The Country of Jiantuoluo健馱邏國

The country of Jiantuoluo is more than a thousand li from east to west and more than eight hundred li from north to south. On the east it reaches the Xindu river. The great capital city of the country is named Bulushabuluo, and it is more than forty li around. The royal line has failed, and the country is bound in service to the country of Jiabishi. The towns and villages are empty and waste and few people live in them, and in one corner of the palace city there are more than a thousand households. Grain crops are plentiful and flowers and fruits grow thick. There is much sugarcane, and rock sugar is made here. The climate is warm and hot, and there is almost no frost or snow. The people are timid by nature and love to study the old writings and the arts. They revere other ways greatly and few believe in the true Law. From old times this has been the birthplace of the masters who made the treatises within the borders of India: the god Naluoyan, the bodhisattva Wuzhuo, the bodhisattva Shiqin, Fajiu, Ruyi and the venerable Xie. There are some ten monasteries, broken and fallen, waste and desolate, and a good many of the stupas have collapsed. The temples of the gods number a hundred, and followers of other ways live mixed among them.

In the northeast of the royal city there is one old foundation, the precious terrace where the bowl of the Buddha was kept long ago. After the Tathagata entered nirvana the bowl came down to this country, and for several hundred years it received offerings after the rule. Then it passed from country to country, and it is now in Bolasi.

Eight or nine li southeast outside the city there is a Biboluo tree more than a hundred feet high. Its branches and leaves spread thick and its shade is dark. The four Buddhas of the past have already sat beneath it, and the seated images of the four Buddhas are there still. Of this good kalpa, all nine hundred and ninety-six Buddhas shall sit here. Hidden spirits keep guard over it, and a spiritual watch reaches it unseen. Sakyamuni Tathagata sat beneath this tree facing south and said to Ananda, "Four hundred years after I have left the world there shall be a king to rule the age, and his name shall be Jianisejia. Not far south of this he will raise a stupa, and the relics of the bones and flesh of my body shall be gathered in it in great number."

South of the Biboluo tree there is a stupa, built by King Jianisejia. King Jianisejia came to the throne four hundred years after the Tathagata entered nirvana. He took up the destiny of the age and ruled the continent of Shanbu, but he did not believe in guilt and blessing, and he made light of the Law of the Buddha and reviled it. Once, hunting in the grassy marshes, he met a white hare, and the king chased it himself, and when it came to this place it suddenly vanished. Then he saw a boy herding cattle, who was making a little stupa among the trees of the wood, three feet high. The king said, "What are you doing?" The herd boy answered, "Long ago the Buddha Sakyamuni wrote down beforehand in his holy wisdom, 'There shall be a king who raises a stupa on this excellent ground, and the relics of my body shall be gathered in it in great number.' Great king, you planted holy virtue in a former life, your name matches the record of old, and your wondrous work and excellent blessing belong truly to this hour. Therefore I now give you the first warning of it." When he had said this he suddenly was seen no more. When the king heard these words his joy grew in his heart, and he believed of himself that the name the great sage had written down beforehand was his own. So he brought forth right faith and revered the Law of the Buddha deeply. He set the little stupa within a circle and raised a stone stupa about it, wishing to cover it over by the labor of men. But as often as he raised it, the little stupa always rose three feet higher, and it went on rising in this way until it passed four hundred feet. The ground where the base stood was a li and a half around, the layered base was of five stages and a hundred and fifty feet high, and only then could he cover the little stupa. The king rejoiced, and on top of it he set up wheels of gilt bronze in twenty-five tiers, and he placed one hu of the relics of the Tathagata within it and made offering after the rule. When the building was hardly finished, he saw the little stupa half thrust out below the southeast corner of the great base. The king was not easy in his heart and threw it away, but it came to rest half showing in the stone base beneath the second stage of the stupa, and a little stupa came forth again in its first place as well. Then the king drew back and sighed, "Alas, the works of men are easily led astray, and wondrous work is hard to hide. This is upheld by a spirit and a sage, and what can anger reach?" When he had been ashamed and afraid, he begged pardon for his fault and went back. These two stupas are there to this day, and many who are sick and pray to be made well anoint them with incense and scatter flowers and take refuge in them with utmost sincerity, and many of them are healed.

