Beopgong法空
1Beopgong — King Beopheung and Yeomchok, and the white milk that sprang from the severed neck
釋法空．新羅第二十三法興王也。名原宗。智證王元子母延帝夫人。王身長七尺。寬厚愛人。乃神乃聖。彰信兆民。三年龍現楊井中。四年始置兵部。七年頒示律令。始制百官朱紫之秩。即位已來。每欲興佛法。群臣噪噪騰口舌。王難之。然念阿道之至願。乃召群臣問曰。聖祖味鄒與阿道。肇宣佛教。大功未集而崩。能仁妙化。遏而不行。朕甚痛焉。當大立伽藍重興像設。其克從先王之烈。其如卿等何。大臣恭謁等諫曰。近者年不登．民不安。加以隣兵犯境。師旅未息。奚暇勞民作役。作無用之屋哉。王㦖左右無信。歎曰．寡人以不德。叨承大寶。陰陽不序。黎民未安。故臣下逆而不從。誰能以妙法之術曉諭迷人者乎。久無應者。至十六年。奧有內史舍人朴厭髑〔或云異次頓或云居次頓〕年二十六。匪直也。人秉心塞淵。奮義見之勇。欲助洪願。密奏曰。陛下若欲興佛教。臣請偽傳王命於有司曰。王欲剏佛事。如此則群臣必諫。當即下勅曰。朕無此令。誰矯命耶。彼等當劾臣罪。若可其秦彼當服矣。王曰彼既頑傲。雖殺卿何服。曰大聖之教天神所奉。若斬小臣。當有天地之異。若果有變誰敢違傲。王曰本欲興利除害。反賊忠臣。可無傷乎。曰殺身成仁。人臣大節。況佛日恒明。皇圖愈永。死之日猶生之年也。王大加嗟賞曰。汝是布衣。意懷錦繡。乃與厭髑。深結洪誓。遂傳宣曰。剏寺於天鏡林。執事者奉勅興功。延臣果面。折逆諍。王曰朕不出令。髑乃昌言。臣固為之。若行此法舉國泰安。苟有益於經濟。雖矯國令何罪。於是大會群臣問之。僉曰今見僧徒。童頭毀服。議論奇詭。而非常道。若忽從之恐有後悔。臣等雖死罪不敢奉詔。髑奮曰。今群臣之言非也。夫有非常之人。而後有非常之事。吾聞佛教淵奧。不可不行。且燕雀焉知鴻鵠之志哉。王曰眾人之言。牢不可破。汝獨異言。不能兩從。遂下吏將誅。髑告天誓曰。我為法就刑。庶興義利。佛若有神。吾死當有異事。及斬其頭。飛至金剛山頂落焉。白乳從斷處湧出。高數十丈。日色昏黑。天雨妙花。地大震動君臣士庶。咸皆上畏天變。下慟舍人重法隕命。相向舉哀而哭。遂奉遺體營葬金剛山禮也。于時君臣盟曰。自今而後。奉佛歸僧。有渝此盟。明神殛之。君子曰。大聖應千百年之運。仁發於祥。義動於瑞。莫不應乎天地亙乎日月動乎鬼神。而況於人乎。夫其自信於道則天地不得為不應然功貴成而業貴廣也。故苟有大賴。則輕泰山於鴻毛。壯哉。得其死所矣。是年下令禁殺生〔按國史及古諸傳商量而述。〕二十一年伐木天鏡林。欲立精舍。掃地得柱礎．石龕及階陛。果是往昔招提舊基。梁棟之用皆出此林。工既告畢。王遜位為僧。改名法空。念三衣瓦鉢。志行高遠。慧悲一切。因名其寺。曰大王興輪寺。以大王所住故也。此新羅剏寺之始。王妃亦奉佛為比丘尼。住永興寺焉。自此啟興大事故。王之諡曰法興。非虛美也。厥後每丁厭髑忌旦。設會於興輪寺。以追其遠及大王宗時。宰輔金良圖信向西方。捨二女。曰花寶．曰蓮寶。為此寺婢。又以逆臣毛尺族類充賤。故二種銅錫至今執役。予遊東都登金剛嶺。見孤墳短碑。慨然不能自止。是日山人會食。問其故。即吾舍人諱日也。亦可謂去滋久．思滋深矣。按阿道碑。法興王出法名法雲．字法空。今按國史及殊異傳。分立二傳。諸好古者請詳撿焉。
The monk Beopgong (法空) was King Beopheung, the twenty-third ruler of Silla. His name was Wonjong (原宗). He was the eldest son of King Jijeung, and his mother was Lady Yeonje. The king was seven feet tall, generous and kind, and he loved people. He was divine, he was holy, and he showed his good faith to the multitude of the people. In his third year a dragon appeared in the well of Yangjeong (楊井). In his fourth year the ministry of war was first established. In his seventh year he proclaimed the statutes and ordinances, and first set the order of the crimson and the purple for the hundred officials.
