The Country of Shiluofaxidi室羅伐悉底國

The country of Shiluofaxidi is more than six thousand li around. The capital city is waste and fallen, and its borders have no order. The old foundation of the palace city is more than twenty li around. Much of it is waste and broken down, but there are still people living there. Grain and crops are plentiful, and the seasons are mild. The customs are simple and plain. The people are earnest in study and love merit. There are several hundred monasteries, and very many of them have fallen to ruin. The monks are few, and they study the teaching of the Zhengliang school. There are a hundred temples of the gods, and the followers of other ways are very many.

This was the capital of the country ruled by King Boluoxinashiduo in the time when the Tathagata was in the world. Within the old palace city there is an old foundation. It is the ground left from the hall of King Shengjun.

Not far to the east there is an old foundation, and a small stupa is raised upon it. Long ago King Shengjun built here a great hall of the Law for the Tathagata. Not far from the side of the hall of the Law, on an old foundation, there is a stupa. This was the shrine of the nun Boluoshebodi, the Buddha's aunt, and King Shengjun raised it. The stupa next to the east is the old house of Sudaduo.

Beside the house of the elder Shanshi there is a great stupa. It is the place where Yangjulimoluo gave up his false way. Yangjulimoluo was a cruel man of Shiluofaxidi. He harmed living things and worked violence on the city and the country. He killed people and took their fingers, and he wore them on his head as a garland. He was about to harm his mother, to fill up the number of the fingers. The World Honored One pitied him and went out to lead him. From far off he saw the World Honored One and rejoiced in secret and said, "Now I shall surely be born in heaven. My former teacher had a teaching, and the words he left are here — harm a Buddha and kill your mother, and you shall be born in the Brahma heaven." He said to his mother, "Old one, stop now for a while. First I must harm that great shramana." Then he took up his sword and went to meet the World Honored One. The Tathagata thereupon walked slowly and drew back, and the cruel Zhiman ran hard but could not reach him. The World Honored One said to him, "Why do you hold to a low purpose, throw away the root of good, and stir up the source of evil?" Then Zhiman heard the teaching and understood that what he did was wrong. Because of this he gave his life over and asked to enter into the Law, and he strove hard and did not slacken, and he gained the fruit of an arhat.

Five or six li south of the city there is the Shiduo grove, which is the garden of Jigudu. Shanshi, the great minister of King Shengjun, built a shrine here for the Buddha. Long ago it was a monastery, but now it is already waste and abandoned. To the left and right of the east gate a stone pillar is raised, each more than seventy feet high. On the top of the left pillar the shape of a wheel is carved, and on the top of the right pillar the shape of an ox is carved. Both were raised by King Wuyou. The buildings have leaned and fallen, and only the old foundation is left. One brick chamber alone stands up high and remains, and within it there is an image of the Buddha. Long ago the Tathagata went up to the heaven of the thirty-three and spoke the Law for his mother. Afterward King Shengjun heard that King Chu'ai had carved sandalwood and made an image of the Buddha, and so he made this image.

The elder Shanshi was kind and quick of mind. He gathered wealth and was able to scatter it. He saved those in want and helped the poor, he pitied the orphaned and cared for the old. The people of that time praised his virtue and called him the one who gives to the solitary. He heard of the merits of the Buddha and a deep reverence rose in him, and he wished to build a shrine and ask the Buddha to come down to it. The World Honored One ordered Shelizi to go with him and look the ground over, and only the garden ground of the prince Shiduo was open and high. He went to the prince and told him all that was in his heart. The prince said in jest, "Spread gold over it, and I will sell it." When Shanshi heard this his heart opened wide. He brought out the gold of his storehouse and spread it on the ground as the words had said. A little was left unfilled, and the prince asked that it be left, and said, "The Buddha is truly a good field, and it is right to plant good seed in it." Then on that empty ground he raised a shrine. The World Honored One came to it and said to Ananda, "The garden ground was bought by Shanshi, and the trees of the grove were given by Shiduo. The two were of one heart and raised up this work of merit. From this time on, this ground shall be called the Shiduo grove, the garden of Jigudu."

Northeast of the garden of Jigudu there is a stupa. It is the place where the Tathagata washed a sick monk. Long ago, when the Tathagata was in the world, a sick monk held his suffering and stayed alone. The World Honored One saw him and asked, "What is it that makes you suffer? Why do you live alone?" He said, "My nature is careless and lazy, and I could not bear to look after the sick. So now I have fallen ill, and there is no one to care for me." The Tathagata then pitied him and said to him, "Good man, I will look after you now." He stroked him with his hand, and all the pain of the sickness was healed. He helped him out of the door and changed his mat and bedding for new, and he washed him himself and put new clothes on him. The Buddha said to the monk, "You must strive hard of yourself." He heard the teaching and was moved by the kindness, and his heart was glad and his body at ease.