South of the stone stairway on the east face of the great stupa two little stupas are carved, one three feet high and one five feet high, and their plan and shape are like the great stupa. Two images of the Buddha are made there as well, one four feet high and one six feet high, in the likeness of the image seated cross-legged beneath the bodhi tree. When the sunlight shines on them their gold color dazzles, and as the shadow moves on by degrees the pattern of the stone is dark blue. The elders say that several hundred years ago there were golden ants in a crack of the stone base, the large ones as big as a finger and the small ones as big as a grain of barley, and that they followed one another, kind with kind, and gnawed the stone wall until the pattern was as though carved, and mixed gold sand with it and made these images. They are there still.

On the south face of the stone stairway of the great stupa there is a painted image of the Buddha, one fathom and six feet high. From the breast upward it shows as two bodies, and from the breast downward the two join into one body. In the records of former days it is said that at first there was a poor man who lived by hiring out his strength, and when he had got one gold coin he vowed to have an image of the Buddha made. He came to the place of the stupa and said to the painter, "I wish now to draw the wondrous likeness of the Tathagata, but I have only one gold coin, and it is too little for the wage. This has long weighed on my heart as a care and a burden, but poverty drives me to it." Then that painter saw his utmost sincerity, and without speaking of the price he agreed to do the work. There was another man who came in the same way with one gold coin and asked for an image of the Buddha to be drawn. The painter then took the money of the two men, sought out fine colors, and drew one image for them both. On the same day the two men came together to do reverence, and the painter pointed them both to the one image and said to them, "This is the image of the Buddha that you have had made." The two men looked at each other as though something weighed on them. The painter knew their doubt in his heart and said to them, "Why do you ponder so long? Of what I received I have not wasted a hair's breadth. If these words are not false, the image will surely change in a wondrous way." Before the sound of his voice was still, the image showed a spiritual wonder, dividing its body and crossing its shadows, and the light and the form were clear to see. The two men were glad and were won over, and their hearts believed and rejoiced.

More than a hundred paces southwest of the great stupa there is an image of the Buddha in white stone, one fathom and eight feet high, standing and facing north. It has many spiritual signs and often sends out a bright light. At times men have seen the image come out and walk by night and go round the great stupa. In recent days a band of robbers came to steal from it, and the image came out and met the robbers, and the band of robbers drew back in fear, and the image returned to its place and stood as before. Because of this the band of robbers mended their faults and made themselves new, and they went about the villages and told everyone far and near.

To the left and right of the great stupa the little stupas are like the scales of a fish and number a hundred. The adorning of the images of the Buddha is done with all the skill and thought that can be spent, and a strange fragrance and a rare sound are heard at times, and spiritual immortals and holy sages are sometimes seen going round them. Of this stupa the Tathagata wrote beforehand, "When it has burned seven times and been raised seven times, the Law of the Buddha shall come to its end." The record of a worthy man before us says, "It has been made and ruined three times already." When I first came to this country it had just met with a fire, and I saw the building going on, but it was not yet finished.

West of the great stupa there is an old monastery, whose foundation was laid by King Jianisejia. Its storied pavilions and tiered halls, its layered terraces and connecting doors were meant to call in high monks and to make a great blessing shine. Though it is fallen in ruin, it may still be called rare work. The monks have grown few, and they all study the Lesser Vehicle. Since the monastery was built, men out of the common have come forth one after another, masters who made treatises and men who attained the holy fruits, and the pure wind still fans, and their utmost virtue is not wiped away.

In the pavilion of the third story there is the room of the venerable Bolishifu. It fell down long ago, but a marker is still set up there. At first, when the venerable one was a teacher of the Brahmans, he was nearly eighty years old, and he left his house and put on the dyed robe. The young men of the city mocked him at once and said, "Foolish old dotard, how shallow your wisdom is. For one who leaves the household there are two works: the first is to practice meditation and the second is to recite the sutras. But now you are worn with age and have nothing to gain, and you set your steps wrongly in the pure stream and know only how to eat your fill." Then the venerable Xie heard these mocking words, and he begged pardon of the men of the time and made a vow to himself, "If I do not master the meaning of the three baskets, and cut off the desires of the three worlds, and gain the six spiritual powers and hold the eight deliverances, I will never lay my side upon a mat." From that time the days were not long enough for him. He walked back and forth and sat in quiet, and stood still and pondered, and by day he studied and polished the doctrine and the teaching, and by night he thought in stillness and gathered his spirit. Three years together, and his learning had mastered the three baskets, he had cut off the desires of the three worlds, and he had gained the wisdom of the three clear knowledges. The men of that time revered and looked up to him, and for this reason they called him the venerable Xie.

