貞元新定釋教目錄 5.22.6

5.22.6

His mother passed away, and his filial nature surpassed that of ordinary men. Once the funeral was over, he immediately returned to the monastery. He was once reaping grain in the fields with several tens of his fellow students when starving bandits came intending to seize their grain. All the novices fled, but Faxian alone remained and addressed the bandits, saying: 'If you need the grain, take as you please. It is only because in former lives you did not practice giving that you are poor and hungry in this life; if you rob others again now, I fear your suffering in future lives will be even worse. I, a poor monk, am speaking to you out of concern for you in advance.' Having said this, he returned, and the bandits abandoned the grain and departed. None among the several hundred monks failed to admire him. When he received the full precepts, his aspirations and conduct were pure and unblemished, and his decorum was solemn. Constantly lamenting the defects and omissions in the sūtras and vinayas, he vowed to seek them out. In the third year of Long'an under Emperor An [399 CE], together with his fellow students Huijing, Daozheng, Huiying, Huiwei, and others, he departed from Chang'an and crossed the desert to the west. Above there were no flying birds, and below there were no running beasts. Looking around, the vast expanse was boundless, with no way to tell where to go; they guided their direction only by observing the sun and marked their path only by human bones. There were frequent heat winds and evil demons, meeting which meant certain death; yet Faxian entrusted himself to karma and surrendered his life, passing straight through the perils. Before long, he reached the Congling Mountains, where snow accumulates winter and summer. There were vicious dragons spewing poisonous wind, rain, sand, and gravel. The mountain roads were treacherous and steep, with sheer cliffs rising thousands of cubits. In ancient times, people had cut into the rock to open a path and installed ladders along the sides; in all, he traversed over seven hundred ladders. He also stepped along suspended ropes to cross rivers more than several tens of times, none of which had been reached by Zhang Qian or Ganfu during the Han dynasty. Next, he crossed the Little Snow Mountains, where a sudden freezing wind arose. Huijing trembled with cold and could go no further, and said to Faxian: 'I shall surely die; you should go on in time, and must not perish together with me!' When his words ended, he passed away. Faxian caressed him, weeping: 'Our original plan is not fulfilled; it is fate, what can be done?' Straining his own strength, he proceeded alone and eventually crossed the mountain passes. In all, he passed through more than thirty kingdoms, reaching Northern India and then proceeding to the Central Country [Madhyadeśa]. When he was over thirty li from Rājagṛha, there was a monastery where, as dusk was falling, he stayed. The next morning, Faxian wished to visit Gṛdhrakūṭa Mountain. The monastery monks admonished him: 'The path is extremely hazardous, and moreover there are many black lions that have often eaten people; how can you reach it?' Faxian said: 'I have traveled tens of thousands of li from afar, vowing to reach Vulture Peak. Life cannot be guaranteed, and an outgoing breath is not assured; how could I let the sincere dedication of many years be abandoned just when I have arrived? Though there be hazards and perils, I am not afraid.' None of them could stop him, so they sent two monks to escort him. When Faxian arrived in the mountains, the sun was about to set, so he wished to stay overnight. The two monks, in fear and trembling, abandoned him and left. Faxian remained alone in the mountains. He burned incense, bowed in worship, and gazed with deep feeling at the ancient sites, as if beholding the holy countenance. At night, three black lions came, crouched before Faxian, licked their lips, and wagged their tails. Faxian chanted the sūtras without ceasing and single-mindedly recollected the Buddha. The lions then lowered their heads, dropped their tails, and lay prostrate before Faxian's feet. Faxian stroked them with his hand and commanded them with a spell: 'If you wish to harm me, wait until I finish reciting. If you are here to test me, you may leave now.' After a long while, the lions departed. The next morning he returned; the road was profoundly secluded and deep, with dense tangles of brambles and wild animals crisscrossing, with only a single track passable. When he was a little less than a li away, he suddenly encountered a Daoist practitioner about ninety years of age, whose appearance and clothing were coarse and simple, yet whose spiritual bearing was lofty and far-reaching. Although Faxian perceived his elevated demeanor, he did not