一切經音義 60.99

60.99

Five māṣas (mò in fanqie from mò and hè; the next is shà in fanqie from shā and xià; both are departing-tone characters. In Sanskrit, this is the name used in the Western markets for gold and jewels. A single pellet of gold roughly the size of a parasol tree seed is called one māṣa. Comparing and estimating by the currency values of both eastern and western countries, it is equivalent to eighty copper cash of this land. Five māṣas amount to four hundred cash. Under the royal law of that country, if one steals property valued at five māṣas, the penalty is permanent expulsion: being cast out into the mountain forests to live or die as fate wills. If one steals one, two, three, or four māṣas, the punishment is meted out according to the degree of the crime, not resulting in abandonment. The precepts instituted by the Buddha correspond entirely to the royal law. If the property stolen by a monk is valued at five māṣas, it is deemed committing a grave offense, and he is expelled and driven out from the sangha, no longer living together with them. Ancient translators misunderstood this and equated one māṣa to one copper cash, which was a grave error! The Buddha said: 'My teachings establish regulations in accordance with the lands and states.' If evaluated by the royal laws of this country, from the Five Thearchs and Three Kings down to the royal statutes of the Great Tang, one has never heard of stealing five cash warranting death. Even for stealing five bolts of silk or more, one would only reach penal exile; between one and a hundred strings of cash, there is caning, but it does not reach penal exile. Yet to say that five cash constitutes a grave offense is excessively harsh, making it difficult to maintain the precepts, and those who unknowingly break this precept would be manifold. The Sarvāstivāda vinaya states that four hundred cash constitutes a grave offense, which is based on strict judgment; balancing lenient and severe penalties in accordance with this realm's royal statutes precisely hits the mark and accords with the Buddha's original injunction).