Ado Lays the Foundation in Silla阿道基羅

Ado lays the foundation in Silla〔He is also called Ado (我道) or Adu (阿頭).〕

The fourth book of the Basic Record of Silla says this.

In the time of the nineteenth king, King Nulji, the monk Mukhoja (墨胡子) came from Goguryeo to Ilseon District (一善郡). A man of the district, Morye (毛禮),〔It is also written Morok.〕 dug a cave room inside his house and lodged him there.

At that time Liang sent an envoy with gifts of clothing and incense. The king and his ministers did not know the name of the incense or its use, and sent a man to carry it around the whole country and ask.

Mukhoja saw it and said, "This is called incense. When it is burned, its fragrance spreads richly and carries one's sincerity to the holy ones. Among the holy ones none surpass the Three Treasures (三寶). If you burn this and make a vow, there will surely be a divine answer."〔King Nulji lived in the age of Jin (晉) and Song (宋), so to say that Liang (梁) sent an envoy is probably a mistake.〕

At that time the king's daughter was gravely ill, so he had Mukhoja called to burn incense and offer a vow, and the princess's illness was soon healed.

The king was glad and rewarded him richly, but before long no one knew where he had gone.

Again, in the time of the twenty-first king, King Bicheo, the monk Ado came with three attendants, also to Morye's house, and his appearance was like Mukhoja's. He stayed several years and died without illness, and his three attendants remained and expounded the sutras and the vinaya, so that now and then there were those who believed and honored them.

Looking at the Original Stele of Ado (我道本碑), it says this.

Ado was a man of Goguryeo. His mother was Go Doryeong (高道寧). In the Zhengshi (正始) years, Agulma (我崛摩),〔His surname is A (我).〕 a man of Cao Wei (曹魏), came to Goguryeo as an envoy, had secret relations with her, and went home, and from this she conceived.

When the master was five his mother had him leave home to become a monk. At sixteen he went to Wei, visited Gulma, and entered the lecture hall of the monk Hyeonchang to study. At nineteen he came back to see his mother, and his mother said:

"This country does not yet know the Buddha's law. But after three thousand months and more, a holy king will arise in Gyerim and greatly raise up the teaching of the Buddha. Within its capital there are the sites of seven temples:

First, Cheongyeongnim east of Geumgyo 〔the present Heungnyunsa〕 Second, Samcheongi 〔the present Yeongheungsa〕 Third, south of Yonggung 〔the present Hwangnyongsa〕 Fourth, north of Yonggung 〔the present Bunhwangsa〕 Fifth, the end of Sacheon 〔the present Yeongmyosa〕 Sixth, Sinyurim 〔the present Cheonwangsa〕 Seventh, Seocheongjeon 〔the present Dameomsa〕

All are temple sites from the age of the former Buddhas, land where the water of the law flows on forever. Go there and spread the great teaching. In time you will be honored as the one who brought the Buddha's worship to the east."

Ado received her teaching and came to Gyerim, and lodged in the village west of the royal fortress, where the present Eomjangsa (嚴莊寺) stands. That was the second year after King Michu ascended the throne, the year gyemi.

He went to the palace and asked leave to practice the teaching, but because it was something the world had never seen before, people shunned it, and there were even those who wished to kill him. So he fled and hid in the house of Morok in Songnim (續林).〔Rok and rye are a mistake arising from the similar shapes of the characters. The Gogi says, 'When the master first came to Morok's house, heaven and earth shook. At that time people did not know the word for monk and called him Adu samma. Samma is the word for monk in the native tongue, the same as the word sami.'〕

In the third year Princess Seongguk fell ill, and shamans and physicians had no effect, so an order was given to seek physicians in every direction. The master went suddenly to the palace, and her illness was healed at last.

The king was greatly pleased and asked what he wished. He answered, "This poor monk seeks not one thing in a hundred. I wish only that a temple be built in Cheongyeongnim, that the Buddha's teaching be greatly raised up, and that blessings be brought to the country."

The king agreed and ordered the work. Since the customs were plain and frugal, they wove rushes for the roof. He stayed and lectured, and now and then heavenly flowers fell to the ground. It was named Heungnyunsa.

Morok's younger sister, named Sassi (史氏), entrusted herself to the master and became a nun, and she too built a temple at Samcheongi and lived there. It was named Yeongheungsa.

Not long after, King Michu died, and the people of the country tried to harm him. The master went back to Morok's house, made a tomb for himself, shut the door, and ended his own life, and never appeared again. Because of this the great teaching also fell away.

The twenty-third king, Great King Beopheung, ascended the throne in the thirteenth year of Tianjian of the Xiao Liang, the year gabo, and raised up the teaching of Sakyamuni. From King Michu's year gyemi that is two hundred and fifty-two years. The three thousand months and more that Doryeong spoke of came true.

By this, the Basic Record and the Original Stele differ and conflict in this way. Let me try to discuss it.