East of the room of the venerable Xie there is an old room where the bodhisattva Shiqin made the Apidamo jushe lun. Men revere it and have sealed it up and set a mark on it.

More than fifty paces south of the room of Shiqin, in the pavilion of the second story, the master of treatises Monuhelata made the Piposha lun. The master appeared a thousand years after the Buddha entered nirvana. From his youth he loved learning and had talent and eloquence, and his fame spread far, and monks and laymen turned their hearts to him. At that time King Piqiluomoadieduo of the country of Shiluofaxidi had spread his awe and his manners far and made all India his vassals, and every day he gave out five hundred million gold coins to help the poor, the needy and the orphaned everywhere. The minister of the treasury feared that the wealth of the country would run short, and he admonished him indirectly, "Great king, your awe has clothed even the strange countries and your bounty reaches even the crawling things. I beg you to add five hundred million gold coins more and relieve the needy of the four quarters. When the treasury is empty, taxes will be laid again on those who hold land, and if the gathering is doubled and does not stop, a voice of resentment will rise. Then the king above will have the favor of one who gives to all, but the ministers below will bear the reproach of being wanting in respect." The king said, "I gather what is over and give it to those who have not enough. I do not lavish the wealth of the country for my own body's sake." So he added five hundred million more and bestowed it on the poor. Afterward he went out to hunt and lost the track of a boar he was chasing, and he gave a hundred million gold coins to the man who found and knew the track, and when a servant of the master of treatises Ruyi shaved his hair he at once gave him a hundred million gold coins, and the historians of that country wrote it down as it was. The king was ashamed to be seen as the lesser, and his heart was always ill at ease, and so he wished to put the master of treatises Ruyi to shame before the crowd. He called together a hundred men of the other learnings whose virtue and work were high and deep, and gave the order, "I wish to draw in what I see and hear and to wander in the true realm, but the other ways are mixed in confusion and my heart has nowhere to rest. Now I shall weigh the better and the worse, and follow and honor only what is fine." When they came to the assembly for the debate he gave the order again, "The masters of the other ways are all men of excellence. The monks of the company of the Law must set up their doctrine and their meaning well. If they win, I shall honor and revere the Law of the Buddha. If they lose, I shall put the monks to death." Then Ruyi questioned the followers of other ways closely, and ninety-nine of them had already drawn back and fled. One man in the lowest seat looked to be of no account, and so Ruyi spoke on at his ease, and the debate came to fire and smoke. The king and the followers of other ways all cried out, "There is a fault in the words and the meaning of the master of treatises Ruyi. Smoke first and fire after is the common course of things." Ruyi wished to answer their objection, but there was no one who would listen. He was ashamed to be put to shame before the crowd, and he bit his tongue through and cut it off, and he left a writing for his disciple Shiqin to warn him, "Where many stand together to help one another, the great meaning cannot be contested; among a crowd of the deluded, the right doctrine cannot be told apart." When he had spoken he died. Not long after, King Chaori lost his kingdom, and a new king took up the destiny and set forth men of excellence and worth as his models. The bodhisattva Shiqin wished to wash away the shame of before, and came and said to the king, "Great king, you rule by holy virtue and are lord over the lives of all that have consciousness. My former teacher Ruyi had learning that reached to the deep and hidden, but the former king held a grudge long, and broke down his high name before the crowd. I have received his teaching and guidance, and I wish to answer that old wrong." That king knew that Ruyi had been a man of wisdom, and he thought well of the upright conduct of Shiqin, and so he called in the followers of other ways who had debated with Ruyi. Shiqin set out the former meaning again, and the followers of other ways owned themselves beaten and withdrew.

Going more than fifty li northeast from the monastery of King Jianisejia and crossing a great river, one comes to the city of Busejieluofadi, which is fourteen or fifteen li around. The people who live there are many and thriving, and the lanes and gates run into one another. Outside the west gate of the city there is one temple of the gods, where the image of the god is awesome and spiritual wonders follow one after another.

East of the city there is a stupa built by King Wuyou. It is the place where the four Buddhas of the past preached the Law. The traces of the holy and worthy men of old, who came down in spirit from Central India and led all beings, are truly many in this land. Here the master of treatises Fasumiduluo made the Zhongshifen apidamo lun.

