The Country of Mojietuo — Part Two摩揭陁國(下)

East of the bodhi tree one crosses the Nilianchanna river, and in a great forest there is a stupa. North of it there is a pool, the place where a fragrant elephant served its mother. Long ago, when the Tathagata was practicing the way of a bodhisattva, he became the calf of a fragrant elephant. He lived among the mountains to the north and roamed beside this pool. His mother was blind, so he dug lotus roots and drew clear water and served her dutifully and with reverence, moving on as the seasons moved. It happened that a man roaming in the forest lost his way. He wandered back and forth and wept and cried aloud in grief. The elephant calf heard him and pitied him, and led him and showed him the road home. When the man had gone back he told the king, saying, "I know the forest where the fragrant elephants roam and dwell. They are a rare treasure, and one may go and take them." The king accepted his words and raised soldiers and went out to hunt, and this man led the way in front. He pointed to the elephant and showed it to the king, and at once both his arms fell off, as though someone had cut them through. Though the king was startled at this strange thing, he still bound the elephant calf and went back. The calf had been tied up a long while, yet it would not eat water or grass. The keeper of the stables reported it, and the king then asked it himself. The calf said, "My mother is blind, and she has gone hungry many days. Now that I am shut up here, how could I eat with any relish?" The king pitied its feeling, and so he let it go.

Beside it a stone pillar has been set up in front of a stupa. This is where Jiashebo Buddha of old sat in stillness. Beside it there is a place with the seats of the four Buddhas of the past and the traces where they walked.

East of the seats of the four Buddhas one crosses the Mohe river and comes to a great forest, where there is a stone pillar. This is the place where a man of another way entered concentration and then made an evil vow. Long ago there was a man of another way named Yutoulanzi. His will ran off beyond the mist and the sunset clouds, and he gave his body to the grass and the marshes, and in this forest of the Law he lodged his spirit and hid his traces. He had gained the five powers and attained the concentration of the first state of being. The king of Mojietuo revered him with uncommon depth, and when midday came he would ask him to the palace to eat. Yutoulanzi rode the empty air and trod the sky, and he came and went without fail. The king of Mojietuo would watch for the hour and look out for him, and when he had arrived the king would take him up and set him on his seat. The king was about to go roaming far off and wished to entrust what was left behind. He looked through the inner palace, but there was no one able to carry out the charge. He had a young daughter, pure and careful and fair in her bearing, close to him and worthy besides, and none stood above her. The king of Mojietuo called her and charged her, saying, "I am about to travel far, and I have something to entrust. You must give your whole mind to it and be careful in it to the end. That immortal Yutoulan is one I have revered in the past. When the hour comes and he arrives to eat, do as I have done." When he had finished his charge he went out on his round. The young girl took up his word and watched and waited as the rule required, and when the great immortal came she took him up and set him on his seat. Yutoulanzi, having touched a woman, felt the stain of the realm of desire rise in him, and he fell back and lost his powers. When he had eaten and would return, he could not roam through the air. He was ashamed in his heart, and he deceived the girl, saying, "Of late I have been at the work of the Way, entering concentration and gladdening my spirit, riding the empty air to and fro, and I have had not a moment to spare. I heard long ago that the people of the country wished to see me. Yet those who went before handed down this teaching, that to profit all things is the work. How should I keep to my own goodness alone and forget the saving of others? Now I mean to go out by the gate and walk upon the ground, so that all who see me may receive blessing and profit." When the king's daughter heard it she made it known far and near, and the people then came racing, and they sprinkled and swept the streets, and crowds in their hundreds of thousands stood waiting for him to come. Yutoulanzi walked from the royal palace to that forest of the Law. He sat down in stillness to enter concentration, but his mind ran off to outward things. When he lodged in the forest the crows and the birds chattered; when he came to the pool the fish and the turtles made a noise. His feelings scattered and his mind was troubled, and he lost his spirit and gave up his concentration. Then anger rose in him, and he made an evil vow at once, saying, "May I in a life to come be a fierce and evil beast, with the body of a wildcat and the wings of a bird, seizing and eating the living kinds. May my body be three thousand li across and each of my two wings fifteen hundred li across, so that I may throw myself into the forests and swallow the feathered kinds, and go into the streams and eat what lives in the water." When he had made the vow his angry heart slowly cooled, and after he had striven a little while he gained his first concentration again. Before long his life ended, and he was born in the heaven of the first state of being, where his life was eighty thousand kalpas. The Tathagata foretold of him, "When his life in heaven is done he will bear the fruit of his old vow and gain that vile body, and from then on he will roll and turn through the evil paths with no set time of release."

East of the Mohe river one enters a great forest and open country, and after more than a hundred li comes to Mount Ququzhabotuo, also called Mount Julubotuo. The high peaks are steep beyond measure and the deep ravines are hollowed out beyond any edge. In the streams and gullies at the foot of the mountain tall forests stand ranged in the valleys, and on the ridges and the peaks and the passes thick grass covers the rocks. Three summits rise sheer, and beside them sheer cliffs stand out. Their breath touches the sky, and their shape is one with the clouds. Afterward the venerable Mohejiashebo passed away in stillness among them, and men dare not point and name it, and so they call it the honored foot. Mohejiashebo was a disciple of the hearers. He gained the six powers and possessed the eight deliverances. When the Tathagata had finished the work of his teaching and was about to enter nirvana, he told Jiashebo, "Through kalpas beyond counting I practiced hard discipline without rest and sought the Law beyond all others for every living being, and what I vowed and looked for of old is now full and complete. I am about to enter the great nirvana, and I lay the storehouses of the Law upon you. Hold them and spread them abroad, and let nothing be lost or let fall. The robe sewn with golden thread that my aunt offered is to be kept and handed on when Cishi becomes a Buddha. All those who practice within the Law I leave behind, the monks and the nuns and the wubosuojia and the wubosijia, ferry them across first and make them leave the rolling of births." Jiashebo took up his word and held the true law. When the gathering of the scriptures was done, in the twentieth year he wearied of the world and its passing, and being about to pass away in stillness he went to Mount Jizu. He climbed by the north side of the mountain, taking his road by winding turns, and came to the southwestern ridge. The peaks were steep and closed off and the cliff path was coiled and broad, so he knocked with his staff, and it split as though cut. When the mountain path had opened he followed it forward, coiling and turning and bending, crossing and slanting through, and came to the top of the mountain and out on the northeast side. He entered among the three peaks and stood holding up the Buddha's robe, and by the power of his vow the three peaks drew together and covered him. That is why three ridges rise on this mountain today. When Cishi, the World Honored One, arises in the world to come, then after he has spoken the Law in three assemblies there will still be living beings beyond number who are full of pride, and they will climb this mountain and come to where Jiashebo is. Cishi will snap his fingers and the peaks will open of themselves. When those living beings have seen Jiashebo their pride will grow greater still. Then Mohejiashebo will hand over the robe and speak his message, and when he has bowed in reverence he will raise his body into the air and show them many divine changes, and turn to fire and burn his body and so pass away in stillness. Then the assembly will look up at him and their proud hearts will be taken away, and by that they will be stirred and awakened, and all will bear witness to the holy fruit. So a stupa has now been built on the mountain, and on a still night one may look from afar and sometimes see a bright torch. But when men climb the mountain there is nothing to be seen.

