經律異相 44.22

44.22

In the past, there was a man plowing and sowing in a field. The sun was drawing close to noon, but the meal sent from his home had not yet arrived. A man of the Way had lost his path and came to the field, begging from him for a midday meal. The plowman said, "Very well, please wait a short while; the meal from home is late." The man of the Way said, "Since the food has not arrived, I wish only to rinse my mouth." The plowman untied from his belt a harītakī fruit to give him. The man of the Way accepted and ate it. [The plowman] also gave a single coin as a gift (dakṣiṇā) to the man of the Way. The man of the Way said, "If your mind is so sincere, I have nothing with which to repay you. I wish to transmit the five precepts; are you able to receive them?" He replied, "As a disciple in secular life, the five precepts are difficult to keep whole; I can only take the precept against killing." When the plowman's life ended, he was born into the family of a king. The queen and her retinue went to the edge of flowing waters. Singing, dancing, and playing music, she held the child beside the water. Her hand slipped and he fell into the water, whereupon a fish swallowed him. Inside its belly for seven days, he felt neither hunger nor thirst. Drifting with the current downstream for over a thousand leagues (li), [the fish] entered the borders of a downstream kingdom, where people caught it and sold it in the marketplace. At that time, the ruler of the downstream kingdom sent someone to buy fish, and it was brought back into the city to be dressed with a knife. From within the belly, the child called out, "Slowly! Do not hurt me!" They immediately cut open the fish's intestines and saw a little boy, handsome beyond compare; the whole kingdom rejoiced. When the ruler of the upstream kingdom heard of it, he said, "This must be my child," and sent an envoy to demand him. The downstream ruler replied, "Found within a fish's belly, he was bestowed by Heaven; I am unwilling to give him up." The two kingdoms disputed with each other, until the matter reached a great kingdom. The great king adjudicated, saying, "If the upstream kingdom had not borne this child who fell into the water, how could the downstream kingdom have obtained him? And if the downstream kingdom had not caught this child, where could the upstream kingdom have sought him? Both have a karmic bond with him. You two kingdoms may build a palace midway between you to house this child together, entitling him Crown Prince of Two Kingdoms." Accordingly, following this decree, he resided in between, according to the protocol for a crown prince. The Buddha told his disciples, "The plowman of past days, by giving a single fruit and a single coin to a man of the Way, thereby became the crown prince of two kingdoms." (From the Samyuktāvadāna-sūtra.)