Ever since he ascended the throne he had wished to raise up the Law of the Buddha, but his officials clamoured and wagged their tongues, and the king found it hard. Still he thought of the deep vow of Ado, and so he called his officials together and asked them. "My holy forebear King Michu and Ado first spread the teaching of the Buddha, but they died before the great merit was gathered in. The wondrous teaching of the Buddha is blocked and does not go forward, and I grieve over it bitterly. I mean to raise a great monastery and set up the images again, and so follow the will of the former kings. What say you, my lords?"
The great minister Gongal (恭謁) and others remonstrated. "In recent years the harvest has failed and the people are not at peace. Besides, the soldiers of the neighbouring states have crossed the border, and the fighting has not ceased. What leisure is there to weary the people with labour and build a house of no use?"
The king grieved that there was no one at his side he could trust, and he sighed. "I have no virtue, and yet I have presumed to succeed to the great treasure. The yin and the yang have lost their order and the people are not at peace, and so my officials go against me and do not follow. Who can awaken these deluded people with the art of the wondrous law?" For a long time no one answered.
In his sixteenth year there was a palace secretary, a naesa sain (內史舍人), named Bak Yeomchok (朴厭髑)〔He is also called Ichadon, or Geochadon.〕 He was twenty-six years old. He was not merely upright. He held his heart deep and still, and he had the courage to rouse himself for what is right and to step forward when he saw it, and he wished to help the great vow. He said to the king in secret. "If Your Majesty wishes to raise up the teaching of the Buddha, let me falsely pass a royal command down to the office in charge and say, 'The king means to begin work on a monastery.' If I do so, your officials will surely remonstrate. Then send down a decree at once and say, 'I gave no such order. Who has forged my command?' They will call for my punishment. If you grant what they ask, they will submit."
The king said, "They are stubborn and haughty already. Even if I kill you, how would they submit?"
"The teaching of the great sage is upheld by the gods of heaven. If your small servant is beheaded, there will surely be strange things in heaven and on earth. If wonders truly appear, who will dare to defy you and be haughty?"
The king said, "I meant to raise up what is good and to rid the land of harm, and instead I would injure a loyal servant. Can that be done without hurt?"
"To give up the body and fulfill benevolence is the great duty of a servant. How much more when the sun of the Buddha will shine on forever and the foundation of the throne grow longer still. The day of my death will be rather the year of my life."
The king sighed in deep admiration and praised him. "You wear hempen clothes, yet your mind holds brocade." Then he made a deep and great pledge together with Yeomchok.
At last the command went out. "Build a monastery in the forest of Cheongyeongnim." The officers in charge received the decree and set the work going. The officials of the court did indeed meet him face to face and dispute against it. The king said, "I sent down no such command." Then Yeomchok spoke out in a loud voice. "Your servant did this on purpose. If this law is practised, the whole country will be greatly at peace. If there is truly benefit in the ordering of the state, what crime is it to have forged the command of the state?"
Then the king gathered all his officials and asked them, and they all said. "Look now at the company of monks. They shave their heads like children, they spoil their clothes, and their talk is strange and deceiving. This is no constant way. If we follow it all at once, we fear there will be regret afterward. Though your servants die, we dare not receive the decree."
Yeomchok rose up and said. "What the officials say now is wrong. There must first be an extraordinary man, and only then are there extraordinary deeds. I have heard that the teaching of the Buddha is deep and hidden, and that it must not be left unpractised. And how should the swallow and the sparrow know the will of the wild goose and the swan?"
The king said, "The word of the multitude is firm and cannot be broken, and you alone speak otherwise. I cannot follow them both." At last he handed him over to the officers to be put to death.
Yeomchok announced his vow to heaven. "I go to my punishment for the sake of the Law. I pray that righteousness and benefit may rise from it. If the Buddha has divine power, there will be strange things after I die." When they cut off his head, it flew to the top of Geumgangsan and fell there. White milk gushed up from the severed place, several tens of fathoms high. The light of the sun grew dark, heaven rained wondrous flowers, and the earth shook greatly.