Going northeast from Mount Jizu for more than a hundred li one comes to Mount Fotuofana. Its peaks and cliffs are high and steep, and the crags of its summit rise ridge upon ridge. In a stone house among the rocks the Buddha once came down and stayed. Beside it is a flat rock where Dishi and Fantian ground oxhead sandalwood and rubbed it on the Tathagata to adorn him, so that a lingering fragrance is still strong upon that stone today. Five hundred arhats have hidden their spirits here, and those who are stirred and meet with them may sometimes see them, for at times they take the shape of novices and go into the villages to beg for food. Their divine and strange traces, now hidden and now shown, are hard to set down in full.

Going east for more than thirty li through the empty valleys of Mount Fotuofana one comes to the forest of Xiesezhi. The bamboo of the forest is long and strong, and it covers the mountain and fills the valleys. Before that there was a Brahman who heard that the body of Sakyamuni Buddha was one fathom and six feet tall. He always kept a doubt about it and would not believe it, and so he took a bamboo rod of one fathom and six feet and set out to measure the Buddha's body. Each time, more than one fathom and six feet rose above the end of the rod, and it grew higher in this way, and he could not come to the truth of it. At last he threw down the rod and went away, and from it the roots took hold. In the midst of the forest there is a great stupa, built by King Wuyou. Long ago the Tathagata showed great divine powers here for seven days to the gods and to men, and spoke the deep and wondrous law.

In recent times there has been in Zhanglin a wubosuojia named Sheyexina, of the Kshatriya stock of western India. His will was set on what is plain and simple, and his heart was glad to go out into the forest; his traces lay in this world of seeming, while his mind roamed in the region of the true. In the books within and without he searched out what is deep and fine. His words and his arguments were clear and lofty, and his bearing and his rule of life were calm and refined. Monks and Brahmans, men of other ways and other learning, kings of countries, great ministers, elders and men of high family, went to him and had audience of him, and with their whole heart they bowed and asked for his teaching. Those who took his instruction were six households in every ten. He drew toward seventy years, and still he was steeped in reading and never wearied. He gave up the other arts and studied only the scriptures of the Buddha, spurring on his body and his mind and laying nothing aside by day or by night. By the rule of India men make clay of powdered incense and shape small stupas five or six inches high, and they copy out the text of a scripture and set it inside, and this is called a relic of the Law. When the number grows full they build a great stupa and gather them all within it, and they make offerings there without ceasing. So the work of Shengjun was this: with his mouth he set forth the wondrous law and led and drew on those who were learning, and with his hands he made stupas and by the rule raised up surpassing blessings. At night he also walked and bowed and recited, and sat in stillness and pondered, and he had no leisure to sleep or eat, and by day and by night he was never slack. He is a hundred years old, and his will and his work have not weakened. In thirty years he has made seven koti relic stupas of the Law. Each time one koti was full he built a great stupa and set them all within it and made rich offerings, and he asked the whole body of monks to come and held an assembly of the Law in celebration. At those times a divine light shone and blazed and the strange wonder was plain to see, and from that time on the light is sent forth now and then.

More than ten li southwest of Zhanglin, on the south side of a great mountain, there are two hot springs whose water is very hot. Long ago the Tathagata brought this water forth by his transforming power and bathed in it. It remains today, and the clear flow has not lessened, and men from far and near all come to bathe there. Many have been cured of long sickness and old sores. Beside it there is a stupa, the place where the Tathagata walked.

Going southeast from Zhanglin six or seven li one comes to a great mountain, and in front of a ridge that runs across it there is a stone stupa. Long ago the Tathagata spoke the Law here for three months of rain to men and to gods, and at that time King Pinpisuoluo wished to come and hear the Law, and so he opened the mountain and piled up stones and built steps to go up by, more than twenty paces wide and three or four li long.

Three or four li north of the great mountain there is a lone hill where the immortal Guangbo once lived hidden, cutting into the cliff to make himself a chamber, and what is left of it still stands. The manner handed down by the pupils who carried on his teaching still stirs there like a wind.

Four or five li northeast of the lone hill there is a small lone hill, and a stone chamber in the cliff of that hill is broad enough and long enough for more than a thousand men to sit in. Long ago the Tathagata spoke the Law here for three months. Above the stone chamber there is a great flat rock where Dishi and Fantian ground oxhead sandalwood and rubbed it on the Buddha's body to adorn him, so that a lingering fragrance is strong upon the stone even now.

In the southwestern corner of the stone chamber there is a cave in the rock, which in India they call the palace of Asuluo. In days gone by there was a man who loved strange doings and was deeply versed in the art of spells. He looked about for companions and called his friends, and fourteen of them bound themselves together in one purpose and went into this cave in the rock. After they had gone thirty or forty li it opened out and grew bright, and they saw a walled city and a town with terraces and towers, all of gold and silver and lapis. When these men had come there, young women stood waiting beside the gate and received them gladly and treated them with much courtesy. Then they went on little by little to the gate of the inner city, where two serving maids came to meet them, each holding up a golden tray heaped with flowers and incense. They said to the men, "It is well to go to the pool and bathe, and to anoint yourselves and crown yourselves with incense and flowers, and then to go in. That is the fair way. Only that master of the art should go forward at once." The other thirteen then bathed, and no sooner had they gone into the pool than it was as if they had forgotten something in a haze, and they were sitting in a rice field, thirty or forty li away to the north of that place on the level plain.

Beside the stone chamber there is a plank road more than ten paces wide and four or five li long. Long ago King Pinpipoluo was about to go to where the Buddha was, and so he cut the rock and opened a way through the valley, and broke into the cliff and led the stream along, and piled up stones here and cut into the rock there and made steps, and by them came to where the Buddha was.

Going east from here more than sixty li through the midst of the great mountains one comes to the city of Jushejieluobuluo. The palace city of Shangmao stands at the very center of the country of Mojietuo, and it is where the kings of old before this had their capital. Much fine and lucky fragrant thatch grass grows there, and for that reason it is called the city of Shangmao. High mountains ring it on four sides and serve as its outer wall. A narrow path goes through to the west, and a mountain gate opens to the north. It is long from east to west and narrow from north to south, and more than a hundred and fifty li around. What is left of the foundations of the inner city is more than thirty li around. Jienijia trees stand along all the paths. Their flowers hold a rare fragrance and their color shines like yellow gold, and in the last month of spring the whole forest is the color of gold.

