法苑珠林 6.120

6.120

奘法師西國記云。僧伽羅國（雖非印度之國路次附出）此國本寶渚也。多有珍寶栖止鬼神。其後南印度有一國王。女聘隣國吉日送歸。路逢師子。侍衛之徒棄女逃難。女居輿中心甘喪命。時師子王負女而去。入深山處幽谷。捕鹿採菓以時資給。既積歲月遂孕男女。形貌同人性種畜也。男漸長大力格猛獸。年方弱冠人智斯發。請其母曰。我何謂乎。父則野獸母乃是人。既非族類如何配偶。母乃述昔事以告其子。曰人畜殊途宜速逃逝。曰我先已逃不能自濟其子於後逐師子父。登山踰嶺。察其游止可以逃難。伺父去已遂檐負母下趣人里。母曰。宜各慎密勿說事源。人或知聞輕鄙我等。於是父國。國非家族宗祀已滅。投寄邑人。人謂之曰。爾曹何國人也。曰我本此國流離異域。子母相携來歸故里。人皆哀愍更共資給。其師子王還無所見。追戀妻兒憤恚既發。便出山谷往來村邑。咆哮震吼。暴害人物殘毒生類。邑人輒出遂取而殺。擊鼓吹貝負弩持鉾。群從成旅然後免害。其王懼仁化之不洽也。乃縱獠者期於擒獲。王躬率四兵眾以萬計。掩捕林藪彌跨山谷。師子震吼人畜僻易。既不擒獲。尋復招募其有擒執師子除國害者。當酬重賞式旌茂績。子聞王之令。乃謂母曰。飢寒以久宜可應募。或有所得以相撫育。母曰。言不可。若是彼獸雖是畜也猶是汝父。豈以艱辛而興逆害。子曰。人畜異類禮義安在。既以違阻此心何異。乃抽小刃。出應招募。是時千眾萬騎雲屯霧合。師子踞在林中。人莫敢近。子即其前父遂馴伏。於是乎親愛忘怒。乃剚刃於腹中。尚懷慈愛猶無忿毒。乃至刳腹含苦而死。王曰。斯何人哉。若此之異也。誘之以福利。震之以威禍。然後具陳始末備述情事。王曰。逆哉。父而尚害況非親乎。畜種難馴兇情易動。除民之害其功大矣。斷父之命其心逆矣。重賞以酬其功。遠放以誅其逆。則國典不虧王言不貳。於是裝二大船多儲糧糗。母留在國周給賞功。子女各從一舟隨波飄蕩。其男船泛海至此寶渚。見豐珍玉便於中止。其後商人採寶復至渚中。乃殺其商主留其子女。如是繁息子孫眾多。遂立君臣以位上下。連都築邑據有疆域。以其先祖擒執師子。因舉元功而為國號。其女船者。泛至波剌斯西。神鬼所魅產育群女。故今西大女國是也。故師子國人。形貌卑黑方頤大顙。情性獷烈安忍鴆毒。斯亦猛獸遺種故。其人多勇健斯一說也。若據佛法所記。則依起世經。昔此寶洲大鐵城中。五百羅剎女之所居也。

