The Country of Dachashiluo呾叉始羅國

The country of Dachashiluo is more than two thousand li around, and the great capital city of the country is more than ten li around. The chiefs contend with one another by force, and the royal house has no heir. In the past it was subject to the country of Jiabishi, and of late it has become a dependency of the country of Jiashimiluo. The land is called rich, the crops are full and plentiful, springs are many, and flowers and fruits are abundant. The climate is mild and bright. The customs of the people are light and bold, and they honor and revere the Three Jewels. The monasteries are many, but they are already far gone in ruin, the monks are few, and all of them study the Greater Vehicle.

More than seventy li northwest of the great city there is the pond of the dragon king Yiluobodaluo, more than a hundred paces around. Its water is clear, and lotus flowers of many colors bloom together in different hues. This dragon is the monk who long ago, in the time of the Buddha Jiashepo, damaged the Yiluobodaluo tree. And so even now, when the people of that land pray for rain or pray for clear weather, they must go to the pond together with a monk and snap their fingers and give comfort, and what they wish is always granted.

Going more than thirty li southeast of the dragon pond and entering between two mountains, there is a stupa which King Wuyou built, more than a hundred feet high. Here Sakyamuni Tathagata foretold that when the World Honored One Cishi, who is to come, appears in the world, four great treasure stores will be there of themselves, and this excellent place is one of them. It is heard in the records of former days that sometimes the earth quakes and all the mountains move, yet within a hundred paces around this store nothing shakes. When foolish men dig it up without cause, the ground quakes and they all fall down. Beside it there is a monastery, but it is far gone in ruin and has long been without monks.

Twelve or thirteen li north of the city there is a stupa which King Wuyou built. Sometimes on a fast day it sends out a bright light, and there are many who have seen divine flowers and heard the music of heaven. It is heard in the records of former days that of late a certain woman whose body was struck with a foul leprosy came secretly to the stupa, blamed herself, bowed and repented. When she saw that there was filth in the courtyard, she gathered it up and swept it away, and sprinkled water and swept, and smeared on incense and scattered flowers, and then she gathered blue lotuses and spread them again over the ground. Her foul disease was healed and gone, her form grew more comely, and a famous fragrance came from her body, sweet as the blue lotus. This excellent place is where the Tathagata, long ago, while he practiced the way of a bodhisattva and was the king of a great country and was called Zhandaluobocipo — in the language of the Tang, moonlight — sought enlightenment with his whole will and cut off his head and gave it in kindness. He gave himself away like this through a thousand lives.

Beside the stupa where he gave up his head there is a monastery. Its courtyard and its halls are waste and desolate, and the monks have grown few. Long ago Jumoluoluoduo, a master of treatises of the Sautrantika school, composed his treatises here.

Outside the city to the southeast, on the shaded side of the southern mountain, there is a stupa more than a hundred feet high. This is where Julangna, the crown prince of King Wuyou, was falsely accused by his stepmother and had his eyes put out, and King Wuyou built it. When blind men pray there, many of them see again.

This prince was born of the queen. His bearing and his face were comely and refined, and his kindness and goodness showed early. When the queen died, the wife who came after was proud and lewd, and she gave her dull folly free rein and pressed the prince in secret. The prince wept and blamed himself, and he drew back and begged pardon. When the stepmother was crossed, her anger grew greater still. She watched for a quiet hour with the king and said calmly, "Dachashiluo is the throat of the country. If it is not a son of your own, to whom can it be entrusted? Now the prince is known for kindness and filial piety, and because he is close to you and worthy, this is what people are saying." The king was taken in by her words and was well pleased with the crooked plan. At once he called the prince and warned him, "I have taken up what was left to me and handed down the line and carried on the work, and I fear only that I may let it fall and shame the former king. Dachashiluo is the collar and the belt of the country, and now I order you to go and hold that country for me. The business of the state is heavy, and the hearts of men are crooked and mixed. Do not come and go without cause and break down the foundation. Whenever there is a command calling you, prove it by the mark of my teeth. The seal is in my mouth, so how can there be any mistake?" Then the prince took the command and came and held the place. Though the months and years went by, the anger of the wife who came after grew greater. She made a false decree and sealed it with purple clay, and she watched until the king slept and stole the mark of his teeth for a seal, and sent a messenger riding to give him a letter of reproach. The ministers who helped him knelt and read it, and they looked at one another and were at a loss. The prince asked, "What is there to grieve over?" They said, "There is a command from the great king. The letter reproaches the prince and orders that both his eyes be put out and that he be driven away into the mountain valleys, and that he and his wife live or die as it happens. Though there is such a command, it still cannot be obeyed. Now you should ask leave to bind yourself and await your punishment." The prince said, "If a father grants death, how can I refuse? It is sealed with the mark of his teeth, so truly there is no mistake." And he ordered a chandala to put out his eyes. When he had lost his sight he begged and lived on what he was given, and he wandered from place to place until he came to his father's capital city. His wife said to him, "This is the royal city. Alas, hunger and cold are bitter indeed. Once you were a king's son, and now you are a beggar. I wish that it might be made known, and that the reproach of before might be laid open again." So they made a plan, and he went into the king's inner stable, and in the last watch of the night he faced the clear wind and wept, and he sang long and mournfully and played a harp to go with it. The king was in a high tower, and when he heard that refined singing, the words were full of grief and sorrow. He wondered at it and asked, "The voice singing to the harp is like my son's. Why has he come here now?" And he asked at the inner stable, "Who is singing and chanting?" So they brought the blind man to answer his will. When the king saw the prince he held back his grief and asked, "Who has harmed your body, that you have met with this misfortune? My beloved son has lost his sight, and still I did not know it. How then shall I look into the lives of all the people? O heaven, O heaven, how has virtue fallen so low!" The prince wept and gave thanks and answered, "Truly I was unfilial and owed a reproach to heaven. On such a year and month and day I suddenly received your kind command, and I had no way to say a word, and I did not dare to escape the reproach." The king knew in his heart that the wife who came after had done this lawless thing, and without looking further into it he put her to punishment. At that time in the monastery of the bodhi tree there was a great arhat named Jusha, who had the four kinds of unhindered speech and was full in the three clear knowledges. The king brought his blind son and told him the matter, and he wished only that the arhat would show compassion and let the boy see again. Then that arhat received the king's request, and on that very day he proclaimed to the people of the country, "The day after tomorrow I will speak of the wonderful principle. Let each man bring a vessel and come here to hear the Law, and hold in it the tears he weeps." Then from far and near they ran to the place, and men and women gathered like clouds. At this time the arhat spoke of the twelve causes, and of all who heard the Law there was none who did not grieve, and they held the tears that fell in the vessels they had brought. When the preaching was over, he gathered all the tears of the crowd and set them in a golden basin and made a vow, saying, "What I have spoken is the highest principle of all the Buddhas. If the principle is not true and there is error in my words, then let it end here. If it is not so, then I ask that with the tears of the crowd those blind eyes be washed, and that the eyes see again and look as they looked before." When he had finished these words he took the tears and washed the eyes, and the eyes saw again. Then the king reproached those ministers and questioned the officers, and some he cast out, some he let go, some he moved, and some he put to death. All the powerful houses that held hereditary office he moved to live in the sandy waste northeast of the Snow Mountains.

Going southeast from here over many mountains and valleys, after more than seven hundred li one comes to the country of Senghebuluo.