realize who the man was. A moment later, proceeding forward, he met a young Daoist practitioner. Faxian asked: 'Who was that elder just now?' He answered: 'The ascetic disciple Mahākāśyapa.' Faxian was struck with wonder and sorrow for a long time. When he arrived in front of the mountain, a large rock blocked the mouth of the cavern, so he could not enter. Faxian wept, paid his respects, and departed. (I now remark: the place Faxian visited was Mount Kukkuṭapāda, where Mahākāśyapa entered nirrvāṇa, not Vulture Peak, the former dwelling place of the Buddha.) He also arrived at the kingdom of Kāśī; within a monastery there was a white-eared dragon that made an agreement with the monks to bring bumper harvests to the kingdom, all with verified efficacy. The śramaṇas built a dragon shrine for it and provided merit offerings. At the end of every summer retreat, the dragon would transform into a small snake with both ears completely white. Everyone recognized it as the dragon, filled a bronze bowl with curds, and placed it inside. It walked from the senior seats down to the junior seats as if paying respects, and when finished it transformed and left, emerging once each year. Faxian also personally saw this dragon. Afterward he returned to Central India. At the Aśoka Stūpa in Pāṭaliputra in Magadha, at the Southern Devarāja Monastery, he obtained the Mahāsāṃghika-vinaya. He also obtained the Sarvāstivāda-vinaya extract, the Miscellaneous Abhidharmahṛdaya, the sūtra cords [sūtra texts], and the Vaipulya Mahāparinirvāṇa-sūtra. (This Vaipulya Nirvāṇa is the Indic text of the six-fascicle Mahāparinirvāṇa-sūtra; according to the postscript of the sūtra, it is titled Fangdeng da banniehuan jing, and does not refer to the two-fascicle Fangdeng nihuan.) Faxian stayed for three years, studying the Indic script and language, and copying them by hand himself. Thereupon, taking the sūtras and images, he took passage with merchants to the Lion Country [Siṃhala/Sri Lanka]. Of more than ten companions of Faxian, some had stayed behind and some had died; looking at his shadow, he was all alone, constantly filled with grief and sorrow. Suddenly, before a jade statue, he saw a merchant making an offering of a white round fan from the Jin lands, and involuntarily wept with grief. Staying for two years, he further obtained the Mahīśāsaka-vinaya, the Dīrgha-āgama, the Saṃyukta-āgama, and the Kṣudraka-piṭaka text, all of which were not available in the Han land. In that Lion Country there is a tooth of the Buddha. Every year in the third month, the king of that country ten days in advance adorns a white elephant and sends a high-ranking, eloquent, and wise minister dressed in royal attire atop the elephant to beat a drum and proclaim in a loud voice: 'The Tathāgata was in the world for forty-five years, preaching the Dharma and liberating countless billions of people. When the karmic affinities of sentient beings were exhausted, he entered parinirvāṇa. From then until now, it has been 1,497 years. The world is in long darkness, and sentient beings are pitiable. Ten days from now, the Buddha's tooth will be brought out to the Abhayagiri Monastery; prepare incense and flowers, and come each to make offerings.' At that time, it was the first year of Yixi under the Jin [405 CE]; calculating from the yisi year [405 CE], the first year of Yixi, to the present gengwu year [730 CE], the eighteenth year of Kaiyuan, it amounts to 1,822 years. Thereafter, Faxian boarded a large merchant ship and returned eastward by sea. There were about two hundred people on the ship. Encountering a great gale, the ship was damaged and water entered; in terror, the people tossed miscellaneous cargo overboard. Fearing that the merchants would throw out his sūtras and images, Faxian single-mindedly recollected Avalokiteśvara and entrusted his life to the monastic saṃgha of the Han lands. The ship drifted with the wind and avoided destruction. Traveling for ninety days, it reached the kingdom of Yavadvīpa, where he stayed for five months. He again followed other merchant companions heading east toward Guangzhou. Raising sail for over a month, suddenly day and night a great wind arose, and everyone on the ship was terrified. They consulted together, saying: 'Carrying this śramaṇa has brought us disaster; we cannot let everyone perish for the sake of one man!' and wished to push him overboard. Faxian's dānapati berated the merchants in a stern voice: 'If you put this śramaṇa ashore, you should also put me ashore; if not, you will have to kill me! The emperors and kings of the Han land revere the Buddha and respect the monks; when I arrive there and report to the king, he will surely punish you!' The merchants looked at each other in dismay and reluctantly desisted. When the water was exhausted and provisions were gone,