Sabulsan, Gulbulsan, and Manbulsan四佛山 掘佛山 萬佛山

About a hundred li east of Jungnyeong there is a mountain that rises high and steep.

In the ninth year of King Jinpyeong, the gapsin year, a great stone suddenly appeared. Each of its four faces was a full gil across, with the Buddhas of the Four Directions (四方如來) carved on them, and all wrapped in red silk, it fell from the sky onto the summit of that mountain.

The king heard of it, drove out in his carriage, and gazed up at it in reverence. Then he built a temple beside the rock and named it on its plaque Daeseungsa (大乘寺).

He called on a monk whose name is not passed down, one who recited the Lotus Sutra, and entrusted the temple to him. He sprinkled water and swept, and served the stone, and the incense never ceased.

The mountain was called Yeokdeoksan (亦德山) or Sabulsan (四佛山). After the monk died and was buried, a lotus bloomed on top of his grave.

Also, when King Gyeongdeok made a royal visit to Baengnyulsa (栢栗寺) and came to the foot of the mountain, a voice calling on the Buddha was heard from under the ground.

He had it dug up, and a great stone came out with the Buddhas of the Four Directions carved on its four faces. Because of this he built a temple and named it Gulbul (掘佛), the Dug-up Buddha. Now it is wrongly passed down as Gulseok (掘石).

The king also heard that Emperor Daizong of Tang greatly honored Buddhism, and he commanded craftsmen to make a five-colored carpet.

He also had aloeswood and sandalwood (沈檀木), bright pearls, and fine jade carved into a miniature mountain a little over a gil high, and set it on the carpet.

The mountain had steep cliffs and strange rocks, and it was divided into sections by streams and valleys. In every section there were singing and dancing entertainers and the scenery of the mountains and rivers of many countries.

When a light breeze came in through the door, bees and butterflies flew and swallows and sparrows danced, so that seen dimly one could not tell whether it was real or not.

In the middle were placed ten thousand buddhas. The large ones were over a chi, the small ones eight or nine pun. Their heads were some the size of a millet grain, some the size of half a bean. The curled hair, the white tuft, the eyebrows, and the eyes were distinct, and every mark of excellence was in place, but they could only be seen dimly and not in detail. Because of this it was named Manbulsan (萬佛山), the Mountain of Ten Thousand Buddhas.

In front were more than a thousand figures of monks circling around, and below were set three purple-gold bells, each with its own pavilion and a whale-shaped striker hanging.

When the wind blew and the bells rang, the circling monks all prostrated themselves with their heads touching the ground, and faintly the sound of Buddhist chanting arose. In general, the mechanism lay in the bells.

Though it was named Ten Thousand Buddhas, in truth they could not all be counted.

When it was completed, an envoy was sent to present it.

Daizong looked at it and said in wonder, "The skill of Silla is the work of heaven, not the work of human hands."

Then he set the Nine-Light Fan (九光扇) between the rocks and peaks and called it the Light of the Buddha (佛光).

On the eighth day of the fourth month he commanded the monks of the two avenues to pay homage to Manbulsan at the ritual site inside the palace, and commanded the Tripitaka master Bukong (不空) to recite the true texts of the esoteric teaching a thousand times in celebration. All who saw it marveled at and admired its craftsmanship.

In praise it is said:

Heaven adorned the full moon and cut it to the four directions, Earth sent up the bright tuft and opened it in a single night. A wondrous hand took pains again to carve ten thousand buddhas, So that the true wind might reach heaven, earth, and humankind alike.