Four or five li north of the city there is an old monastery. Its courts and buildings are waste and desolate and its monks are few, but they all follow and study the Law and teaching of the Lesser Vehicle. Here the master of treatises Damodaluoduo made the Za apidamo lun.

Beside the monastery there is a stupa several hundred feet high, built by King Wuyou. The carving of the wood and the patterning of the stone are quite beyond the work of men. This is the place where the Buddha Sakyamuni, when he was a king of a country long ago and practiced the way of the bodhisattva, followed the wishes of living beings and was never weary of giving in kindness, and cast away his body as one casts away a worn thing. In this land he was a king for a thousand lives, and on this excellent ground he gave away his eyes for a thousand lives.

Not far east of the place where he gave his eyes there are two stone stupas, each more than a hundred feet high. The one on the right was set up by Brahma and the one on the left was raised by Shakra, and they adorned them brightly with wondrous and precious jewels. When the Tathagata entered the stillness the jewels turned to stone. The bases have leaned and sunk, but they may still be called lofty.

Going more than fifty li northwest from the stupas of Brahma and Shakra, there is a stupa. It is the place where Sakyamuni Tathagata converted Guizimu so that she should not harm men. For this reason it is the custom of this country to make offerings there and pray for children.

Going more than fifty li north from the place where he converted Guizimu, there is a stupa. The bodhisattva Shangmojia served and cared for his blind father and mother with reverence, and while he was gathering fruit here he met the king out hunting and was struck by a poisoned arrow by mistake. His utmost sincerity moved the spirits, and Shakra laid medicine on him, and his virtue moved the bright sages, so that he came back to life at once in this place.

Going more than two hundred li southeast from the place where the bodhisattva Shangmojia was harmed, one comes to the city of Balusha. North of the city there is a stupa. The crown prince Sudanuo gave his father the king's great elephant to a Brahman, and for this he was rebuked and driven out, and he took his leave of the people of the country, and when he had gone out of the outer gate he parted from them here. In the monastery beside it there are more than fifty monks, and they all study the Lesser Vehicle. Long ago the master of treatises Yishifuluo made the Apidamo mingdeng lun here.

Outside the east gate of the city of Balusha there is one monastery with more than fifty monks, and they all study the Greater Vehicle. There is a stupa built by King Wuyou. Long ago, when the crown prince Sudanuo was driven out to Mount Danduoluojia and a Brahman begged for his son and daughter, this is the place where he sold them.

Going more than twenty li northeast of the city of Balusha, one comes to Mount Danduoluojia. On the ridge there is a stupa built by King Wuyou. The crown prince Sudanuo lived hidden here. Not far beside it there is a stupa. Here the prince gave his son and daughter to the Brahman, and the Brahman beat the children, and the blood that ran stained the ground, and to this day the grasses and trees still carry a crimson tint. In the stone chamber among the rocks the prince and his wife practiced meditation. The trees in the wooded valley hang down their branches like a curtain, and all of it is where the prince wandered and stayed long ago. Not far beside it there is one hut of stone, where a seer of old lived.

Going more than a hundred li northwest from the hut of the seer and crossing one small hill, one comes to a great mountain. South of the mountain there is a monastery with very few monks, and they all study the Greater Vehicle. The stupa beside it was built by King Wuyou. It is the place where the one-horned seer lived long ago. The seer was led astray by a wanton woman and lost his spiritual powers, and the wanton woman then rode on his shoulders and came back to the city.

Going more than fifty li northeast of the city of Balusha, one comes to a high mountain. On the mountain there is an image in blue stone of the wife of the great god Zizai, and she is the goddess Pimo. The people of that region say that this image of a god came into being of itself. Its spiritual wonders are many, and so those who pray to it are many too. From all the countries of India those who seek blessing and ask a wish come together, high and low alike, and gather from far and near. One who wishes to see the form of the god keeps his utmost sincerity without a second thought and goes without food for seven days, and some of them see her, and what they ask for is often granted. At the foot of the mountain there is a temple of the great god Zizai, where the followers of other ways who smear themselves with ashes make their offerings after the rule.

Going a hundred and fifty li southeast from the temple of the goddess Pimo, one comes to the city of Wuduojiahantu. It is more than twenty li around, and on the south it reaches the Xindu river. The people who live there are rich and merry, and treasures and goods lie heaped up. The precious and rare things of many regions are gathered here in great number.