Northwest of the garden of Jigudu there is a small stupa. It is the place where Motejialuozi used the strength of his spiritual power and yet could not lift and move the belt of Shelizi's robe. Long ago the Buddha was at the lake of Wurenao, and men and gods were all gathered there. Only Shelizi did not come to the meeting at the time. The Buddha ordered Motejialuo to go and call him and bring him. Motejialuo took the order and went, and Shelizi was then mending his robe of the Law. Motejialuo said, "The World Honored One is now at the lake of Wurenao, and he has ordered me to call you." Shelizi said, "Stop a while. Wait until I have finished mending, and I will go with you." Motejialuo said, "If you do not go quickly, I will use the strength of my spiritual power and lift your stone chamber to the place of the great meeting." Then Shelizi loosened the belt of his robe and set it on the ground and said, "If you can lift this belt, my body may perhaps move." Then Motejialuo used his great spiritual power, but he could not lift the belt, and the earth shook because of it. So by his spirit feet he came back to where the Buddha was, and he saw that Shelizi was already sitting in the meeting. Motejialuo bowed his head and sighed and said, "Now at last I know that the strength of spiritual power is not equal to the strength of wisdom."

Not far from the side of the stupa of the lifted belt there is a well. When the Tathagata was in the world, water was drawn from it for the Buddha's use. Beside it there is a stupa, raised by King Wuyou, and within it are relics of the Tathagata. At the traces where he walked back and forth and at the places where he spoke the Law, marks have been set up and stupas raised. Unseen spirits keep watch over them, and holy signs rise from time to time. Sometimes the music of heaven sounds, sometimes a divine fragrance is smelled. The blessings and good omens are hard to set down in full.

Not far behind the monastery is the place where a Brahman of another way killed a harlot in order to slander the Buddha. The Tathagata had the ten powers and was without fear, and he had the wisdom of all kinds. Men and gods looked up to him as their head, and the holy and the wise followed and served him. At that time the followers of other ways took counsel together and said, "We should work a trick and shame him in the midst of the crowd." So they enticed and hired a harlot to make a show of listening to the Law. After the crowd had come to know of her, they killed her in secret and buried the body beside a tree. Then they cried out that they had been wronged and told the king. The king ordered a search, and her body was found in the garden of Shiduo. Then the followers of other ways raised their voices and cried, "The great shramana Qiaodamo always speaks of the precepts and of patience. Now he has taken this woman for himself and killed her to shut her mouth. He has been lewd and he has killed. What precepts are these? What patience is this?" The gods in the sky cried out after their voices and said, "It is only the cruel men of other ways who have made this slander."

A hundred paces and more east of the monastery there is a great deep pit. It is the place where Tipodaduo wished to harm the Buddha with poison and fell alive into hell with his body. Tipodaduo was a son of King Hufan. He strove hard for twelve years and had already recited and held in mind the eighty thousand treasures of the Law. Afterward, for the sake of gain, he sought to learn spiritual powers. He drew near to evil friends and took counsel with them and said, "I have thirty of the marks, and I fall not much short of the Buddha. A great crowd surrounds me. How am I different from the Tathagata?" When he had thought this, he set about breaking the order of monks. Shelizi and Motejialuozi received the Buddha's word, and carrying the Buddha's power and spirit they spoke the Law and taught and admonished, and the order was at one again. Tipodaduo did not give up his evil heart. He put a strong poison inside his fingernails, and wished to hurt the Buddha in the course of making a bow to him. He was about to work this plot and came from far off and reached this place, and then the earth split open and he fell alive into hell.

To the south of it there is again a great pit. The monk Qujiali slandered the Tathagata and fell alive into hell with his body.

More than eight hundred paces south of the pit where Qujiali fell there is a great deep pit. It is the place where the Brahman woman Zhanzhe slandered the Tathagata and fell alive into hell with her body. The Buddha was speaking the chief points of the Law for men and gods. A disciple of another way saw the World Honored One from far off and saw the crowd revering him. Then she thought to herself, "Today I must shame Qiaodamo and break his good name, and make my own teacher alone hold a fragrant fame." So she carried a wooden bowl bound on with a cord and came to the garden of Jigudu, and in the midst of the great crowd she raised her voice and cried, "This man who speaks the Law has lain with me in secret, and the child in my belly is of the seed of Shakya." Those who held false views all believed it, and those who were upright and firm knew it was slander. Then Shakra, wishing to take away the doubt, changed himself into a white mouse and bit through the cord that tied the bowl. The sound of the breaking cord shook the great crowd, and all who saw and heard it grew the more glad. One man in the crowd rose and took up the wooden bowl and showed it to the woman and said, "Is this your child?" At that time the earth opened of itself, and her whole body fell and sank and entered the Wujian hell, and she received the full punishment of her guilt. These three pits go down and have no bottom. In the long rains of autumn and summer the ditches and ponds overflow, but in these deep pits water has never once stood.

