Yetgeul › Da Tang Xiyu Ji (Great Tang Records on the Western Regions) › Book 4

The Country of Motuluo秣菟羅國

Da Tang Xiyu Ji (Great Tang Records on the Western Regions) 大唐西域記 · Xuanzang · compiled by Bianji · 646 (Tang, 20th year of the Zhenguan era) · 7 passages · 681 Chinese characters · reading time 2.7 min

Da Tang Xiyu Ji (Great Tang Records on the Western Regions) Book 4 The record Xuanzang laid before Emperor Taizong of the Tang after seventeen years of walking through the Western Regions and India, a hundred and thirty-eight countries in all. It is the stuff from which Journey to the West was made, but what stands here is not monsters — it is the compass and the climate and the speech and the faith of one country after another. The road runs two hundred years after Faxian and eighty years before Hyecho.

秣菟羅國周五千餘里。國大都城周二十餘里。土地膏腴,稼穡是務。庵沒羅果家植成林,雖同一名而有兩種,小者生青熟黃,大者始終青色。出細班氎及黃金。氣序署熱,風俗善順,好修冥福,崇德尚學。伽藍二十餘所,僧徒二千餘人,大小二乘兼功習學。天祠五所,異道雜居。

The country of Motuluo is more than five thousand li around. The great capital city of the country is more than twenty li around. The soil is rich and fat, and sowing and reaping are the work of the people. The anmoluo fruit is planted by every household until it makes a forest. Though the name is one, there are two kinds. The small one is green when it grows and yellow when it ripens, and the large one is green from first to last. The country yields fine speckled cotton and gold. The climate is hot and burning, and the customs are good and yielding. The people love to work the merit that is not seen, and they honor virtue and prize learning. There are more than twenty monasteries and more than two thousand monks, and they study both the Greater Vehicle and the Lesser Vehicle together. There are five temples of the gods, and followers of other ways live mixed among them.

2The Stupas of the Disciples and the Offerings on Fast Days

有三窣堵波,並無憂王所建也。過去四佛遺跡甚多。釋迦如來諸聖弟子遺身窣堵波,謂舍利子、沒特伽羅子、布剌拿梅呾麗衍尼弗呾羅、鄔波厘、阿難陁、羅怙羅、曼殊室利諸菩薩窣堵波等。每歲三長及月六齋,僧徒相競,率其同好,賫持供具,多營奇玩,隨其所宗,而致像設。阿毗達磨眾供養舍利子,習定之眾供養沒特伽羅子,誦持經者供養滿慈子,學毗奈耶眾供養鄔波厘,諸苾芻尼供養阿難,未受具戒者供養羅怙羅,其學大乘者供養諸菩薩。是日也,諸窣堵波競修供養,珠幡布列,寶蓋駢羅,香煙若雲,花散如雨,蔽虧日月,震蕩溪谷。國王大臣,修善為務。

There are three stupas, and all were raised by King Wuyou. The traces of the four Buddhas of the past are very many. There are stupas holding the remains of the holy disciples of Sakyamuni Tathagata, that is, the stupas of Shelizi, Motejialuozi, Bulanameidaliyannifudaluo, Wupoli, Ananatuo and Luohuluo, and of the bodhisattvas such as Manshushili. Every year at the three long fasts, and every month on the six fast days, the monks strive with one another. Each leads those of like mind, brings the things for the offering, and sets out many rare and wonderful objects, and each raises an image according to what he honors. Those who study the Apidamo make offerings to Shelizi. Those who practice meditation make offerings to Motejialuozi. Those who recite and keep the sutras make offerings to Manzizi. Those who study the Pinaiye make offerings to Wupoli. The nuns make offerings to Anan. Those who have not yet received the full precepts make offerings to Luohuluo. Those who study the Greater Vehicle make offerings to the bodhisattvas. On that day the offerings are made in rivalry at every stupa. Pearl banners are set out in rows and jeweled canopies stand side by side. The smoke of incense is like cloud and the scattered flowers are like rain. They hide the sun and moon and shake the streams and valleys. The king and his great ministers make the working of good their task.

Interlinear notes 5

舊曰舍梨子,又曰舍利弗,訛略也。

In old days he was called Shelizi, and also Shelifu. These are wrong and shortened.

舊曰目乾連,訛也。

In old days he was called Muqianlian. This is wrong.

唐言滿慈子。舊曰彌多羅尼子,訛略也。

In the language of the Tang it is Manzizi. In old days he was called Miduoluonizi. This is wrong and shortened.

舊曰羅睺羅,又曰羅雲,皆訛略也。

In old days he was called Luohouluo, and also Luoyun. Both are wrong and shortened.

唐言妙吉祥。舊曰濡首,又曰文殊師利,或言曼殊屍利,譯曰妙德,訛也。

In the language of the Tang it is Miaojixiang. In old days he was called Rushou, and also Wenshushili, and some say Manshushili (with the graph 屍), translated as Miaode. These are wrong.

3The Monastery of the Venerable Wupojuduo

城東行五六里,至一山伽藍,疏崖為室,因谷為門,尊者鄔波毱多之所建也。其中則有如來指爪窣堵波。

Going five or six li east of the city, one comes to a mountain monastery. The cliff was cut away to make its rooms, and the valley was taken for its gate. It was built by the venerable Wupojuduo. Within it there is a stupa holding a fingernail of the Tathagata.

Interlinear notes 1

唐言近護。

In the language of the Tang it is Jinhu.

4The Tallies of the Husbands and Wives Who Became Arhats

伽藍北巖間有石室,高二十餘尺,廣三十餘尺,四寸細籌填積其內。尊者近護說法化導,夫妻俱證羅漢果者,乃下一籌,異室別族,雖證不記。

North of the monastery, among the rocks, there is a stone chamber more than twenty feet high and more than thirty feet wide. Slender tallies four inches long are piled full within it. When the venerable Jinhu spoke the Law and led men, he laid down one tally whenever a husband and wife together attained the fruit of the arhat. Those of another house or another clan he did not record, even when they attained it.

5The Place Where the Monkey Offered Honey

石室東南二十四五里,至大涸池,傍有窣堵波。在昔如來行經此處,時有彌猴持蜜奉佛,佛令水和,普遍大眾。彌猴喜躍,墮坑而死,乘茲福力,得生人中。

Going twenty-four or twenty-five li southeast of the stone chamber, one comes to a great dried-up pond, and beside it is a stupa. Long ago, when the Tathagata passed through this place, a monkey brought honey and offered it to the Buddha. The Buddha had it mixed with water and shared out among the whole assembly. The monkey leaped for joy, and it fell into a pit and died. Riding on the power of this merit, it was born among men.

6The Traces Where the Four Buddhas Walked

池北不遠大林中,有過去四佛經行遺跡。其側有舍利子、沒特伽羅子等千二百五十大阿羅漢習定之處,並建窣堵波,以記遺跡。如來在世,屢遊此國,說法之所,並有封樹。

Not far north of the pond, in a great forest, there are the traces where the four Buddhas of the past walked. Beside them is the place where Shelizi, Motejialuozi and the other twelve hundred and fifty great arhats practiced meditation, and stupas were raised at all of them to record the traces they left. While the Tathagata was in the world he journeyed often through this country, and at every place where he spoke the Law a marker was set and trees were planted.

從此東北行五百餘里,至薩他泥濕伐羅國。

From here one goes northeast more than five hundred li and comes to the country of Satanishifaluo.

Interlinear notes 1

中印度境。

It lies within Central India.