大宋僧史略 1.30

1.30

Regarding the procession of images: Since the Buddha's parinirvāṇa, kings and ministers often lamented that they had not personally seen the Buddha. For this reason, they established images of the Buddha's descent into birth, or made images of the prince inspecting the city. When Faxian of the Jin arrived in Pāṭaliputra, he saw that they processed images on the eighth day of the second month (jianmao). They tied together carts into five tiers, about twenty feet high, shaped like a stūpa, painted with the forms of the devas, and made shrines out of various jewels, in which the Buddha sat with attending bodhisattvas standing by. There were about twenty carts, each adorned in its own style. Sons of brāhmaṇas invited the Buddhas, which sequentially entered the city to stay overnight, with offerings made through the whole night; every state was like this. Kings and elders established halls of merit and medicine, and all who were poor and sick went there, leaving only after the physicians examined them and their illnesses were cured. Furthermore, north of the mountains at the Donghuangcheng Monastery in Kucha, during the ten days following the autumn equinox each year, the saṃgha of the entire state would assemble for the five-year great assembly (in the Western Regions called a pañcavārṣika). The king and the common people all cast aside their worldly affairs to receive the scriptures, listen to the Dharma, adorn the Buddha images, and carry them on carts and carriages; this was called the procession of images. In Khotan, they processed images starting on the first day of the fourth month and concluding on the fourteenth day, after which the king and queen returned to the palace. Nowadays, in Lingwu at Xiatai, every year on the eighth day of the second month, monks carry dry-lacquer Buddha images, surrounded by retinues, guided by banners, canopies, and music; this is called inspecting the city. It is bounded by the city streets and marketplaces, and the common people rely on it to eliminate calamities. Moreover, when the summer retreat concludes in this land, the monastic assembly holds flowers and fans, blows conches, and beats cymbals, marching forward in double files; this is called the emerging-in-ranks kārtika (taking the name of the month Kārtika). The 'Treatise on Buddhism and Daoism' says: 'On the eighth day of the fourth month, Emperor Shizu of the Wei had the images of various monasteries carried in carts along the broad avenues. The emperor proceeded to the gate tower to watch, scattering flowers and paying homage.' Furthermore, when the golden image of the Jingxing Nunnery came forth, an imperial edict assigned one hundred Yulin guardsmen; raising the sedan chair and playing music were all provided by the palace. Also, after the retreat concluded, on the following day all assembled to circumambulate villages and towns, worshipping various caityas, with canopied carts raising images, their banners and flowers blotting out the sun; it was named a sāmagrī (rendered here as 'harmonious gathering'). These are the practices of processing through cities in the Divine Land (China).