Outside the north gate of the palace city there is a stupa. This is where Tipodaduo made a friend of King Weishengyuan and then loosed the drunken elephant Hucai to do harm to the Tathagata. The Tathagata sent forth five lions from the tips of his fingers, and the drunken elephant was tamed here and bowed down and came forward.

Northeast of the place where the drunken elephant was subdued there is a stupa. This is where Shelizi heard the monk Ashiposhi speak the Law and bore witness to the fruit. In the beginning, while Shelizi was still a householder, his talent was high and his measure of mind was refined, and he was held in weight in his day, and he handed on his learning to the pupils who studied under him. At that time he was about to go into the great city of Wangshe, and the monk Masheng was just then begging for food. Then Shelizi saw Masheng from afar and said to his pupils, "That man who comes is very calm and ordered. If he had not borne witness to the holy fruit, how could he be so even and so still? Let us stand and wait a little and watch where he goes." The monk Masheng had already borne witness to arhatship. His mind had gained its freedom, and his bearing was gentle and refined, and he came shaking his staff. Shelizi said, "Elder, are you well and at ease? Who is your teacher, and what law have you borne witness to, that you should be as glad as this?" Masheng said to him, "Do you not know? The crown prince of King Jingfan gave up the place of a wheel turning king. He pitied the six paths, and after six years of hard discipline he bore witness to the three kinds of awakening and possessed all knowledge. He is my teacher. Now the Law is neither being nor emptiness, and it is hard to set out in words. Only a Buddha with a Buddha can search it out and tell it. How should a foolish man like me discuss it in full?" Then he spoke it in verse and praised and extolled the Law of the Buddha, and when Shelizi had heard him he gained the fruit and bore witness to it.

Not far north of the place where Shelizi bore witness to the fruit there is a great deep pit, and a stupa has been built beside it. This is where Shilijuduo tried to harm the Buddha with a fire pit and with poisoned food. Shengmi held to the other ways as his creed and was deeply fixed in wrong views. The Brahmans said to him, "The people of the country honor and revere Qiaodamo, and so our company has nothing left to lean on. You should now ask him to your house and set out a meal, and dig a great pit at the gate and fill it with fire, and bridge it with rotten wood and cover it with dry earth. Mix poison into every dish, so that if he escapes the fire pit he will surely meet the poisoned food." Shengmi took up their word and laid out the poisoned feast. The people in the city all knew that Shengmi had raised an evil mind to harm the World Honored One, and they all urged and begged that the Buddha would not go. The World Honored One told them, "Do not carry this worry. Nothing can harm the body of the Tathagata." Then he accepted the invitation and went. When his foot trod on the threshold the fire pit became a pool, and the clear ripples were bright as a mirror, and lotus flowers spread over it. When Shengmi saw it he was troubled and afraid and did not know what to do, and he said to his company, "He has escaped the fire by his art, but the poisoned food is still there." When the World Honored One had eaten he spoke the wondrous law for him, and when Shengmi had heard it he begged pardon for his fault and took refuge in him.

Northeast of the fire pit of Shengmi, in a bend of the mountain city, there is a stupa. This is where Shifujia, the great physician, built a hall of the Law for the Buddha. He planted flowers and fruit trees around its low wall, and traces of them still remain in the foundations that are left and in the stumps of the trees. While the Tathagata was in the world he stayed there often. Beside it there is also the old house of Shifujia, and his old well remains, and the hollow of the site is still there.

Going northeast from the palace city fourteen or fifteen li one comes to Mount Jilituoluojuzha, which joins the south side of the northern range and rises alone and apart. Vultures roost on it, and it is also like a high terrace, and the color of the sky and the green of the hill answer one another, so that light and deep divide the tints. In the near fifty years that the Tathagata ruled the world he stayed often on this mountain and spoke the wondrous law at length. King Pinpisuoluo, in order to hear the Law, called up men and workmen, and from the foot of the mountain to the peak they spanned the valleys and passed over the rocks and set stones together to make steps, more than ten paces wide and five or six li long. Halfway up the road there are two small stupas. One is called Xiacheng, for the king came this far and went on from here on foot; one is called Tuifan, for there the common folk were sorted out and not allowed to go along. The top of the mountain is long from east to west and narrow from north to south. On the western bank that looks over the cliff there is a brick temple, high and broad and strangely built, with its door opening to the east. Long ago the Tathagata stayed here often and spoke the Law. An image of him speaking the Law has now been made, as large as the body of the Tathagata.

East of the temple there is a long stone, which the Tathagata trod as he walked. Beside it is a great stone one fathom and four or five feet high and more than thirty paces around. This is where Tipodaduo threw it from afar and struck the Buddha. Below the cliff to the south there is a stupa, where the Tathagata long ago spoke the Fahua jing.

Beside the mountain cliff south of the temple there is a great stone house, where the Tathagata long ago entered concentration.

Northwest of the Buddha's stone house, in front of the stone house, there is a great flat rock, the place where Ananda was frightened by a demon. The venerable Ananda entered concentration here, and the demon king turned himself into a vulture and crouched on that great rock on a moonless night, and beat his wings and cried out in alarm to frighten the venerable one. The venerable one was then startled and afraid and did not know what to do. The Tathagata saw it and stretched out his hand to comfort him, and it passed through the stone wall and stroked Ananda's head, and with words of great kindness he told him, "It is a shape the demon has taken. You should have no fear." Ananda received his comfort, and his body and mind were at ease and glad. The bird's marks on the stone and the hole that goes through the cliff are old in years, yet they remain today.

Beside the temple there are several stone chambers where Shelizi and the other great arhats entered concentration. In front of the stone chamber of Shelizi there is a great well, dry and without water, and only the hollow of the site remains.

In a stony stream northeast of the temple there is a great flat rock, where the Tathagata dried his robe in the sun. The pattern of the robe is bright and clear, as sharp as if it were carved. On the stone beside it there is a footprint of the Buddha, and though the wheel mark is faint the shape of it can be made out.

On the top of the northern mountain there is a stupa. This is where the Tathagata looked out over the city of Mojietuo and spoke the Law here for seven days.

West of the north gate of the mountain city there is Mount Pibuluo. From the custom of that country it is heard that "on the shaded southwestern cliff of the mountain there were five hundred hot springs in old days, and now there are only some tens. Still, some are cold and some are warm, and not all of them are hot. The source of those springs rises from Lake Wurenao south of the Snow Mountains and flows in secret as far as this, and the water is very clear and fine, and its taste is the same as that of the first lake. It flows past five hundred branch hells of small heat, and the force of the fire burns upward and brings it to this warmth and heat." At the mouths where the springs flow out, stone has been carved everywhere, and here they have made the heads of lions and white elephants, and there they have made stone pipes for the water to hang and run down, and below they have set stones together to make pools. Men come from every region and from other lands to bathe here, and those who bathe are often cured of long sickness.

