The Country of Tuonajiezhejia馱那羯磔迦國

The country of Tuonajiezhejia is more than six thousand li around. The great capital city of the country is more than forty li around. The land is rich, and sowing and reaping are ample and full. Waste country is wide and settled towns are few. The climate is warm and hot, and the people are dark of face. They are fierce and keen by nature, and they love learning and the arts. The monasteries stand in rows like fish scales, but the ruin among them is already deep, and those that remain are more than twenty, with more than a thousand monks, and most of them study and practice the Law of the Mahasamghika school. The temples of the gods are more than a hundred, and the followers of other ways are truly many.

East of the city, leaning on the hill, there is the monastery of Fuposeluo, and west of the city, leaning on the hill, there is the monastery of Afaluoseluo. A former king of this country built them for the Buddha. He set the streams in order and opened a path, cut into the cliff and raised halls upon it. Long corridors and walking eaves pillow on the rock and reach to the peaks. Holy spirits kept watch over them, and sages and worthy men wandered and rested there. In the thousand years after the Buddha passed into stillness, a thousand monks who were still common men entered the summer retreat together every year. On the day they broke the retreat they all witnessed arhatship and rode the empty air away by the strength of their divine power. After a thousand years, common men and holy ones lived there together. For the last hundred years and more there have been no monks again. The god of the mountain changes his shape, and becomes now a jackal or a wolf, now a monkey, and frightens travelers, and for this reason the place is empty and waste and still, with no company of monks.

Not far south of the city there is a great rock in the mountain. It is the place where the master of treatises Popifeijia stays in the palace of Asuluo, waiting to see the bodhisattva Cishi become a Buddha. The master of treatises was wide and far in the measure of his mind, and deep and hidden in his highest virtue. Outwardly he wore the robe of the Sengqu, and inwardly he spread the learning of Longmeng. He heard that the bodhisattva Hufa of the country of Mojietuo was unfolding the teaching of the Law, with several thousand students, and he wished to hold a debate with him, so he took up his staff and went. When he came to the city of Bozhali he learned that the bodhisattva Hufa was at the bodhi tree, and he ordered a disciple, "Go to the bodhi tree where the bodhisattva Hufa is, and speak for me in these words. 'Bodhisattva, you unfold the teaching that was left to us and guide and draw on those who have gone astray. It is long now since I looked up to your virtue with an empty heart. But a vow made long ago is still unfulfilled, and so I cannot come and pay my respects. I have sworn that I will not look on the bodhi tree in vain. When I look on it, there will surely be a sign, and I will be called a teacher of gods and men.'" The bodhisattva Hufa said to the messenger, "The world of men is like an illusion, and body and life are like something floating. The days are too short for me and I give them all to my work, and I have no leisure for debate." Men carried the word back and forth, but in the end the two did not meet. When the master of treatises had returned to his own land, he thought quietly, "If Cishi does not become a Buddha, who will settle my doubt?" Before an image of the bodhisattva Guanzizai he chanted the Suixin tuoluoni, and he cut off grain and drank only water, and three years passed. Then the bodhisattva Guanzizai showed a body of wondrous color and said to the master of treatises, "On what is your purpose set?" He answered, "I wish to keep this body and to wait and see Cishi." The bodhisattva Guanzizai said, "The life of a man is in danger and is brittle, and the world is floating and unreal. You should practice the higher good and wish to be born in the Dushiduo heaven. There you may pay your respects to him, and you will see him sooner." The master of treatises said, "My purpose cannot be taken from me, and my heart cannot be made two." The bodhisattva said, "If that is so, you should go to the country of Tuonajiezhejia, to the rock of the mountain south of the city where the god Zhijingang is. If you chant and hold the Zhijingang tuoluoni with utmost sincerity, you will gain this wish." So the master of treatises went there and chanted. After three years the god said to him, "What is it you wish, that you work so hard at this?" The master of treatises said, "I wish to keep this body and to wait and see Cishi. The bodhisattva Guanzizai pointed the way and sent me here to ask. Who will bring my wish about, if not you?" Then the god gave him a secret means and said, "Inside this rock there is a palace of Asuluo. If you make your request according to the rule, the stone wall will open. When it opens, go inside, and there you may wait and see him." The master of treatises said, "If I live in a hidden place I shall see nothing. How shall I know when the Buddha arises?" Zhijingang said, "When Cishi comes into the world, I will tell you." The master of treatises received the word and chanted and held it with a single mind. Three more years passed, and from first to last he had no other thought. He put a spell on a mustard seed and struck the wall of stone with it, and it opened wide. At that time a hundred thousand ten thousand people looked on and forgot to go home. The master of treatises stood astride the doorway and told the crowd, "For long I have prayed and waited to see Cishi. The holy spirits have watched over me and helped me, and now my great vow is fulfilled. Come in here and see the rising of the Buddha with me." Those who heard were struck with fear, and none dared set foot in the door, for they took it to be the den of a poisonous snake and were afraid of losing body and life. He told them two and three times, but only six men followed him in. The master of treatises looked back and took his leave of the crowd, and went in without haste. When he had gone in, the wall of stone closed again, and the crowd all sighed and grieved and repented that they had gone too far in what they had said before.

From here one goes southwest for more than a thousand li and comes to the country of Zhuliye.