法苑珠林 100.404

100.404

周第六主穆王滿。二年癸未二月八日。佛年三十成道。故普曜經云。菩薩明星出時豁然大悟。即此年也。穆王五十二年壬申之歲二月十五日。佛年七十九。方始滅度故涅槃經云。二月十五日臨涅槃時出種種光。地大震動。聲至有頂。光遍三千。即周書異記云。穆王即位五十二年壬申之歲。二月十五日旦。暴風忽起發損人舍。傷折樹木。山川大地皆悉震動。午後天陰雲黑。西方有白虹十二道。南北通過。連夜不滅。穆王問太史扈多曰。是何徵也。扈多對曰。西方有大聖人滅度。衰相現耳。佛入涅槃即此年也。始自昭王二十四年甲寅之歲誕應已來。總算年月至今大唐咸亨二年己亥之歲。正經一千六百載。復算至今大唐乾封三年更有十九年。帖前總有一千六百三十七年。復算從乾封三年至開元十一年癸亥之歲。更有五十五年。帖前總計當一千六百九十二年。又案王玄策西域行傳云。摩伽陀國菩提寺大德僧賒那去線陀據經算出云。釋迦菩薩年至十九四月十五日初夜出城。至三十成道。至七十九入般涅槃。已來算至咸亨二年。算始有一千三百九十五年（為西國曆算共此不同故。延促有異。前出是後述非也）。今按法顯傳云。聖出殷王時生者。但法顯雖外游諸國。傳未可依。年月特乖殊俗實為河漢。又異二安乙丑尚統甲寅。諸無所據。未足可驗。又像正之記罕見依憑。安公為論據羅什記。羅什記者承安世高。安世高者。以漢桓帝時在雒陽。翻譯信執筆者。據桓帝時。但羅什秦時始來。世高漢朝先至。二師相去垂隔三百年。信彼相承依而為記。非是安論。造次謬陳。竝由當時傳者之過。又隨翻經學士費長房言。佛莊王時生者。房以二莊同世。周莊十年即魯莊七年也。但據常星為驗而云佛生。未悟常星。別由他事。

Under King Mu, Man, the sixth sovereign of the Zhou, in the second year, a guiwei year, on the eighth day of the second month, the Buddha attained the Way at the age of thirty. Therefore the Puyao Jing states: ‘When the morning star appeared, the Bodhisattva was suddenly and greatly enlightened.’ This is indeed that year. In King Mu's fifty-second year, a renshen year, on the fifteenth day of the second month, the Buddha, having reached the age of seventy-nine, only then entered extinction. Therefore the Nirvāṇa Sūtra states: ‘On the fifteenth day of the second month, when approaching nirvāṇa, He emitted various lights; the earth shook greatly; the sound reached the Peak of Existence; and the light pervaded the three-thousandfold [world].’ This corresponds to the Zhoushu Yiji, which says: ‘In King Mu's fifty-second year of reign, a renshen year, on the morning of the fifteenth day of the second month, a violent wind suddenly arose, damaging and destroying houses and breaking and felling trees; the mountains, rivers, and the great earth all shook. In the afternoon, the sky grew overcast with dark clouds; in the western quarter there were twelve white rainbows that traversed from south to north, persisting through the night without extinguishing.’ King Mu asked the Grand Astrologer Heduo: ‘What portent is this?’ Heduo replied: ‘A Great Sage in the western quarter has entered extinction; the signs of decline have merely manifested.’ The Buddha's entry into nirvāṇa fell precisely in this year. Calculating the years and months in total from when He manifested birth in King Zhao's twenty-fourth year, a jiayin year, down to the second year of Xianheng in the Great Tang, a jihai year, it has been precisely 1,600 years. Calculating further from then to the third year of Qianfeng in the Great Tang, there are an additional nineteen years; adding this to the preceding gives a total of 1,637 years. Calculating further from the third year of Qianfeng to the eleventh year of Kaiyuan, a guihai year, there are an additional fifty-five years; adding this to the preceding gives a grand total of 1,692 years. Furthermore, according to Wang Xuance's Xiyu Xingzhuan: ‘The great virtuous monk She-na-qu-xian-tuo of Bodhi Temple in the kingdom of Magadha calculated based on the scriptures, stating: “Śākya Bodhisattva, having reached the age of nineteen, left the city in the early night on the fifteenth day of the fourth month; at thirty He attained the Way; and at seventy-nine He entered parinirvāṇa.” Calculating from that time down to the second year of Xianheng, it has only been 1,395 years.’ (Because the calendar systems of the Western regions differ from this one, their lengths vary; the former account is correct, while the latter statement is mistaken.) Now, according to the Faxian Zhuan, which states that the Sage was born in the time of the Yin kings: Faxian, although he travelled abroad to various kingdoms, wrote a chronicle that cannot be relied upon; his years and months are particularly contradictory, and the exotic customs are truly far-fetched. Moreover, it differs from the two [chronologies of Dao]an's yichou year and Shangtong's jiayin year; all have nothing on which to rely and are insufficient to verify. Furthermore, the records of the Semblance and Correct [Dharma eras] are rarely found to have solid backing. Master Daoan made a treatise based on Kumārajīva's record; Kumārajīva's record was received from An Shigao; and An Shigao was in Luoyang during the time of Emperor Huan of the Han. The translation trusted the scribe, who based it on Emperor Huan's time. But Kumārajīva only arrived in the Qin period, whereas Shigao arrived earlier during the Han dynasty; the two masters were separated by nearly three hundred years. He trusted what was handed down and recorded it accordingly; it was not that Master Daoan made an erroneous statement in haste, but rather it was entirely the fault of the transmitters of that time. Furthermore, Fei Changfang, the Scholar of Scripture Translation of the Sui, said that the Buddha was born in the time of King Zhuang. Changfang took the two Kings Zhuang to be of the same era: the tenth year of King Zhuang of the Zhou was the seventh year of Duke Zhuang of Lu. He merely took the ‘invariable stars’ as proof and said the Buddha was born, failing to realize that the ‘invariable stars’ were due to something else.