The many stupas and temples to the left and right of the hot springs stand foundation by foundation like fish scales, and all are places with the traces where the four Buddhas of the past sat and walked. Since this place is girded about by mountains and by water, it is where the kind of heart and the wise of mind dwell, and those who live hidden here have surely been many.

West of the hot springs there is the stone chamber of Beiboluo, where the World Honored One always stayed in old days. The cave in its back wall is the palace of Asuluo. Monks who practice concentration often live in this chamber, and strange things happen there from time to time, for shapes of dragons and snakes and lions appear, and those who see them go mad and are troubled in mind. Yet this is holy ground where divine and holy ones have stayed, and men tread in their traces and honor the manner of them and forget the calamity and the harm. In recent times there was a monk whose keeping of the precepts was upright and pure and whose mind delighted in what is deep and still, and he wished to hide his traces in this chamber and practice concentration. Someone warned him, saying, "Do not go there. There are many calamities and strange things there, and the harm is not small. It is hard to gain concentration there, and there is fear of losing your body as well. You should take warning from what has gone before, and leave yourself no regret afterward." The monk said, "Not so. I am at this moment set on seeking the fruit of buddhahood and on breaking down the demon of heaven. What is such harm as this, that it should be spoken of?" And at once he shook his staff and went to that chamber. Then he set up an altar and recited spells of prohibition. After ten days a young girl came out of the cave and said to the monk, "Venerable one, you wear the dyed robe and keep the precepts, and you are a refuge for all that have feeling; you cultivate wisdom and practice concentration, and you are a good guide to living things. Yet now you live here and startle us. Is this what the teaching of the Tathagata is like?" The monk said, "That I keep the pure precepts is to follow the holy teaching; that I hide my traces in the mountain valleys is to keep far from noise and confusion. Now on a sudden I am blamed here. Where does the fault lie?" She answered, "When the sound of your spells goes forth, venerable one, fire comes in from outside and burns the chamber where I live and torments my kindred. I only beg you to pity us and recite the spells no more." The monk said, "I recite spells to guard myself, not to harm anything. In days past those who practiced lived here and worked at concentration and looked for the holy fruit, that they might save those in the dark paths, and they saw strange things and were startled and afraid and lost their bodies and their lives. That was your fault. What have you to say?" She answered, "The veil of our sin is heavy and our wisdom is shallow. From now on we will live withdrawn and keep to our own bounds, and we beg that you too, venerable one, will recite no divine spells." The monk then practiced concentration as he had at first, and it was calm and still and there was no harm.

On Mount Pibuluo there is a stupa, the place where the Tathagata spoke the Law in old days. Now men of another way who go naked often live there and practice hard discipline, and they are not slack from morning to night, and from dawn until dusk they turn about and look on.

Going east two or three li along the shaded southern cliff to the left of the north gate of the mountain city, one comes to a great stone chamber where Tipodaduo entered concentration in old days.

Not far east of the stone chamber there are colored stains on a flat rock, as though dyed with blood, and a stupa has been built beside it. This is where a monk who practiced concentration took his own life and bore witness to the fruit. Long ago there was a monk who spurred on his body and mind without rest and lived withdrawn and cultivated concentration, and as the months and years went further off he still did not bear witness to the holy fruit. He drew back and blamed himself, and he sighed to himself in secret, saying, "The fruit of no more learning I shall never bear witness to in time. What good is it to live on for nothing in a body bound with cares?" And he went to this stone and stabbed his own throat. At that moment he bore witness to the fruit of arhatship and rose into the empty air and showed divine changes, and turned to fire and burned his body and passed away in stillness. Men thought his refined constancy beautiful, and they built this to record his merit.

On a stone cliff east of the place where that monk bore witness to the fruit there is a stone stupa, the place where a monk who practiced concentration threw himself from the cliff and bore witness to the fruit. Long ago, in the days when the Buddha was in the world, there was a monk who sat in stillness in the mountains and forests and cultivated the concentration that brings the fruit, and though he had striven hard a long while he did not gain the fruit. Day and night he kept it in mind without a break and did not forget still concentration. The Tathagata knew that his capacity was about to open, and so he went there to bring it to completion. He came from the bamboo grove garden to the foot of the mountain cliff and snapped his fingers to call him, and stood waiting. When this monk saw the holy company from afar his body and mind were quick and glad, and he threw himself down from the cliff; and by his pure mind and his reverent faith in the Buddha's words he gained the fruit before he reached the ground. The World Honored One told him, "You should know that this is the time." Then he rose into the empty air and showed divine changes. To make his pure faith plain, this was raised and set down.

Going a little more than a li from the north gate of the mountain city one comes to the bamboo garden of Jialantuo. There is a temple there now, a brick chamber on a stone foundation, with its door opening to the east. While the Tathagata was in the world he stayed much within it and spoke the Law and opened men's minds and taught them, and led the common people and saved those of the world. An image of the Tathagata has now been made, as large as the body of the Tathagata.

In the beginning there was in this city a great elder named Jialantuo, who was called great and noble in his day, and he gave a large bamboo garden to men of other ways. When he had seen the Tathagata and heard the Law and come to pure faith, he grieved too late that the bamboo garden lay with that other company and that he had no lodging to offer the teacher of gods and men. Then the spirits and the ghosts were stirred by his sincere heart and drove the men of other ways out, telling them, "The elder Jialantuo is about to raise a temple of the Buddha with the bamboo garden. You should go quickly, and you may escape danger and harm." The men of other ways were angry and indignant, and they went away holding their wrath. The elder built a temple here, and when the work was done and the matter finished he went himself and invited the Buddha, and the Tathagata then accepted his gift.

East of the bamboo garden of Jialantuo there is a stupa, built by King Asheduoshedulu. After the Tathagata entered nirvana the kings divided the relics among them, and King Weishengyuan received his share and carried it home, and by the rule he raised this high and made offerings there. When King Wuyou brought forth a mind of faith he opened it and took the relics and built a stupa, and something was still left over, and at times a light shines from it.

In a stupa beside the stupa of King Weishengyuan there are the relics of half the body of the venerable Ananda. Long ago, when the venerable one was about to pass away in stillness, he left the country of Mojietuo and went toward the city of Feisheli, and the two countries fell into strife and were about to raise arms. The venerable one grieved and pitied them, and so he divided his body. The king of Mojietuo bore his part home and made offerings to it, and by the rule he raised it high in this fine place.

Beside it is the place where the Tathagata walked. Not far beyond this there is a stupa, the place where Shelizi and Motejialuozi and the others kept the season of retreat.

Going southwest from the bamboo grove garden five or six li, in a great bamboo forest on the shaded side of the southern mountain, there is a great stone chamber. This is where the venerable Mohejiashebo, with nine hundred and ninety nine great arhats, gathered the three storehouses after the Tathagata entered nirvana. In front of it are old foundations, for King Weishengyuan built this hall for the great arhats who were gathering the storehouse of the Law.

