The Country of Modibuluo秣底補羅國

The country of Modibuluo is more than six thousand li around. The great capital city of the country is more than twenty li around. The land is fit for grain and barley, and flowers and fruits are many. The climate is mild and clear, and the customs are simple and plain. The people greatly honor learning and the arts, and they are deeply versed in the art of spells. Those who believe what is false and those who believe what is true are half and half in number. The king is of the Shudra stock. He does not believe in the Law of the Buddha, and he reveres and serves the gods of heaven. There are more than ten monasteries and more than eight hundred monks, and most of them study the Sarvastivada school of the teaching of the Lesser Vehicle. There are more than fifty temples of the gods, and followers of other ways live mixed among them.

Going four or five li south of the great city, one comes to a small monastery with more than fifty monks. Long ago the master of treatises Qunabolapo made here the Bianzhen and other treatises, more than a hundred works in all. As a boy the master was outstanding, and when he grew up he was broad and quick. He knew many things and his memory was firm, and his learning was great and he had heard much. At first he studied the Greater Vehicle, but he did not reach the end of what is dark and deep, and when he read the Piposha lun he turned back from the work he had been doing and studied the Lesser Vehicle. He made several tens of treatises, breaking down the main lines of the Greater Vehicle and building up the holdings of the Lesser Vehicle. He also wrote more than several tens of worldly books and attacked as wrong the records and treatises made by those before him. He thought deeply on the sutras of the Buddha, but there were ten and more points he could not settle, and though he studied them closely for a long time his doubt was not removed. At that time the arhat Tipoxina went to and from the Dushiduo heaven, and so Deguang wished to see Cishi, to settle his doubts and ask for teaching. Tianjun by his spiritual power carried him up to the palace of heaven. When he saw Cishi he bowed with folded hands but did not do reverence. Tianjun said to him, "The bodhisattva Cishi is the one who will take the seat of the Buddha next. How can you hold yourself so high and dare not to pay him full respect? You are about to receive his teaching. Why do you not bend?" Deguang answered, "The venerable one's words are truly an instruction to me. Yet I am a monk who keeps the full precepts, a disciple who has left his house. The bodhisattva Cishi receives the joy and merit of heaven, and he is not of the company of those who have left their houses. I fear it would not be fitting to do reverence to him." The bodhisattva knew that his pride in himself was hard set and that he was not a vessel to hear the Law, and so, though they went and came three times, his doubt was not settled. He asked Tianjun again, wishing to go up and see Cishi once more, but Tianjun hated his pride and slighted him and did not answer. When Deguang did not get his wish, he grew angry and full of resentment, and he went off to the mountain forest and practiced the meditation that brings forth spiritual power. But his pride was not removed, and he did not attain the fruit of the Way.

Three or four li north of Deguang's monastery there is a great monastery with more than two hundred monks, and all of them study the Law and teaching of the Lesser Vehicle. This is the place where the master of treatises Zhongxian ended his life. The master was a man of the country of Jiashimiluo. He was quick of mind and broadly versed, and from his youth a refined fame went out about him, and he studied especially deeply the Piposha lun of the Sarvastivada school. At that time the bodhisattva Shiqin followed the dark Way with a single mind and sought the meaning beyond words, and he broke down what the masters of the Piposha held and made the Apidamo jushe lun, whose words and meaning were excellent and whose reasoning was fine and lofty. Zhongxian read it through, and at last it set a purpose in his heart. Then for twelve years he studied deeply and bored to the bottom of it, and he made the Jushe bao lun in twenty-five thousand verses, eight hundred thousand words in all. Its words, as they say, were deep and its aim far, reaching the end of what is hidden and piercing through what is subtle. He said to his disciples, "With my surpassing gifts I shall hold to my true treatise, and I shall drive out Shiqin and break his sharp edge, so that the old man shall not hold the first name alone." Then, with three or four of the ablest among his students, he took the treatise he had made and went to seek out Shiqin. Shiqin was at that time in the city of Shejieluo in the country of Zhejia, and word came from afar that Zhongxian was coming. When Shiqin heard it, he made ready his baggage at once. His disciples were troubled and came forward and remonstrated, "Great master, your virtue is higher than that of the wise men before you, and your name stands alone in this age, and among the students near and far there is none who does not give way to you. Now you hear that Zhongxian is coming, and why are you in such haste? If you must lower yourself, we shall be put to shame." Shiqin said, "I go far now, and it is not to avoid this man. Only there is no one left in this country who can look into the matter and see through it. Zhongxian is a younger man, and his clever arguments run like water, while I am old and worn and cannot hold up my side of a debate. I would break his strange holdings with a single word, and so I mean to draw him to Central India and there, before the aged and wise men, to look into what is true and what is false and set out in full what is gained and what is lost." Then he called for companions, and he shouldered his book box and journeyed far. The master of treatises Zhongxian came one day later to this monastery, and all at once he felt his strength failing. Then he wrote a letter to make his apology to Shiqin. It said, "After the Tathagata passed into quiet extinction, his disciples parted into schools and handed down the learning of their own sects, and each set up his own gate, making a party of those who agreed and hating those of another line. I, in my foolishness and dimness, unworthily took up this handed-down learning. When I read the Apidamo jushe lun that you made and saw that it broke the great meaning of the masters of the Piposha, I did not weigh my strength, but for many years I bored deeply into it and made this treatise to hold up the learning of the true sect. My wisdom was small and my aim was great, and now death is about to come. If the bodhisattva, in setting forth the subtle words and holding down and lifting up the highest reasoning, does not tear down what I have held, and lets the writing I leave behind remain, that will be my good fortune. What should I repent of, though I die?" Then he chose from among his disciples one who was skilled in speech and said to him, "I am truly a man of later learning, and I made light of one who went before me. What can be done about my fate? I shall die here. Take this letter and the treatise I have made, and make my apology to that bodhisattva and repent of my fault in my stead." When he had finished speaking, he died at once. The disciple bore the letter to where Shiqin was and said, "Our master Zhongxian has already given up his life. He left words in a letter, blaming himself and begging pardon for his fault. That his name should not be brought down is not a thing we dare hope for." The bodhisattva Shiqin read the letter and the treatise and sat long in thought, and then he said to the disciple, "The master of treatises Zhongxian was a quick-minded man of the younger sort. His reasoning is not enough, but his words are more than enough. If I wished now to break down Zhongxian's treatise, it would be as easy as pointing to my own palm. Yet I look to what he charged me with at his death and hold weighty those words of his, in which he knew his own difficulty. I will follow the great meaning as best I can and let his long-held purpose remain, and the more so since this treatise brings out my own doctrine." So he changed its title and called it the Shunzhengli lun. The disciples remonstrated, "While Zhongxian was still alive, the great master moved his steps far away, and now that he has his treatise he gives it a new title as well. What face shall all of us students have, and what shame shall we bear?" The bodhisattva Shiqin wished to take away all these doubts, and he made a verse and said, "It is like the lion king that goes far off to avoid a pig. Which of the two strengths wins and which loses, the wise should know." After Zhongxian died, they burned his body and gathered his bones, and more than two hundred paces northwest of the monastery, in a grove of anmoluo trees, they raised a stupa, and it stands there still.

