The Country of Feisheli吠舍厘國

The country of Feisheli is more than five thousand li around. The land is rich and fat, and flowers and fruits grow thick and full. Anmoluo fruit and maozhe fruit are many, and they are also prized. The climate is mild and pleasant, and the customs are simple and plain. The people love merit and hold learning in honor, and they believe in the false and the true mixed together. There are several hundred monasteries, and most of them have already fallen and broken down. Three or five are still standing, and the monks are few and scarce. The temples of the gods number some tens, and the followers of other ways live mixed among them, and those who go without clothing are indeed a numerous party. The city of Feisheli has already fallen very low. Its old foundation is sixty or seventy li around and the palace city is four or five li around, and few people live there.

Five or six li northwest of the palace city one comes to a monastery. Its monks are few, and they study the doctrine of the Zhengliang school of the Lesser Vehicle. Beside it there is a stupa. It is the place where the Tathagata long ago spoke the Pimoluojie jing, and where Baoji, the son of an elder, and the others offered a canopy of jewels. East of it there is a stupa where Shelizi and the others gained the fruit of nothing more to learn.

Southeast of the place where Shelizi gained the fruit there is a stupa, and the king of Feisheli raised it. After the Buddha entered nirvana an earlier king of this country received a share of the relics and raised it in due form and with reverence. It is said in the Yindu ji, "In this there were of old one hu of relics of the Tathagata. King Wuyou opened it and took nine dou and left only one dou. Afterward a king of another country wished to open it and take them, and the work had only begun when the earth shook, and at last he did not dare to open it."

Northwest of it there is a stupa, and King Wuyou raised it. Beside it there is a stone pillar fifty or sixty feet high, and the figure of a lion is made on the top of it. South of the stone pillar there is a pond, and a troop of monkeys dug it for the Buddha, for the Tathagata dwelt here long ago. Not far west of the pond there is a stupa. It is the place where the monkeys took the bowl of the Tathagata and climbed a tree and gathered honey. Not far south of the pond there is a stupa. It is the place where the monkeys offered the honey to the Buddha. At the northwest corner of the pond there are still the shapes and the images of monkeys.

Three or four li northeast of the monastery there is a stupa. It is the foundation of the old house of Vimalakirti, and there are many divine and strange signs there. Not far from this there is a divine house, and its shape is as if it were piled of brick, though it is handed down that it was built of stone. It is the place where the elder Wugoucheng showed himself sick and spoke the Law. Not far from this there is a stupa. It is the old house of Baoji, the son of an elder. Not far from this there is a stupa. It is the old house of the woman Anmoluo, where the Buddha's aunt and the other nuns entered nirvana.

Three or four li north of the monastery there is a stupa. When the Tathagata was about to go to the country of Jushina to enter parinirvana, men and beings that are not men followed the World Honored One and stood waiting here. Not far to the northwest there is a stupa. It is the place where the Buddha looked upon the city of Feisheli for the last time. Not far south of it there is a shrine, and a stupa is raised before it. It is the place where the woman Anmoluo took her garden and gave it to the Buddha.

Beside the garden of Anmoluo there is a stupa. It is the place where the Tathagata told of his nirvana. Long ago the Buddha said here to Ananda, "He who has gained the four feet of spiritual power can keep his life for a kalpa. How long should the Tathagata now live?" He said this two and three times, but Ananda did not answer, for the demon of heaven had clouded him. Ananda rose from his seat and sat silent in the forest. Then the demon came and asked the Buddha, "The Tathagata has been in the world and has taught for a long time now, and those who have been saved from the turning stream are as many as dust and sand. The joy of quiet extinction, now is its time." The World Honored One put a little earth on his nail and said to the demon, "Is the earth of the ground more, or the earth on the nail?" He answered, "The earth of the ground is more." The Buddha said, "Those who have been saved are like the earth on the nail, and those not yet saved are like the earth of the great ground. Three months from now I shall enter nirvana." The demon heard it and went away rejoicing. In the forest Ananda suddenly had a strange dream, and he came and said to the Buddha, "I was in the forest, and in my dream I saw a great tree. Its branches and leaves were thick and its shade was deep and close, and a startling wind rose of a sudden and broke it and scattered it and left nothing. Is the World Honored One not about to enter quiet extinction? My heart is afraid, and so I have come to ask." The Buddha said to Ananda, "I told you before, but you were covered by the demon and did not ask me in time to stay. The demon king urged me to enter nirvana early, and the time is already granted. This dream is that."