In the beginning Dajiashe was sitting in stillness in the mountains and forests when a bright light suddenly shone and he saw the earth shake, and he said, "What omen is this, that it should be so strange?" He looked with the eye of heaven and saw the Buddha, the World Honored One, entering final nirvana between the two trees. He at once bade his company go to the city of Jushi, and on the road they met a Brahman who held a heavenly flower in his hand. Jiashe asked him, "Where do you come from? Do you know where our great teacher is now?" The Brahman answered, "I have just come from that city of Jushi, and I saw that your great teacher has already entered nirvana. The great host of gods and men were all making offerings, and the flower I hold I got there." When Jiashe heard it he said to his company, "The sun of wisdom has sunk from our sight and the world is dark, the good guide has gone far from us and living beings are falling headlong." But the slack monks said to one another in congratulation, "Now that the Tathagata has passed away in stillness we are at ease. If we transgress, who can reprove us and hold us in?" When Jiashe heard it he was grieved more deeply still, and he thought to gather the storehouse of the Law and to govern transgressions by the teaching. Then he came to the two trees and looked upon the Buddha and bowed to him. And now that the king of the Law had left the world, gods and men had no guide, and the great arhats too were passing into extinction; so Dajiashe thought in this way, "To carry on and follow the teaching of the Buddha, the storehouse of the Law should be gathered." Then he climbed Mount Sumilu and struck the great jianchui and called out in these words, "There is about to be a work of the Law in the city of Wangshe. Let all who have borne witness to the fruit gather quickly and in time." Within the sound of the jianchui the word of Jiashe was carried, and it reached through the three thousand great thousand worlds, and all who had gained divine powers heard it and came together. Then Jiashe told the assembly, "Now that the Tathagata has passed away in stillness the world is empty, and we should gather the storehouse of the Law and repay the Buddha's kindness by it. As we are about to gather the Law we must follow what is simple and still. How should we lean on a crowd and fail to finish this surpassing work? Those who have the three kinds of clearness and have gained the six powers, who hold what they have heard without error and whose eloquence has no hindrance, such high men as these may take part in the gathering. All the rest, who are still learning the fruit, let each go back to his dwelling." So he got nine hundred and ninety nine men. Only Ananda was still on the ground of learning, and Dajiashe called him and said, "You have not yet ended your outflows. You should go out from the holy assembly." He said, "I have attended upon the Tathagata at his side for many years, and whenever the Law was discussed I was never left out. Now that the gathering is to be held, I am cast out. The king of the Law has passed away in stillness, and I have lost the one I leaned upon." Jiashe told him, "Do not carry grief and trouble. You served the Buddha closely, and truly you have heard much, yet the delusion of craving is not ended in you and the knot of habit is not cut." Ananda's words were bent down and he went out, and he came to an empty and still place and would take the ground of no more learning, but though he sought it hard he did not bear witness to it. When he was tired and slack and would sleep a little while, he bore witness to arhatship before his head came down on the pillow. He went to the place of the gathering and knocked at the door and told them he had come. Jiashe asked him, "Are your knots ended? Then you should use your divine power and come in where there is no door." Ananda took up his word and came in through the keyhole, and when he had bowed to the community he drew back and sat down again. This was the fifteenth day, the first of the season of retreat. Then Jiashe raised his voice and said, "Keep this in mind and listen closely. Ananda holds what he has heard, and the Tathagata praised him for it. Let him gather the storehouse of the Sudalan. Youboli holds the rules and has searched them out clearly and is known to all. Let him gather the storehouse of the Pinaiye. I, Jiashebo, will gather the storehouse of the Apidamo." When the three months of rain were over, the gathering of the three storehouses was done. Because Dajiashe was the elder among the community, it is called from that the school of the elders.

Northwest of the place where Dajiashe held the gathering there is a stupa. This is where Ananda, having been reproved by the community and left out of the gathering, came and sat in stillness and bore witness to the fruit of arhatship. Only after he had borne witness to the fruit did he take part in it.

Going west more than twenty li from the place where Ananda bore witness to the fruit there is a stupa, built by King Wuyou, the place where the great assembly school held its gathering. Several hundred thousand men, some still learning and some with no more to learn, had not taken part in the gathering of Dajiashe's company, and they came here and said to one another, "While the Tathagata was in the world we all studied under one teacher, and now that the king of the Law has passed away in stillness they sort us out and set us apart. If we would repay the Buddha's kindness we should gather the storehouse of the Law." Then common men and holy men came together and the worthy and the wise all assembled, and again they gathered the storehouse of the Sudalan, the storehouse of the Pinaiye, the storehouse of the Apidamo, the storehouse of miscellaneous collections and the storehouse of spells of prohibition, and made five storehouses apart. And because common men and holy men met together at this gathering, from that it is called the great assembly school.

Going north more than two hundred paces from the bamboo grove hermitage one comes to the pool of Jialantuo, where the Tathagata often spoke the Law in old days. The water was clear and had the eight virtues, but after the Buddha entered nirvana it dried up and nothing was left.

Going northwest two or three li from the pool of Jialantuo there is a stupa, built by King Wuyou, more than sixty feet high. Beside it is a stone pillar with a record cut on it of the raising of the stupa, more than fifty feet high, with the shape of an elephant made on top.

Not far northeast of the stone pillar one comes to the city of Heluoshejilixi. The outer wall has fallen already, and no part of it is left standing. The inner city, though it is broken down, still has high foundations, more than twenty li around, with one gate on each side.

In the beginning King Pinpisuoluo had his capital in the palace city of Shangmao, and the households on the registers often suffered harm from fire. When one household was careless the four neighbors met with the calamity, and they had no leisure to guard against fire and lost their property and their livelihood, so that the people sighed and complained and were not at peace where they lived. The king said, "It is through my want of virtue that the people below meet with this trouble. What blessed deed may I do to drive it away?" His ministers said, "Great king, your virtue and your teaching are harmonious and your rule and your instruction are clear and searching. It is because these small people are now careless that this calamity of fire has come. You should set a strict law to make later transgressions clean. When a fire breaks out, search to the end for the one who started it and punish the chief offender and move him to Hanlin. Hanlin is the place where corpses are cast out, and the world calls it unlucky ground, and men have left off going there. If he is made to move there, he is as one of the corpses cast away. Being ashamed to live in so mean a place, they will surely take care of themselves." The king said, "Good. Let it be made known to all who live here." Before long fire broke out first in the royal palace itself. He said to his ministers, "Then I shall move." So he charged the crown prince to take up and manage what was left behind, and because he would make the law of the country clean he moved and dwelt there. Then the king of Feisheli heard that King Pinpisuoluo was living out in the open in Hanlin, and he drew up his troops and would fall upon him unawares. The watchmen on the border reported it, and so a walled city and a town were built, and because the king had dwelt here first it is called the city of Wangshe. Officers and gentry and common people all moved their households there. Some say that the city was not walled until the time of King Weishengyuan, and that when the crown prince Weishengyuan succeeded to the throne he made it his capital from that time. When King Wuyou moved his capital to the city of Bozhali he gave the city of Wangshe to the Brahmans. So there are no common people in the city now, and only Brahmans, fewer than a thousand households.