Going more than twenty li northwest from the city of Wuduojiahantu, one comes to the town of Suoluoduluo, the birthplace of the seer Bonini who made the Shengming lun. In the far beginning of old the written characters were many and wide, and when the kalpa passed and fell into ruin the world was empty, and then the gods of long life came down in spirit and led the customs of men, and from this writings and books came forth. After that time their source overflowed. Brahma and Shakra made rules according to the time, and the seers of the other ways each made characters of their own. Men handed the words on one from another, and vied in learning what was handed down, so that those who studied spent their strength in vain and could hardly search the matter through. In the time when the life of man was a hundred years, there was the seer Bonini, who was born knowing and knew many things. He pitied the age for growing thin and shallow, and wished to cut away what was empty and false and to pare down and settle what was tangled and coarse. He traveled about asking after the Way, and he met the god Zizai and set forth to him his purpose of writing. The god Zizai said, "Splendid. I shall help you." The seer received his teaching and withdrew, and then he studied with care and thought deeply, and gathered up the words of many and made a book of characters. It had a thousand verses complete, and each verse was of thirty-two syllables. He searched the present and the past to the end and gathered up all writing and speech, and he sealed it and sent it up to the king. The king held it very precious and rare, and gave an order through the country that all should hand it on and learn it, and rewarded those who could recite it well with a thousand catties of money. So masters and pupils handed it down and received it, and it was much in use in that age. Therefore the Brahmans of this town are great in learning and high in talent, and know many things and remember them firmly.

In the town of Suoluoduluo there is a stupa, the place where an arhat converted the seer Bonini in his later body. Nearly five hundred years after the Tathagata had left the world, a great arhat came from the country of Jiashimiluo, traveling and teaching, and when he reached this place he saw a Brahman beating a small child to teach him. Then the arhat said to the Brahman, "Why do you torment this child?" The Brahman said, "I am making him learn the Shengming lun, and his study does not go forward in its time." The arhat smiled a little, and the old Brahman said, "A monk makes compassion his heart, and pities all things and grieves for his own kind. You have smiled now, and I would hear the reason of it." The arhat said, "It is not easy to speak of it, and I fear it may raise deep doubt. Have you ever heard that the seer Bonini made the Shengming lun and left his teaching to the world?" The Brahman said, "He was a son of this town, and those who came after look up to his virtue, and his image is standing yet." The arhat said, "This son of yours now is that very seer. With his firm memory he still delights in studying the writings of the world. He talked only of other doctrines and did not search out the true principle, and so he threw away his spiritual wisdom for nothing, and his turning in birth and death has not ceased. Yet riding on the good that was left to him he has become your beloved son. Then the writings and words of the world are a weariness and their labor is wasted, and how can they be like the holy teaching of the Tathagata, which swells blessing and wisdom unseen? Long ago on the shore of the southern sea there was one withered tree, and five hundred bats lived in a hollow within it. Some merchants stopped beneath this tree, and just then the wind turned cold and all the men were hungry and frozen, so they gathered wood and grass and lit a fire beneath it. The smoke and flame grew fiercer by degrees, and the withered tree caught fire at last. At that time one of the merchants, after the night was far gone, was reciting the Apidamo zang. Though those bats were tormented by the fire, they loved the sound of the Law, and they bore it and did not go away, and there they ended their lives. Following their karma they were born again, and all of them got the bodies of men, and left their homes and studied, and riding on the power of having heard the sound of the Law they were clever and quick of wit, and all of them attained the holy fruits and became fields of blessing for the world. In recent days King Jianisejia and the venerable Xie called together five hundred worthies and sages and made the Piposha lun in the country of Jiashimiluo, and those are all the five hundred bats of the withered tree. Unworthy as I am, I am one of that number. So the better and the worse are truly different, and to fly and to lie prostrate are far apart. Allow this beloved son of yours now to leave his home. The merit of leaving home cannot be told in words." When the arhat had said this he showed a work of his spiritual power and suddenly was seen no more. The Brahman conceived a deep reverence and wonder, and praised it as good for a long while, and told it all to his neighbors, and at last he let his son go out from home and study. Because of this he turned his faith about and honored the three treasures, and the people of the town were converted after him, and to this day they are the more devout.

From the city of Wuduojiahantu, going north over mountains and across streams for more than six hundred li, one comes to the country of Wuzhangna.