western Lands, they were lodged at the Court of State Ceremonial or overseen by the Minister of Ceremonies). Hence Zhi Qian and An Qing (Zhi Qian was an upāsaka of the Yuezhi kingdom, courtesy name Gongming; at the end of the Han he traveled to Luoyang and received instruction from Zhi Liang; Liang had received it from Lokakṣema; contemporaries said that comprehensive learning under heaven did not exceed the three Zhis; An Qing's courtesy name was Shigao; he was a prince of Parthia who renounced the throne to leave the household, arriving here in the first year of Yuanjia under Emperor Huan of Han)—though their virtue was esteemed among the black-robed clergy, they were not treated as teachers and friends by kings and nobles. Although the King of Chu cultivated a shrine to the Benevolent Sage, and Emperor Xiaohuan instituted the sacrifice under the Floriate Canopy (both were Han princes and kings), they merely treated the Buddha as a deity; they did not seek out the persons of the Benevolent Shrine and the Floriate Canopy (they only adorned the ritual vessels). The Wei followed the Han rites, summoning and employing the eccentric and eminent.