In the southwestern corner of the palace city there are two small monasteries where traveling monks from many countries stay as they come and go. This is a place where the Buddha spoke the Law in old days. Northwest beyond this there is a stupa, the old village where the elder Shudisejia was born.

Outside the south gate of the city, on the left of the road, there is a stupa. Here the Tathagata spoke the Law and saved Luohuluo.

Going north from here more than thirty li one comes to the monastery of Nalantuo. It is heard from the old men that there is a pool in the anmoluo forest south of this monastery, and the dragon of it is named Nalantuo, and because the monastery was built beside it the name was taken from that. But if one argues from the truth of the matter, this is where the Tathagata, long ago when he was practicing the way of a bodhisattva, became the king of a great country and set his capital on this ground. He pitied living beings and loved to give to all alike, and men in that day thought his virtue beautiful and called him giving without weariness, and from this the monastery took its name. The ground was in its first days the garden of anmoluo, and five hundred merchants bought it for a thousand million gold coins and gave it to the Buddha, and the Buddha spoke the Law on that ground for three months, and those merchants too bore witness to the holy fruit. Not long after the Buddha entered nirvana, Shuojialuoadieduo, a former king of this country, honored and weighed the one vehicle and followed and exalted the three treasures, and by the rule he chose blessed ground and built this monastery. When the work was first begun they broke into the body of the dragon and wounded it, and a Nigan man of another way who was skilled in divining saw it and set down this record, "This is fine ground. If a monastery is built here it will surely flourish and be the pattern for the five Indias, and after a thousand years it will grow more abundant still. Those who come after to study here will finish their work with ease, but many will spit blood, because the dragon was wounded." His son, King Fotuojuduo, took up his body and carried on the line and followed the surpassing work, and built another monastery south of this. King Datajieduojuduo cultivated in earnest what had been begun before him, and built another monastery east of this. When King Poluoadieduo came to the throne he built another monastery northeast of this. When the work was done and the matter finished, they held a blessed assembly in celebration, and they offered their sincerity to what is hidden and what is seen and invited the common and the holy. At that assembly the monks of the five Indias gathered like clouds from ten thousand li. When the assembly had taken their seats, two monks came late and were led up to the third storey of the tower. Someone asked them, "The king was to hold an assembly and invited the common and the holy beforehand. From what quarter do you come, men of great virtue, that you arrive last of all?" They said, "We are from the country of Zhina. Our teacher was sick, and we did not set out until he had eaten. We received the king's invitation from afar, and so we have come to the assembly." Those who heard it were startled and told the king at once. The king knew in his heart that they were holy men and went himself to ask them. He was late in climbing to the upper storey, and no one knew where they had gone. The king believed more deeply still, and he gave up his kingdom and left his house. When he had left his house his place was at the end of the community, and his heart was always ill at ease and he carried a discontent within him, saying, "In days past I was a king and sat highest of all; now that I have left my house I am lowest, at the end of the assembly." Then he went and told the community and set out his feeling himself. So the whole body of monks agreed that those who had not yet received the precepts should take their order by years of age, and for that reason this monastery alone has such a rule. After the king's son Fasheluo came to the throne, his faith was upright and firm, and he built another monastery west of this. Afterward a king of Central India built a great monastery again north of this. Then the wall that runs around them rose high, and they were made one with a single gate. Since the kings of one age after another went on building them, every kind of carving was carried to its limit, and it is truly a grand sight. In the great monastery of King Diri an image of the Buddha is now set up, and forty monks are told off from the community each day to eat there and so repay the kindness of the giver.

The monks are several thousand, and all of them are of fine talent and high learning. Those whose virtue weighed in their day and whose name ran into other lands are more than several hundred. Their keeping of the precepts is clear and white and their rule of discipline is pure and unmixed. The community has a strict order and the whole body is upright and plain, and all the countries of India look up to them as their pattern. In asking for teaching and speaking of what is deep the day is too short for them, and they warn and rouse one another by night and by day, and young and old bring one another on. Any who cannot speak of the deep meaning of the three storehouses are ashamed before their own shadow. So when a student from another land would make his name and his repute run, he comes here and asks about his doubts, and only then does a refined praise flow about him. For this reason even those who roam under a borrowed name are all treated with weight and courtesy. When men from strange quarters and other lands would enter the discussions, the gatekeeper puts hard questions to them, and many are bent down and turn back, and only one whose learning is deep in the old and the new may go in. Then the newcomers who roam here as guests set out their arts and abilities in full argument, and truly seven or eight in ten fall back in their flight. The two or three who are wide in knowledge are questioned in turn by the assembly, and there is none whose edge is not blunted and whose name is not brought down. As for those of high talent and wide knowledge, of strong memory and many abilities, men of bright virtue and clear mind, their light has been joined one to another and their tracks have run on unbroken. Such were Hufa and Huyue, who shook a fragrant dust upon the teaching left behind; Dehui and Jianhui, who sent a refined praise abroad in their day; Guangyou with his clear argument and Shengyou with his lofty talk; Zhiyue, whose manner and judgment were bright and quick; and Jiexian, whose utmost virtue was deep and hidden. Such high men as these are known to all. Their virtue rose above those who went before them and their learning ran through the old writings, and the treatises and commentaries they made are ten and more apiece, and all are widely current and were prized in their day.

The holy traces on the four sides of the monastery are a hundred in number, and two or three of them may be raised and spoken of in brief.

Not far west of the monastery there is a temple where the Tathagata stayed for three months in old days and spoke the wondrous law at length to gods and to men. A hundred paces and more south of this, a small stupa is the place where a monk from a distant land saw the Buddha. Long ago a monk came from a distant land, and coming here he met the Tathagata and the holy assembly, and reverence rose within him and he threw his whole body to the ground and at once made a vow, seeking the place of a wheel turning king. When the Tathagata saw it he told the assembly, "That monk is much to be pitied and mourned. His blessings and his virtue are deep and far reaching and his faith is firm and strong, and had he sought the fruit of buddhahood he would have borne witness to it before long. Now he has made a vow and seeks to be a wheel turning king, and in a life to come he will surely receive that reward. Count the motes of dust that lie from where his body fell on the ground down to the golden wheel, and each single mote is the reward of one wheel turning king. Since he is steeped in the pleasures of the world, the holy fruit is far from him." To the south of it there is a standing image of the bodhisattva Guanzizai. Some see it holding a censer and going to the Buddha's temple and turning about it to the right.

