法苑珠林 12.84

12.84

Now, the Perfect Man responds to resonance, shifting alongside the world. His compassionate transformation is without fixed direction; how could it be restricted to physical form and doctrine? Consequently, what is heard is the same, yet the interpretations differ; the exposition is single, yet the awakenings are distinct. Ascending the stages, they make progress upward; adhering to mistaken paths, they descend. There are the marks of the whole body or the relics of broken body, the rituals of gathering into stūpas or distributing among stūpas. When the divine light shines, perverse notions are shattered; when wondrous traces stand forth, deep faith submits. Since the waters of the Dharma flowed east and the light of the Way shone west, eminent sages have flourished in great numbers, and sympathetic resonances have truly been many. Thus King Aśoka erected stūpas, beginning their inauguration under the flourishing Zhou; the revered form of the Śākya Father arose with grandeur under the fiery Han. Ever since then, across successive dynasties, accumulative records have grown ever more profuse, showing that it was by no means only in the Five Indias that divine transformation was promulgated. Therefore, a scripture says that the true Dharma would spread later: first to the north, next reaching the southeast, until disappearing in the central region. Now, we shall provisionally arrange the wondrous traces of the Three Jewels seen and heard from Emperor Ming of the Han down to the present great empire, listing them in three or five items. Whatever remains incomplete is fully detailed in separate biographies.