The Stone Where Kasyapa Buddha Sat迦葉佛宴坐石
1Iryeon saw the stone himself and wrote it down
玉龍集及慈藏傳,與諸家傳紀皆云.“新羅月城東龍宫南有迦葉佛宴坐石,其地即前佛時伽藍之墟也,今皇龍寺之地即七伽藍之一也.”按國史,真興王即位十四開國三年癸酉二月築新宫於月城東,有皇龍現其地,王疑之攺爲皇龍寺.宴坐石在佛殿後靣.甞一謁焉,石之髙可五六尺,來圍僅三肘幢立而平頂.真興創寺已來再經災火石有拆裂處,寺僧貼䥫爲護.
The Ongnyongjip (玉龍集), the Biography of Jajang, and the records of many houses all say this:
"East of Wolseong in Silla, south of the dragon palace, there is the stone where Kasyapa Buddha (迦葉佛) sat. That ground is the site of a temple from the age of the former buddhas. The site of Hwangnyongsa today is one of the seven temple sites."
Looking at the National History: in the fourteenth year of King Jinheung's reign, the third year of Gaeguk, the gyeyu year, in the second month, a new palace was being built east of Wolseong. A yellow dragon appeared on that ground, and the king, thinking this strange, changed the plan and made it Hwangnyongsa.
The stone where the buddha sat is behind the Buddha hall.
I once went and paid my respects to it. The stone was some five or six cheok high and only three spans around; it stood like a pillar with a flat top. Since King Jinheung built the temple it has twice passed through fire, and there were cracks in the stone, so the temple monks had fastened iron to it to protect it.
2In praise, and a note added afterward
乃有讃曰.惠日沉輝不記年,唯餘宴坐石依然.桑田㡬度成滄海,可惜巍然尚未遷.旣而西山大兵已後殿塔煨燼,而此石亦夷没而僅與地平矣.
So in praise it is said:
How many years since the sun of wisdom hid its light, none can count, Only the stone where the buddha sat remains as it was. How many times has the mulberry field become the blue sea, How sad, it stands lofty and has not yet been moved.
But after the great war of Seosan (西山), the halls and the pagoda were burned to ash, and this stone too was buried until it was barely level with the ground.
Interlinear notes 1
What "the great war of Seosan" refers to cannot be known from the original text alone. — tr.
3Reckoning the date of creation by the age of this stone
按阿含經,迦葉佛是賢刧第三尊也,人壽二萬歳時出現於世.㨿此以増减法計之每成劫初皆壽無量歳.漸减至壽八萬歳時爲住劫之初.自此又百年减一歳至壽十歳時爲一减,又增至人壽八萬歳時爲一增.如是二十减二十增爲一住劫.此一住劫中有千佛岀世,今夲師釋迦是第四尊也.四尊皆現於第九减中.自釋尊百歳壽時至迦葉佛二萬歳時已得二百萬餘歳.…自釋尊下至于今至元十八年辛巳歳已得二千二百三十矣,自抅留孫佛歴迦葉佛時至于今則直㡬萬歳也.有夲朝名士吳世文作歴代歌,從大金貞祐七年己夘逆數至四萬九千六百餘歳爲盤古開闢戊寅.又延禧宫録事金希寕所撰大一歴法,自開闢上元甲子,至元豊甲子一百九十三萬七千六百四十一歳.又纂古圗云,開闢至獲麟二百七十六萬歳.按諸經且以迦葉佛時至于今爲此石之壽,尚距於劫初開闢時爲兒子矣.三家之說尚不及玆兒石之年,其於開闢之說踈之逺矣.
Looking at the Agama Sutra, Kasyapa Buddha is the third buddha of the Bhadrakalpa (賢劫), and he appeared in the world when the human lifespan was twenty thousand years.
From this, let it be reckoned by the law of increase and decrease. At the beginning of the kalpa of formation, lifespans are all without measure. They gradually decrease, and when they reach eighty thousand years, that is the beginning of the kalpa of abiding. From there they decrease by one year every hundred years, and when they reach ten years, that is one decrease (一減); then they increase again, and when they reach eighty thousand years, that is one increase (一增). Twenty decreases and twenty increases in this way make one kalpa of abiding (住劫).
Within this one kalpa of abiding a thousand buddhas come into the world, and Shakyamuni, the teacher of this age, is the fourth. All four buddhas appeared in the ninth decrease.
From the time when Shakyamuni's lifespan was a hundred years back to the time when Kasyapa Buddha's was twenty thousand years is already more than two million years. If one goes back to the time of Krakucchanda Buddha, the first buddha at the beginning of the Bhadrakalpa, how many tens of thousands of years more is that? And from the time of Krakucchanda Buddha up to the time of measureless lifespans at the beginning of the kalpa, how much more again?
From Shakyamuni down to the present, the eighteenth year of Zhiyuan (至元), the sinsa year, is already two thousand two hundred and thirty years. From Krakucchanda Buddha through the time of Kasyapa Buddha to the present is then how many tens of thousands of years?
In the Song of the Successive Ages (歷代歌) composed by O Semun (吳世文), a famous scholar of this dynasty, counting backward from the seventh year of Zhenyou of the Great Jin (大金), the gimyo year, some forty-nine thousand six hundred years is the muin year when Pangu (盤古) opened heaven and earth.
Also, in the Great Unity Calendar (大一曆法) composed by Kim Huinyeong (金希寧), noksa of Yeonhui Palace, from the gapja year of the first cycle when heaven and earth opened to the gapja year of Yuanfeng is one million nine hundred thirty-seven thousand six hundred and forty-one years.
Also, the Chart of Compiled Antiquity (纂古圖) says that from the opening of heaven and earth to the capture of the unicorn is two million seven hundred and sixty thousand years.
Even if one looks at the sutras and takes the time from Kasyapa Buddha to the present as the age of this stone, compared with the first opening of the kalpa it is still a small child.
The theories of the three houses do not even reach the age of this child of a stone, so their theories of the opening of heaven and earth are crude and far off the mark.