Not far beside the place where he told the time of his nirvana there is a stupa. It is the place where the thousand sons saw their father and mother. Long ago there was a seer who lived hidden in a rocky valley. In the middle month of spring he washed in a clear stream, and a doe drank after him and was moved and bore a girl. Her form and her face were finer than those of men, but her legs alone were like a deer's. The seer saw her and took her in and reared her. Afterward he bade her go and get fire, and she came to the hut of another seer, and wherever her feet trod the ground there was a lotus flower in the print. That seer saw it and thought it very strange, and he made her go around his hut, and only then did he let her have the fire. The deer woman did as she was bidden and got the fire and went back. At that time King Fanyu was hunting and roaming, and he saw the flowers and followed the prints and searched, and he was pleased at the wonder of it and took her in his carriage and returned. A reader of signs foretold, "She will bear a thousand sons." The other wives heard it, and there was not one of them who did not lay a plan. When the days and the months were full she bore one lotus flower. The flower had a thousand petals, and on every petal a child was sitting. The other wives spoke falsely against her, and they all called it a thing of ill omen and threw it into the Qingqie river, and it drifted away on the waves. King Wuqiyan was roaming and looking about downstream, and he saw a yellow cloud cover coming on the waves. He took it and opened it and looked, and there were a thousand sons. He had them nursed and reared until they were grown, and they had great strength. Trusting in his thousand sons, he widened his borders on the four sides, and the might of his army rode on its victories, and he was about to come next to this country. Then King Fanyu heard of it and was greatly shaken with fear, and his armed strength was no match for them, and no plan came to him. At this time the deer woman knew in her heart that they were her sons, and she said to the king, "Now the raiding army has come to the border and high and low are divided in heart, but your humble handmaid in her foolish loyalty can break the strong enemy." The king did not believe her, and his grief and his fear were very deep. Then the deer woman went up on the city tower and waited for the raiders to come. When the thousand sons led their army and had ringed the city all around, the deer woman called to them, "Do not do what goes against nature. I am your mother, and you are my sons." The thousand sons said, "How wrong are your words!" The deer woman pressed her two breasts with her hands, and the milk flowed out in a thousand streams, and, by the moving of the nature that heaven gives, it all went into their mouths. Then they took off their armor and returned to their own house, they laid down their arms and went back to their kin, and the two countries rejoiced together and the people were at peace and glad.

Not far beside the place where the thousand sons returned to their own house there is a stupa. It is the old trace where the Tathagata walked back and forth. He pointed and said to those who followed him, "Long ago I returned to my own house here and saw my father and mother. Would you know who the thousand sons are? They are the thousand Buddhas of the worthy kalpa."

East of the place where he told of a former life there is an old foundation, and a stupa is raised upon it. A bright light shines there at times, and prayers are sometimes granted. It is the ground left from the two-storied hall where the Tathagata spoke the Pumen tuoluoni and other sutras.

Not far beside the hall there is a stupa, and within it is a relic of half the body of Ananda. Not far from this there are several hundred stupas, and though one would fix their number there is no knowing it surely. It is the place where a thousand who awakened alone entered quiet extinction.

Within the city of Feisheli and without it, around its moat, the holy traces are many and it is hard to name them all. The old ruins of a place once flourishing stand up between one another like the scales of a fish, but the years and the months have changed swiftly and heat and cold have shifted again and again. The groves are already broken and worn and the ponds too have dried up. Only in the rotten stumps and the traces that are left can one prove the truth of it in full.

Going fifty or sixty li northwest of the great city one comes to a great stupa. It is the place where the sons of Lichepo parted from the Tathagata. When the Tathagata went from the city of Feisheli toward the country of Jushina, the sons of Lichepo heard that the Buddha was about to enter quiet extinction, and they followed him and cried aloud and sent him on his way. The World Honored One saw their grief and their longing, and it was not a thing that words could settle, and so by his spiritual power he made a great river, with banks deep and sheer and a stream swift and rushing, and the sons of Lichepo wept bitterly and stopped. The Tathagata left his bowl behind, to be a trace for their remembering.

A little less than two hundred li northwest of the city of Feisheli there is an old city. It has lain waste for many years, and the people living there are very few. Within it there is a stupa. It is the place where the Buddha long ago drew on a former life and told of it to the bodhisattvas and to the great host of men and gods. When he was practicing the way of a bodhisattva he was once in this city a wheel-turning king, and his name was Mohetipo. The seven treasures answered to him and he was king over the four quarters under heaven. He looked on the marks of decay and change and understood in himself the truth that nothing lasts, and in his heart he cherished a high withdrawal and forgot all feeling for his great place, and he left his country and went forth from his home, and he put on the dyed robe and took up learning.