The king and his officials, the men of rank and the common people, all feared the portent of heaven above, and below they grieved that the sain had held the Law heavy and had given up his life. They looked at one another and wept aloud. Then they took up what was left of his body and buried it on Geumgangsan, and it was done as the rites require. At that time the king and his officials made a pledge. "From this day on we shall serve the Buddha and take refuge in the monks. Whoever breaks this pledge, may the bright gods strike him down."
The gentleman says. The great sage answered to the turning of a thousand and a hundred years. His benevolence flowered into blessings and his righteousness stirred into omens, and there was nothing that did not answer to heaven and earth, stretch across the sun and the moon, and move the spirits. How much more, then, people. Whoever truly believes in the way, heaven and earth cannot but answer him. Yet merit is prized for being completed and work is prized for being made wide. So when there is truly a great thing to lean upon, a man holds Mount Tai lighter than the down of a goose. Splendid. He found the place to die.
In that year the command went out forbidding the taking of life.〔This is set down after weighing the national history and the various old accounts.〕
In his twenty-first year they cut the trees of Cheongyeongnim to raise a monastery. As they swept the ground they found pillar bases, a stone niche, and steps. It was indeed the old site of a monastery of former days. All the timber for the beams and the ridgepoles came out of that forest. When the work was finished, the king gave up the throne and became a monk, and changed his name to Beopgong (法空). He kept in mind the three robes and the earthen bowl. His will and his conduct were high and far reaching, and his wisdom and his compassion reached all things. For this reason the monastery was called Daewang Heungnyunsa (大王興輪寺), because it was where the great king dwelt. This was the beginning of monastery building in Silla. The queen too served the Buddha and became a nun, and dwelt at Yeongheungsa.
From this time great works were opened and raised up, and so the king's posthumous name was Beopheung (法興), and it was no empty praise. After that, on the morning of every anniversary of Yeomchok's death, they held an assembly at Heungnyunsa to follow him back across the distance. In the time of Daewangjong (大王宗), the chief minister Kim Yangdo (金良圖) believed in the Western paradise and turned toward it, and he gave up his two daughters, Hwabo (花寶) and Yeonbo (蓮寶), to be servants of this monastery. He also filled the servile ranks with the kinsmen of the traitor Mocheok (毛尺). So these two lines have done the work of the monastery down to this day.
I travelled once to Dongdo (東都) and climbed the ridge of Geumgangnyeong, and there I saw a lonely grave and a short stone tablet. I was moved to sorrow and could not stop myself. That day the people of the hills gathered and ate together. I asked why, and it was the memorial day of our sain. It may indeed be said that the further the time goes, the deeper the remembrance grows. According to the stele of Ado, when King Beopheung left the household life his dharma name was Beopun (法雲) and his courtesy name was Beopgong. Now, having examined the national history and the Suijeon, I have set up two separate accounts, and I ask those who love the old to look them over closely.
2In praise — it was the strength of Yeomchok that swept away the clouds of delusion
贊曰：大抵國君與下舉事。可與守成。未可與慮始。加有時之利不利。信無信繫焉。則原宗雖欲剏興佛法。固難朝令而夕行。然承本願力。位據崇高。又賴賢臣啟沃。能以美利利天下。卒與漢明齊驅竝駕。偉矣哉。夫何間言。以梁武比之非也。彼以人主為大同寺奴。帝業墜地。法空既遜讓以固其嗣。自引為沙門。何有於我哉。髑經所謂王比丘殊身同體矣。若乎掃迷雲放性空之慧日挾之以飛者。惟厭髑之力乎。
In praise it is said:
In general, when the ruler of a country undertakes things together with those below him, he may keep with them what has been completed, but he cannot plan with them what is to begin. Still more when the times are favourable or unfavourable, and belief or unbelief hangs upon that. So although Wonjong wished to found and raise up the Law of the Buddha, it was truly hard to command it in the morning and have it done in the evening.
Yet he carried on the power of the vow he had made from the first, and his place was high. He leaned also on a worthy servant who opened his heart and helped him, and so he was able to benefit all under heaven with a fair benefit. In the end it may be said that he ran abreast with Emperor Ming of Han. How great he was. What other word is there?
To compare him with Emperor Wu of Liang is wrong. That one made himself, the lord of men, a servant of the Datong Monastery, and the work of the emperors fell to the ground. Beopgong had already yielded the throne and made the succession firm, and only then drew back of himself and became a monk, as if to say, "What has this to do with me?" As for Yeomchok, he is what the sutra calls the king and the monk, different in body and one in substance. And as for sweeping away the clouds of delusion, setting free the sun of wisdom of the empty nature, and taking hold of it to fly aloft, was that not the strength of Yeomchok alone?