Buddhist Scriptures

by Donald Lopez

  But there were many other pilgrims whose stories are not well known, some of which are collected in a work by Yijing entitled Biographies of Eminent Monks Who Sought the Dharma in the Western Regions during the Tang (Nanhai jigui naeifa zhuan). The preface to that work appears below, along with the biography of a monk named Xuanzhao, who made the journey to the West not once, but twice.

  Biographies of Eminent Monks who Sought the Dharma in the Western Regions during the Tang

  Preface

  From earlier times there have been in China people who risked their lives in search of the dharma. Dharma-master Faxian [c.339–420] of the Eastern Jin first opened up this dangerous path; dharma-master Xuanzang [602–664] later established a regular route. Between these two some monks made the journey, either by the western route, going beyond the Great Wall and travelling by themselves, or by the southern route, crossing the great ocean and journeying alone. They all yearned to visit the holy sites and prostrate themselves to pay their respects. They intended then to return to China and repay the four kinds of debts they had received at home, from their parents, rulers, other sentient beings and the three jewels. But the passage was plagued by many difficulties, and the holy places were distant. Many rice plants sprout, but only a few bear fruit. As they travelled vast distances in the desert and along great rivers, the hot sun burned them; as they proceeded over the great sea, waves reaching the sky rose in front of them. Walking alone beyond the Iron Gate pass, they crossed mountain after mountain, only to fall from a cliff. Alone they threw their lives away at the Copper Pillar in Jiaozhi, or they went over to the Kingdom of One Thousand Rivers [in the region around Cambodia] and died there. Sometimes there was nothing to eat or drink for several days. Anxious thoughts destroyed their spirits; worries and weariness ruined their health. Of those numbering fifty who left, only a few survived. Even when they reached India, China had no Chinese temples there where Chinese monks could freely take refuge, so they roamed from one foreign temple to another without a place to settle down. Seldom did they find a fixed place to settle down. Their personal well-being was not secured; how could they contribute to the flourishing of the dharma? Their virtues are indeed to be praised. Hoping to pass on the fragrance of their lives, dedicated to the Buddha’s dharma, I composed their biographies, basing myself on what I have heard and seen in India.

  Xuanzhao

  Dharma-master Xuanzhao was from Xianzhang in Taizhou; his Indian name was Prakāśamati (‘Bright Wisdom’). His grandfather and father were both high government officials, but while he was still wearing his hair in two topknots in the manner of an infant, he removed the hair pin, abandoning the official career and renounced the householder’s life. In the year he attained adulthood, he formed the aspiration to pay homage at holy sites, and went to the capital city Chang’an where he heard lectures on sūtras and śāstras in different temples. During the Zhenguan period [627–649] under the teacher Xuanzheng at Daxingshansi temple he began to study Sanskrit. Then he took the monk’s staff, and set out as a pilgrim towards the west, with the thought of visiting the Jetavana garden.

  Leaving behind Lanzhou, the Golden City, he travelled through the ‘moving sands’ of the Taklamakan Desert; passing through the Iron Gate, he climbed the Snowy Peaks. Rinsing his mouth at a Fragrant Pond [of Anavatapta], he made the resolve to carry out the four broad vows of a bodhisattva [to liberate numberless beings, to eradicate endless afflictions, to enter measureless doors to the dharma and to achieve unsurpassed enlightenment]; he crossed the Pamirs in search of the dharma, promising himself eventually to pass beyond the three realms of existence. The route of his travel went through Sogdiana, then Tokhara, and around distant border regions to Tibet. He saw there the Chinese Princess Wencheng, who had married the Tibetan ruler; with her support Wangzhao [Xuanzhao] travelled towards north India, heading towards Jālandhara [Jullundur]. Before he reached there, in the course of the long passage that was dangerous and difficult, he was captured by robbers. Fellow travellers could not think of good plans of escape and in the absence of worldly authorities to appeal to, Wangzhao prayed for supernatural assistance. A response appeared in a dream; as he woke up the thieves were all fast asleep; quietly freeing himself from the confinement, Wangzhao escaped from this difficulty.