The two Seungjeon of Liang and Tang and the Samguk bonsa all place the beginning of Buddhism in the two countries of Goguryeo and Baekje in the Taiyuan years at the end of Jin, so it is clear that the two masters named Do reached Goguryeo in King Sosurim's year gapsul. Therefore this record is not wrong.

If Ado first reached Silla in the time of King Bicheo, then he stayed in Goguryeo more than a hundred years before coming. Though the deeds and comings and goings of great sages are not fixed, it need not always be so. Nor would Silla have been so late in honoring Buddhism.

Again, if it was in the reign of King Michu, that is more than a hundred years before the year gapsul when he reached Goguryeo. At that time Gyerim had no culture, no rites or teaching, and not even the name of the country was settled. What leisure was there for Ado to come and ask that the Buddha's law be honored? And to skip over to Silla without reaching Goguryeo makes no sense either.

Even if it rose for a moment and fell away again, how could the interval have been so silent and unheard of that people still did not even know the name of incense? How is the one so late and the other so early?

Judging by the way it spread eastward, it must have begun in Goguryeo and Baekje and ended in Silla. Since King Nulji's generation touches that of King Sosurim, Ado's leaving Goguryeo and reaching Silla should be in the reign of King Nulji.

Again, the healing of the king's daughter is everywhere handed down as Ado's doing, so the name Mukho (墨胡) is not a true name but a word used to point him out. It is of a kind with the people of Liang pointing to Bodhidharma as 'the blue-eyed barbarian,' and Jin mocking Shi Dao'an as 'the lacquered monk.' That is, Ado was walking a dangerous road and hid his name and surname and did not speak them.

The people of the country simply followed what they heard and handed down the two names Mukho and Ado as two men. All the more, since it is said that Ado's appearance was like Mukho's, this proves they were one man.

Doryeong's ordering of the seven sites foretold the order of their founding, but the two records missed this, so the end of Sacheon is now moved up to fifth.

The three thousand months and more cannot be wholly believed. From King Nulji's reign to the year jeongmi is roughly a hundred years and more, so if it had said a thousand months and more, it would have been nearly right.

That his surname is A (我) and his given name a single character is doubtful and seems false, and hard to know in detail.

Again, looking at the Biography of Shi Tanshi (釋曇始傳) of the Yuan Wei (元魏),〔He is also called Huishi.〕 it says this.

Tanshi was a man of Guanzhong, and after he left home to become a monk he had many marvelous deeds. At the end of the ninth year of Taiyuan under Emperor Xiaowu of Jin, he took several dozen scriptures and vinaya texts to Liaodong and spread the teaching, taught the three vehicles (三乘), and established the refuges and precepts (歸戒). This was the beginning of Goguryeo's hearing of the Way.

Tanshi's feet were whiter than his face, and though he waded through mud and water they were never wet, so all under heaven called him the White-Footed Monk (白足和尙).

At the end of Jin, the Xiongnu Helian Bobo broke Guanzhong and beheaded countless people. Tanshi too was struck, but the blade could not wound him. Bobo marveled, pardoned all the monks, and killed none of them.

Later, when Tuoba Tao held Chang'an and wielded his might, a man named Cui Hao (崔皓), who studied the Daoist teaching and envied and hated Buddhism, rose to be prime minister and won Tuoba Tao's trust. Then, together with the Celestial Master Kou Qianzhi, he persuaded Tuoba Tao that Buddhism was of no use and harmed the people's welfare, and urged him to abolish it.

In the last year of Taiping, Tanshi knew that the time for Tuoba Tao's conversion had come, and on the day of the New Year audience he suddenly appeared at the palace gate leaning on his staff. Tuoba Tao heard of it and ordered him beheaded, but again and again he was not wounded, and when Tuoba Tao struck him himself he was not wounded either. He tried to feed him to the tigers kept in the northern garden, but the tigers did not dare come near.

Tuoba Tao was greatly ashamed and afraid, and at last he fell into a foul disease. Cui Hao and Kou Qianzhi also fell ill with evil diseases one after the other. Tuoba Tao held that the fault had begun with them, beheaded the whole clans of the two houses, and issued an order to spread the Buddha's law widely throughout the country.

Where Tanshi ended his days afterward is not known.

In discussion it is said this. Tanshi reached Haedong at the end of Taiyuan and returned to Guanzhong at the beginning of Yixi, so he stayed here more than ten years. Why then do the eastern histories have nothing written of him? Tanshi was a strange and unfathomable man, and his dates and deeds match those of Ado, Mukho, and Nanta, so one suspects that one of the three must be the same man under a changed name.

In praise it is said:

Snow buries Geumgyo, frozen fast and closed, and the spring colors of Gyerim have not yet fully returned. How lovely, that the lord of spring, so rich in skill and thought, first touched the plum tree in the house of Morang (毛郎).