Beside the grove of anmoluo trees there is a stupa, and in it are the remains of the master of treatises Pimoluomiduoluo. The master was a man of the country of Jiashimiluo, and he left his house in the Sarvastivada school. He went widely through the sutras and studied the treatises of other schools, and he traveled through the five countries of India and learned the deep writings of the three baskets. His name was made and his work accomplished, and he was about to return to his own country. On the way he came to the stupa of the master of treatises Zhongxian, and he stroked it and sighed and said, "When I think of the master, his refined measure was pure and lofty, and he held down and lifted up the great meaning. He was about to break the other schools and set up the work of his own sect, and how was it that the years heaven gave him were not long? I, Wugouyou, have unworthily taken up this late learning. In another time I longed for his purpose, and through long ages I have held his virtue in my heart. Though Shiqin is dead, the learning of his sect is still handed down. I shall use all that I know and make treatises, so that the students of the continent of Shanbu shall cut off the name of the Greater Vehicle and wipe out the name of Shiqin. This will be a work that does not rot, and it will fulfill the purpose I have long held." When he had said these words, his mind went mad and was thrown into confusion. Five tongues came out one upon another, and hot blood gushed and flowed. He knew that his life must end, and he wrote a letter of repentance and said, "The teaching of the Greater Vehicle is the word that goes to the very end within the Law of the Buddha. Its names and its flavors are all wiped away, and its reasoning is dark and deep. In my foolishness and dimness I lightly argued against those who went before me. The recompense of the deed is plain, and it is fitting that my body should perish. I dare to tell the students that here is their mirror. Let each be careful of your purpose, and hold no doubt." The great earth shook, and his life came to its end. At the place where he died the ground sank and became a pit. Those who traveled with him burned his body and gathered his bones and set up a marker. At that time an arhat saw it and sighed and said, "How pitiful, how bitter. Now this master of treatises has held to his views as he pleased and has torn down and hated the Greater Vehicle, and so he has fallen into the hell without respite."

On the northwest border of the country, on the east bank of the Qingqie river, there is the city of Moyuluo, more than twenty li around, and those who live there are many and prosperous. Clear streams wind about it, and it yields brass, crystal and vessels of precious stuff. Not far from the city, where it comes down to the Qingqie river, there is a great temple of the gods with very many marvels. Within it is a pond whose banks are made of fitted stone, and the water of the Qingqie river is led in to make an inlet. The people of the five countries of India call this the gate of the Qingqie river, and they say it is a place that gives birth to merit and wipes out sin. Always several thousand people from far off gather here and wash themselves. Kings who delight in good have set up houses of merit, where rare food is made ready and medicines are stored, so that widowers and widows receive their kindness and the lonely are helped on every side.

From here one goes north more than three hundred li and comes to the country of Poluoximobuluo.