Master Xuanzang's *Record of the Western Regions* states: "The kingdom of Siṃhala (though not a kingdom of India proper, it is appended here along the route). This country was originally a treasure island, possessing abundant rare gems and inhabited by spirits and ghosts. Later, there was a king in South India who, having betrothed his daughter to a neighboring country, sent her off on an auspicious day. On the road they encountered a lion. The attendants and escorts abandoned the girl and fled the danger; the girl, seated in her carriage, resigned herself to dying. Then the lion king carried the girl off on its back, entered deep mountains, and dwelled in a secluded valley, hunting deer and gathering fruit to supply her needs in season. As the years and months accumulated, she became pregnant and gave birth to a boy and a girl. Their appearance was human, but their nature was of animal breed. As the boy gradually grew up, he was possessed of great strength and wrestled with fierce beasts. When he reached his twentieth year, his human intelligence blossomed, and he asked his mother, 'What am I? My father is a wild beast, while my mother is human. Being of different kinds, how could you be paired as mates?' His mother then related past events to inform her son, saying, 'Humans and beasts follow different paths; we ought to quickly flee.' [The son] said, 'Earlier you tried to flee and could not manage it on your own.' Afterwards, the son followed his lion-father, climbing mountains and traversing ridges, observing his movements to find where they might flee the danger. Waiting until his father had gone, he carried his mother on his shoulders and went down toward a human settlement. The mother said, 'We must each be cautious and discreet, and not speak of the source of these events. If people should hear of it, they will despise us.' Thereupon [they reached] the father's country; the country had ceased to be in her family line, and the ancestral sacrifices had already been extinguished. They lodged with a townsman. The people asked them, 'What country are you people from?' They replied, 'We were originally of this country, but wandered in foreign lands. Mother and son taking each other by the hand, we have come back to our native home.' The people all took pity on them and jointly provided for their needs. When the lion king returned and found nothing, he longed for his wife and children; giving vent to wrath, he came out of the mountain valley and roamed through the villages and towns. Roaring with thunderous fury, he violently harmed people and things, savaging living creatures. Whenever the townsfolk went out, he seized and killed them. Only when they beat drums, blew conches, and carried crossbows and held halberds, moving in large companies and ranks, could they escape harm. Their king feared that his benevolent transformation was not extending far enough, so he unleashed hunters, intent on capturing it. The king personally led an army of the four divisions numbering in the tens of thousands, surrounding and searching the woods and swamps, spreading across the mountains and valleys. The lion roared with a thunderous voice, throwing humans and beasts into confusion. Having failed to capture it, he soon recruited broadly: whoever could capture the lion and eliminate this harm to the state would be rewarded with great gifts to mark his glorious deed. Hearing the king's order, the son said to his mother, 'Having long suffered cold and hunger, I should respond to the levy. Perhaps we will gain something with which to sustain each other.' The mother said, 'You must not speak of it! Although that beast is an animal, he is still your father. How could you, on account of hardship, stir up such rebellious matricide and patricide?' The son said, 'Humans and beasts are of different kinds; where are propriety and righteousness? Since we have parted ways, how is his mind different [from a beast's]?' He then drew a short blade and went out to answer the levy. At that time, thousands of infantry and ten thousand cavalry gathered like clouds and assembled like mist. The lion crouched in the forest, and no one dared approach. The son went before him, and the father immediately became tame and submissive. Thereupon, feeling love and affection, he forgot his wrath; [the son] plunged the blade into his belly. [The lion] still harbored compassion and love, with no hatred or malice, until, with his belly disemboweled, he died enduring the pain. The king asked, 'What sort of man is this, of such anomaly?' Luring him with fortune and terrifying him with disaster, [the king caused him] then to recount the entire beginning and end, fully detailing the circumstances. The king said, 'How rebellious! If he could harm even his father, how much more those who are not his kin? The animal breed is hard to tame, and cruel passions are easily stirred. His merit in eliminating harm to the people is indeed great; yet his mind in severing his father's life is indeed rebellious! With great rewards I shall recompense his merit; by banishing him afar I shall punish his rebellion. Thus the state's statutes will not be violated, and the king's word will not be false.' Thereupon he provisioned two large ships, storing a great deal of provisions and dried grain. The mother was kept in the country and fully provided for to reward the merit; the son and daughter each boarded a ship and drifted with the waves. The son's ship sailed across the sea to this treasure island. Seeing its abundance of rare gems, he settled therein. Later, merchants gathering gems arrived at the island again; he then killed their leader and detained the children. Thus they proliferated, their sons and grandsons becoming numerous, and they finally instituted rulers and subjects to distinguish high and low. Connecting capitals and building towns, they held dominion over the territory. Because their ancestor captured a lion, they took this primary deed as the name of the state. As for the daughter's ship, it drifted west to Persia; enchanted by spirits and demons, she gave birth to a crowd of daughters, which is today the Western Great Kingdom of Women. Therefore, the people of the Kingdom of the Lion are low in stature and dark-skinned, with square jaws and large foreheads; their disposition is fierce and harsh, and they patiently endure deadly poison. This is because they are the descendants of a fierce beast, and thus the people are mostly valiant and strong. This is one account. If based on what is recorded in the Buddha-Dharma, according to the *Sūtra on the Origination of the World*, formerly in the great iron city of this treasure island was the dwelling place of five hundred rākṣasīs."