Going fourteen or fifteen li southeast of the city one comes to a great stupa. It is the place where seven hundred worthy and holy ones met again and set the scriptures in order. A hundred and ten years after the Buddha entered nirvana there were monks in the city of Feisheli who went far from the Law of the Buddha and did the rules of discipline wrongly. At that time the elder Yashetuo was living in the country of Jiaosaluo, the elder Sanpuqie in the country of Motuluo, the elder Liboduo in the country of Hanruo, the elder Shaluo in the country of Feisheli, and the elder Fushesumiluo in the country of Boluolifu. They were all great arhats whose minds had gained freedom, who kept the Tripitaka and had the three clear knowledges, who had great names and were known to all, and they were all disciples of the venerable Ananda. Then Yashetuo sent messengers to tell the worthy and holy ones that they should all gather in the city of Feisheli. Still they were one short and were not seven hundred full. At this time Fushesumiluo saw with the eye of heaven that the great worthy and holy ones were gathering to take counsel on the affairs of the Law, and by his feet of spiritual power he came to the assembly. Then Sanpuqie bared his right shoulder in the great assembly and knelt upright and said aloud, "Let the assembly be still. Be reverent, be mindful. Long ago the great holy king of the Law used his good means and entered quiet extinction, and though the years and the months have gone by, his words and his teaching are still here. The idle monks of the city of Feisheli have gone wrong in the rules of discipline, and ten things have come out of it that go against the teaching of him of the ten powers. Now you worthy ones know deeply what is kept and what is broken. In awe, carry on the teaching that the great and virtuous Ananda pointed out, be mindful to repay the kindness of the Buddha, and declare the holy purpose anew." Then there was not one of that great assembly who was not moved with grief, and at once they called the monks together, and following the Pinaiye they rebuked them and held them back, and they cut away the wrong practices and made the holy teaching clear.

Going eighty or ninety li south of the place where the seven hundred worthy and holy ones met one comes to the monastery of Shifeiduobuluo. Its terraces rise in tiers and are bright, and its two-storied halls seem to fly like pheasants. Its monks are pure and grave, and all of them study the Greater Vehicle. Beside it there is the place with the traces where the four Buddhas of the past sat and walked back and forth. The stupa at its side was raised by King Wuyou. It is the place with the traces where the Tathagata rested on the road long ago, when he went south to the country of Mojietuo and looked back north to the city of Feisheli.

Going more than thirty li southeast of the monastery of Shifeiduobuluo, on the south bank and on the north bank of the Qingqie river, there is one stupa on each side. It is the place where the venerable Ananda divided his body and gave it to the two countries. Ananda was the younger cousin of the Tathagata. He had heard much and kept it all, he knew many things widely and his memory was strong, and after the Buddha left the world he followed after Dajiashe and took charge of the true Law and led students forward. He was in the country of Mojietuo, and as he walked in a forest he saw a novice reciting a sutra of the Buddha with the phrases wrong and the words in confusion. Ananda heard it, and his longing for the past grew, and he went slowly to where the novice was and drew him aside and taught him. The novice laughed and said, "Great and virtuous one, you are old, and what you say is wrong. My master is lofty and clear and is in the fullness of his years, and he received the teaching himself. There is surely nothing mistaken in it." Ananda was silent, and he drew back and sighed and said, "My years are far gone, yet for the sake of the many living I wished to stay long in the world and to hold up the true Law. But the stains of the living are heavy and they are hard to teach with words, and there is no gain in staying long. It is better to pass away quickly." So he left the country of Mojietuo and went toward the city of Feisheli, and he crossed the Qingqie river and let his boat float in midstream. The king of Mojietuo heard that Ananda had gone, and his feeling was deep and he longed for his virtue, and he made his troops and his carriages ready at once and rode hard to follow him and ask him to stay, and several hundred thousand of them camped on the south bank. The king of Feisheli heard that Ananda was coming, and his heart was full of grief and joy, and he too set his army in order and hurried out to meet him, and several hundred thousand of them gathered on the north bank. The two armies faced each other, and their banners hid the sun. Ananda feared that their soldiers would fight and would kill and harm one another, and he rose from the boat and went up into the empty air and showed them the changes wrought by his spiritual power, and then he entered quiet extinction. He turned into fire and burned his body, and the bones split in two in the middle, and one part fell on the south bank and one part on the north bank. So the two kings each had one share, and the whole army cried aloud in grief, and they went back together to their own countries and raised stupas and made offerings there.

Going more than five hundred li northeast from here one comes to the country of Fulishi.