The Country of Suluqinna窣祿勤那國

The country of Suluqinna is more than six thousand li around. On the east it faces the Qingqie river, on the north it has a great mountain at its back, and the Yanmouna river runs through the middle of its land. The great capital city of the country is more than twenty li around and faces the Yanmouna river on the east. It has fallen much to waste, but its foundations are still firm. What the soil yields and what the climate suits are the same as in the country of Satanishifaluo. The nature of the people is simple and plain, and they take the ways of others as their chief faith. They prize the arts and learning and honor merit and wisdom. There are five monasteries and more than a thousand monks. Most study the Lesser Vehicle, and few learn the other schools. They weigh and debate the subtle words and discourse clearly on what is dark and deep, and gifted men of other regions come to seek their discourse and to ask about their doubts. The temples of the gods number a hundred, and the followers of other ways are very many.

Southeast of the great city, west of the Yanmouna river, outside the east gate of a great monastery, there is a stupa raised by King Wuyou. Long ago the Tathagata spoke the Law here and saved men. Beside it there is one more stupa, and within it are hair and nails of the Tathagata. Stupas holding the hair and nails of Shelizi, Motejialuo and the other arhats stand around it to the left and right, more than several tens of them. After the Tathagata passed into quiet extinction, this country was led astray by the followers of other ways, and it took up false teachings in faith and threw away right views. The five monasteries that stand now are at the places where masters of doctrine from other countries won their debates with the followers of other ways and with the Brahmans, and they were raised on that account.

Going east from the Yanmouna river more than eight hundred li, one comes to the source of the Qingqie river. There it is three or four li wide, and where it flows southeast into the sea it is more than ten li wide. The color of the water is blue green and its waves reach far, and though marvelous and strange creatures are many in it, they do no harm to men. Its taste is sweet and fine, and fine sand flows down with the stream. The writings of that land call it the water of merit. They say that however heaped up a man's sins and faults may be, they are washed away as soon as he bathes in it; that one who holds his life lightly and sinks himself in it is born in heaven and receives merit; that one who dies and has his bones cast into it does not fall into an evil path; and that when men raise the waves and beat the stream, the souls of the dead are saved. At that time the bodhisattva Tipo of the country of Zhishizi had reached deep into true reality and gained the nature of all things, and pitying the many foolish ones he came here to lead them. At that time men and women all gathered, and young and old came together, and on the bank of the river they raised the waves and beat the stream. The bodhisattva Tipo softened his light to draw them, and he bowed his head and beat the water backward, so that his manner was unlike that of the crowd. A follower of another way said, "Sir, why are you so strange?" The bodhisattva Tipo said, "My father and mother and my kin are in the country of Zhishizi. I fear they suffer hunger and thirst, and so I would save them from this far off." The followers of other ways said, "Sir, you are wrong. You have not thought twice, and you do this thing at random. Your home and your country are far off, and the mountains and rivers are wide and distant. To fling up this water and feed the hungry over there is like walking backward and seeking to get ahead. Such a thing we have never heard of." The bodhisattva Tipo said, "If even the sins and faults on the dark road receive the kindness of this water, then though mountains and rivers stand between, how should it not reach?" Then the followers of other ways knew that it was hard to answer, and they begged pardon and yielded, and they cast away their false views and received the true Law, and they mended their faults and made themselves new and asked to receive his teaching.

Crossing the river to the eastern bank, one comes to the country of Modibuluo.