In a stupa south of the image of the bodhisattva Guanzizai there are hair and nails that the Tathagata cut in the three months, and those who are sick often recover when they go around it. The stupa beside the pool outside the west wall is where a man of another way caught a sparrow and held it and asked the Buddha here about dying and living. Fifty paces and more southeast of this, within the wall, there is a strange tree eight or nine feet high whose trunk is split in two. Long ago the Tathagata chewed a willow twig and threw it on the ground, and from it the roots took hold, and though it is old in years it has never grown or shrunk from the first. The great temple east of this is more than two hundred feet high, and long ago the Tathagata spoke many wondrous laws here for four months. In a temple a hundred paces and more north of this there is an image of the bodhisattva Guanzizai. Those of pure faith who come to make offerings do not all see it alike and cannot fix its place, for some see it standing beside the door and some see it out in front of the eaves. Monks and lay folk from many countries all come and make offerings to it.

North of the temple of the bodhisattva Guanzizai there is a great temple more than three hundred feet high, built by King Poluoadieduo. Its stately adornment and its measure, and the image of the Buddha within it, are like the great temple under the bodhi tree. In the stupa to the northeast of it the Tathagata set forth the wondrous law for seven days in old days. To the northwest there are the seats where the four Buddhas of the past sat. The brass temple to the south of it was built by King Jieri, and though the work is not yet finished, by the measure planned it is to be ten fathoms when it is done. Outside the wall two hundred paces and more east of this there is a standing image of the Buddha in bronze more than eighty feet high, and a tower of six storeys is needed to cover it over. It was made by King Manzhou in old days.

Two or three li north of the bronze image of the Buddha of King Manzhou, in a brick temple, there is an image of the bodhisattva Duoluo. Its size is great and its divine power watches very closely. Every year on the first day of the year rich offerings are made to it. The kings of the neighboring lands, their great ministers and their high families bring rare incense and flowers and carry jeweled banners and canopies, and the instruments of metal and stone sound in turn and strings and pipes answer one another, and for seven days they hold this assembly of the Law. Within the south gate of that wall there is a great well. Long ago, when the Buddha was in the world, a great company of merchants were pressed by heat and thirst and came to where the Buddha was, and the World Honored One pointed to that ground and said that water might be had there. Then the head merchant pounded the ground with a cart axle, and the ground gave way and water sprang up as a spring. When they had drunk they heard the Law, and all awoke to the holy fruit.

Going southwest from the monastery eight or nine li one comes to the town of Julijia, and in it there is a stupa built by King Wuyou. This is the old home where the venerable Motejialuozi was born. Beside it there is a stupa where the venerable one entered the nirvana without remainder, and within it are the relics of the body he left behind. The venerable one was of a great Brahman stock, and he and Shelizi were close friends in their youth. Shelizi was honored for his talent and brightness, and the venerable one won praise for the fineness of his judgment. Their talent and their wisdom matched one another, and they moved and rested always together, and they made a compact from beginning to end and vowed to go and to stay alike. Together they wearied of the world and sought to leave their households together, and so they took Shansheye for their teacher. Shelizi met the arhat Masheng and heard the Law and awoke to what is holy, and when he came back and set it forth again for the venerable one, he heard it and awoke to the Law and bore witness to the first fruit. Together with two hundred and fifty of their company they came to where the Buddha was, and the World Honored One saw them from afar and pointed and told the assembly, "The man who comes there is first among my disciples in the foot of spiritual power." When he had come to where the Buddha was, he asked to enter within the Law, and the World Honored One told him, "Welcome, monk. Cultivate the holy life in purity, and leave the bound of suffering." As he heard these words his beard and hair fell away and his worldly garments were changed, and the body of his precepts was pure and his bearing was even and yielding. After seven days he ended his outflows and bore witness to the fruit of arhatship and gained the power of the spirit.

Going east three or four li from the old home of Motejialuozi there is a stupa, the place where King Pinpisuoluo went out to meet the Buddha and see him. When the Tathagata had first borne witness to the fruit of buddhahood, he knew that the hearts of the men of Mojietuo thirsted and looked up to him, and he accepted the invitation of King Pinpisuoluo. In the early morning he put on his robe and took his bowl, and a thousand monks ringed him on the left and the right. All of them were old Brahmans with conch topknots who had come to love the Law and put on the dyed robe, and they went before him and behind him like wings as he entered the city of Wangshe. Then Dishi, the king of the gods, changed his body and became a Monapo, with a conch topknot on his head and a golden vase in his left hand and a jeweled staff in his right, and his feet trod the empty air four fingers above the ground, and in the midst of the great assembly he led the way before the Buddha. Then King Pinpisuoluo of the country of Mojietuo, with the Brahmans and elders and householders of his country in their hundreds of thousands, led the way and followed behind, and came out of the city of Wangshe and received the holy assembly and welcomed them.

Going southeast more than twenty li from the place where King Pinpisuoluo welcomed the Buddha one comes to the town of Jialuobinajia, and in it there is a stupa built by King Wuyou. This is the old home where the venerable Shelizi was born, and the well is still there today. Beside it there is a stupa where the venerable one passed away in stillness, and within it are the relics of the body he left behind.

The venerable one was of a great Brahman stock. His father was of high talent and wide knowledge and looked deeply into what is fine and hidden, and there was no book of any craft that he had not searched out and studied. His wife was stirred by a dream and told him all of it, saying, "Last night as I slept I felt a strange man in my dream. His body was clad in armor and his hand held a diamond mace, and he broke and shattered many mountains and then drew back and stood beneath one mountain." Her husband said, "The dream is very good. You will bear a son, and he will be so versed in learning that he runs through the world and breaks down the masters of argument and shatters the doctrines they hold to; only one man he will not match, and he will become his disciple." She was with child indeed, and the mother grew suddenly quick of mind and talked loftily and argued keenly, and her words were never bent or checked. The venerable one was only eight years old when his name rang through the four quarters. His nature was plain and simple and his heart was kind and pitying, and he rotted away the bonds and ties and brought wisdom to completion. He and Motejialuozi were friends from their youth, and they deeply wearied of the dust of the world and had nowhere to turn, and so together with Motejialuozi he studied and practiced under Shansheye, a man of another way. Then they said to one another, "This is not the final truth, and it cannot search out the bound of suffering. Let each of us seek a bright guide, and whichever tastes the sweet dew first shall surely share its taste with the other." At that time the great arhat Masheng was carrying his bowl and going into the city to beg for food. Shelizi saw that his bearing was calm and refined, and he went up and asked him, "Who is your teacher?" He said, "The crown prince of the Shi stock wearied of the world and left his house and gained full and right awakening. He is my teacher." Shelizi said, "What law does he speak? May I hear it?" He said, "I have only lately received the teaching and have not reached its deep meaning." Shelizi said, "I beg you to tell me what you have heard." Then Masheng set it forth as suited the moment, and when Shelizi had heard him he bore witness to the first fruit at once. Then he went with two hundred and fifty of his company to where the Buddha was, and the World Honored One saw them from afar and pointed and told the assembly, "He is first in wisdom among my disciples." When he had come he bowed his head to the ground and asked to follow the Law of the Buddha, and the World Honored One told him, "Welcome, monk." As he heard these words the body of his precepts was complete. Half a month later he heard the Buddha speak the Law for the Brahman Changzhao, and hearing an argument meant for another he was stirred and awakened, and so he bore witness to the fruit of arhatship. Afterward, when Ananda received the Buddha's word of the time when he would pass away in stillness, they told it to one another from mouth to mouth and each of them carried grief in his heart. Shelizi's longing and reverence grew deeper still, and he could not bear to see the Buddha enter final nirvana, and so he asked the World Honored One that he might pass away in stillness first. The World Honored One told him, "You should know that this is the time." He took leave of his pupils and came to the village where he was born, and the novice who attended him made it known through the city and the towns. King Weishengyuan and the people of his country all ran like the wind, and they gathered like clouds. Shelizi spoke the Law to them at length, and when they had heard it they went away. Then in the last watch of the night he set his thought straight and bound his mind and entered the concentration of complete cessation, and when he had risen from that concentration he passed away in stillness.