Sixty or seventy paces east of the monastery there is a shrine, more than sixty feet high. Within it there is an image of the Buddha, seated and facing east. Long ago the Tathagata argued here with the followers of other ways. Next to the east there is a temple of the gods, of the same size as the shrine. When the sun pours out its light in the morning, the shadow of the temple of the gods does not cover the shrine. When the sun is about to set and casts its light, the shadow of the shrine covers the temple of the gods.

Three or four li east of the shrine that the shadow covers there is a stupa. It is the place where the venerable Shelizi argued with the followers of other ways. At first, when the elder Shanshi bought the garden of the prince Shiduo and wished to build a shrine for the Tathagata, the venerable Shelizi went with the elder and looked the ground over. The six teachers of other ways sought to match their spiritual strength against him, and Shelizi gathered them in and taught them as each thing came, and met them and brought them down.

In front of a shrine beside it a stupa is raised. Here the Tathagata broke down the followers of other ways, and here also he received the invitation of the mother of Pishequ.

South of the stupa of the invitation is the place where King Piluzheji raised troops to cut down the seed of Shakya, and came to this place and saw the Buddha and sent his army back. After King Piluzheji came to the throne, he bore a grudge for the insult of former days. He raised troops and moved a great host, and when the ranks were all drawn up he gave the word and was about to march. At that time a monk heard of it and told the Buddha, and the World Honored One thereupon sat beneath a withered tree. King Piluzheji saw the World Honored One from far off and came down from his carriage and bowed to him, then drew back and said, "Thick trees spread their branches. Why do you not sit there, but stay and rest on a withered stump and a rotten stock?" The World Honored One said to him, "Kinsmen are the branches and leaves. The branches and the leaves are about to be in danger. Where then is the shade?" The king said, "The World Honored One does this only for his kinsmen. I will turn my carriage back." So he looked on the holy one and was moved in his heart, and he turned his army and went back to his country.

Beside the place where he turned the army back there is a stupa. It is the place where the women of Shakya were put to death. King Piluzheji struck the Shakya and won, and he chose five hundred women to fill his palace rooms. The women of Shakya were angry and their words of resentment were not humble, and they cursed the king as the son of a slave. The king heard it and grew angry and ordered them put to death. Those who held the law took the king's order and cut off their hands and feet and threw them into a pit. Then the women of Shakya held their suffering and called on the Buddha. The World Honored One in his holy sight looked on their bitter pain, and he called the monks and gathered his robe and went, and he spoke the fine and subtle Law for the women of Shakya. He spoke of how those bound by the five desires roll and turn through the three paths, and how kindness and love must part, and how birth and death go on far and long. Then the women of Shakya heard the Buddha's teaching, and they put the dust far off and left defilement behind, and the eye of the Law grew clear in them. They ended their lives at the same time and were all born together in heaven. Then Shakra changed himself into a Brahman and gathered their bones and burned them in burial. Later men set this down.

Not far from the side of the stupa of the killing of the Shakya there is a great dried-up pond. It is the place where King Piluzheji sank with his body and entered hell. When the World Honored One had looked on the women of Shakya, he returned to the garden of Jigudu and said to the monks, "Seven days from now King Piluzheji will be burned by fire." When the king heard the Buddha's word he was greatly afraid. When the seventh day came and he was at ease and in no danger, the king was glad and ordered the palace women to go to the side of the pond to play and drink and enjoy themselves. Still he feared that fire might rise, and so he had the oars beaten on the clear stream and floated along with the waves. A fierce flame broke out like a whirlwind and burned the light boat and dropped the king's body, and he entered the Wujian hell and received all its pains in full.

Three or four li northwest of the monastery one comes to the Deyan grove. There are traces of the Tathagata walking back and forth, and places where the holy ones practiced meditation, and at all of them marks have been raised and set down and stupas built. Long ago five hundred robbers of this country went about the villages as they pleased and ran wild over the city and the country. King Shengjun caught them and gouged out their eyes and cast them away in the deep forest. The robbers were driven by their pain and begged for pity and called on the Buddha. At that time the Tathagata was in the Shiduo shrine, and he heard the sound of their grief and a heart of kindness rose in him. A clear wind blew soft and mild and carried the medicine of the Snow Mountains, and when it had filled their eyes they saw again. And they saw the World Honored One standing before them, and they raised the heart of enlightenment and rejoiced and bowed their heads to the ground, and they threw away their staffs and went, and from these the roots took hold.

More than sixty li northwest of the great city there is an old city. It is the city where the Buddha Jiashebo was born, in the worthy kalpa, in the time when the life of men was twenty thousand years. South of the city there is a stupa, the place where he first saw his father after he had gained right enlightenment. North of the city there is a stupa, and in it is the whole-body relic of the Buddha Jiashebo. Both were raised by King Wuyou.

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