Four or five li southeast of the town of Jialuobinajia there is a stupa. This is the place where the pupils of the venerable Shelizi entered nirvana. Some say, "In the days when Jiashebo Buddha was in the world, three koti of great arhats passed away in stillness together on this ground with nothing remaining."

Going east more than thirty li from the stupa of the pupils of Shelizi one comes to Mount Yintuoluoshiluojuhe. The rocks and valleys of that mountain are dark and deep and the flowering woods grow thick. On the ridge there are two peaks that rise up high and apart. Among the rocks on the south of the western peak there is a great stone chamber, broad but not high, where the Tathagata once stayed in old days. At that time Dishi, the king of the gods, drew forty two doubtful matters on the stone and asked about them, and the Buddha set them forth and explained them for him, and the traces are still there. This image has now been made in likeness of that holy bearing of old, and none who go in and pay reverence fail to be gravely reverent and afraid. On the ridge of the mountain there is a place with the traces where the four Buddhas of the past sat and walked. On the eastern peak there is a monastery, and it is heard from the custom of that country that "the monks within it sometimes look out in the last watch of the night and see a lamp and a torch always before the image of the Buddha in the stone chamber of the western peak, always shining and lighting it."

In front of the monastery on the eastern peak of Mount Yintuoluoshiluojuhe there is a stupa called Gensuo. Long ago this monastery studied and delighted in the Lesser Vehicle, and the Lesser Vehicle is the gradual teaching, and so it allowed the three kinds of clean meat, and this monastery followed that and did not let it fall. Afterward they sought the three kinds of clean meat and did not get them in time. A monk who was walking suddenly saw a flock of wild geese wheeling in flight, and he said in jest, "Today the midday meal of the assembly is not enough. Mohesaduo should know that this is the time." The sound of his words had not yet ended when one goose fell back in its flight and came before that monk and threw itself down and died. When the monk had seen it he told the whole assembly, and those who heard it were struck with grief and said to one another, "The Tathagata set out the Law and led and drew men on as their capacity allowed. We have kept to our folly and followed and practiced the gradual teaching. The Greater Vehicle is the right truth, and we should change what we held to before and work to follow the holy purpose. This goose has handed down a warning to us, and it is truly a bright guide. We should make its deep virtue known and hand down the record of it to the end of time." So they built a stupa and by the rule made plain the fierce deed it left behind, and they buried that dead goose beneath it.

Going northeast from Mount Yintuoluoshiluojuhe a hundred and fifty or sixty li one comes to the monastery of Jiabudejia. The monks are more than two hundred, and they study and expound the Sarvastivada school. East of the monastery there is a stupa built by King Wuyou. Long ago the Buddha spoke the Law here for one night to a great assembly. At that time a netter was catching birds with his net in this forest, and he got nothing though the day went by, and at last he said, "My blessings are thin, and all I ever do turns out badly." He came to where the Buddha was and raised his voice and cried out, "Today the Tathagata is speaking the Law here, and by it my netting has taken nothing at all. My wife and children are hungry. Where am I to find a plan for it?" The Tathagata told him, "You should lay a fire, and I will give you food." Then the Tathagata turned himself into a great dove and threw himself into the fire and died. The netter carried it home and ate it with his wife and children. Afterward he went again to where the Buddha was, and the Tathagata gathered him in and taught him by means suited to him, and when the netter had heard the Law he repented of his fault and made himself new, and he left his house and took up study, and at once he bore witness to the holy fruit. From this what was built there was named the monastery of the dove.

Two or three li south of the monastery of Jiabudejia one comes to a lone hill. That hill is high and steep and its trees and woods grow thick, and famous flowers and clear streams cover its cliffs and wind about its valleys. On it are many temples and holy shrines, and the work of carving has been carried far in them. In the temple at the very center there is an image of the bodhisattva Guanzizai. Small as the body and the size of it are, its awe and its divine power stir men to gravity. In its hand it holds a lotus flower, and on its head it bears an image of the Buddha. There are always a few men who cut off food and hold their minds fast and seek to see the bodhisattva, for seven days, or twice seven days, or even a month; and those who are answered see the wondrous form of the bodhisattva Guanzizai in its stately adornment, with an awesome light blazing about it, come forth from the image and comfort and counsel them. Long ago the king of the country of Sengjialuo in the southern sea was holding a mirror to his face in the clear morning, and he did not see his own body but saw this image of the bodhisattva on a small hill in the Duoluo forest of the country of Mojietuo in the continent of Shanbu. The king was deeply stirred and glad, and he had it painted and set about searching for it. When he came to this hill it was indeed the very likeness of what he had seen, and from this he built a temple and raised up many offerings. Afterward the kings looked up to the manner he had left behind, and so they built temples and holy shrines beside it, and offerings of incense and flowers and music have not ceased there.

Going southeast more than forty li from the image of the bodhisattva Guanzizai on the lone hill one comes to a monastery where the monks are more than fifty, and all of them study the Law and teaching of the Lesser Vehicle. In front of the monastery there is a great stupa where divine wonders are many, for the Buddha long ago spoke the Law here for seven days to King Fantian and the others. Beside it there is a place with the traces where the three Buddhas of the past sat and walked.

Going northeast from the monastery more than seventy li one comes to a great village south of the Qingqie river, where the people are many and prosperous. There are several temples of the gods, and the carving and adorning of all of them is carried to its utmost. Not far to the southeast there is a great stupa where the Buddha spoke the Law for one night in old days.

Going east from here into the mountains and forests for more than a hundred li one comes to the village of Luobannila. In front of the monastery there is a great stupa built by King Wuyou, where the Buddha spoke the Law for three months in old days. Two or three li north of this there is a great pool more than thirty li around, where lotus flowers of four colors open in the four seasons.

Going east from here into the great mountains and forests for more than two hundred li one comes to the country of Yilannabofaduo.