  Wangzhao stayed in Jālandhara for four years; the king valued him greatly and requested him to stay longer, but, having made good progress in his study of sūtras, vinayas [the monastic codes], and Sanskrit, Wangzhao travelled further southward to the Mahābodhi temple in Bodhgayā. He stayed there for four years. He considered it a great misfortune that he was not born at the time when he could have encountered the Buddha face to face, but felt himself fortunate to visit the holy sites of the Buddha’s life. He worshipped the image of the Buddha produced by Maitreya; the Buddha’s appearance was truly and fully presented in this image. Greatly inspired, he studied the Abhidharmakośa and mastered the abhidharma. With purified thoughts he studied the monastic discipline; the two teachings of the vinaya became clear to him.

  After that Wangzhao stayed at Nālandā for three years, receiving instruction on Nāgārjuna’s Middle Treatise (Madhya-makaśāstra) and Āryadeva’s Treatise in One Hundred Verses (Śatakaśāstra) from dharma-master Jinaprabha; and on the seventeen Stages of Yoga Practice (Yogācārabhūmi) from dharma-master Ratnasimha. He also quickly mastered the teaching of meditation. Wangzhao then went to the north of the Ganges River where he received the support of King Champu and stayed at the Believer’s Temple and at other temples. Three more years passed.

  Later, when the emissary from the Tang, Wang Xuance, returned to China, he reported on the remarkable accomplishments of Wangzhao. This resulted in the imperial order: Wang Xuance was to return to the western regions and bring Wangzhao back to the court. Wangzhao’s return route passed through Nepal; the Nepalese king sent his men to accompany Wangzhao until he reached Tibet. In Tibet Wangzhao saw Princess Wencheng again. The princess treated him with great respect and gave him provisions for the trip back to the Tang. Wangzhao then travelled through Tibet and reached China. He took leave of King Champu in the ninth month, and he reached Luoyang in the first month of the following year, having travelled across ten thousand Chinese miles in the course of five months.

  In the middle year of the Linde period [665] the emperor came to the eastern capital of Luoyang; Wangzhao was given an audience and received the order to return to the kingdom of Kashmir and bring the brahman Lokāyata, known for his longevity, to the court. He had met eminent monks at Luoyang and discussed the outline of the Buddhist teaching with them. Vinaya-master Dao and dharma-master Guan of Jing’aisi temple had requested him to translate the Sarvāstivāda vinaya. Having received the imperial order he could not follow this earlier plan. He left all the Sanskrit manuscripts he had brought with him in the capital city.

  Again crossing the ‘moving sands’, he passed through Rocky River Bank, sometimes crawling on boardwalks held up by ropes on the sides of steep cliffs, and then at other times holding on to a rope bridge, submerging all his body in water to get across. He encountered robbers in Tibet, but managed to escape safely by removing the rope around his neck. He also escaped alive from a band of Xiongnu barbarians. Having reached northern India, he ran into Wang Xuance with Lokāyata in his company. Lokāyata sent Wangzhao and several others to the kingdom of Lāṭa in western India to get the medicine of longevity. The route of this travel passed through Baktra and reached Navavihāra, where he saw the water bucket the Tathāgata used and visited other holy sites. He then reached the kingdom of Kāpiśī and worshipped the Tathāgata’s skull bone; he offered incense and took the seal of the skull to divine his future birth. He then passed through the kingdom of Sindhu and reached Lāṭa. The king there paid respect to him and Wangzhao passed four summer retreats there. He then travelled extensively in south India, and, taking a variety of medicines he collected, decided to return to China.

  On his way back he reached the Diamond Seat in Bodhg
ayā and circumambulated it. In Nālandā Wangzhao saw Yijing. Having thus realized the long-cherished wish for such a meeting, they promised to meet again under the Dragon Flower tree at the time the future buddha Maitreya appeared in this world. The passage through Nepal to Tibet was blocked and the route through Kāpiśī was troubled by the Arabs and difficult to pass. He was forced to wait for an opportune time by visiting the Vulture Peak (Gṛdhrakūṭa) and staying at the Bamboo Grove (Veṅuvana) monastery.

  All the time Wangzhao was driven by the desire to transmit the lamp of teaching and never intended to end his life in India. Alas! Though he dedicated himself to a life of austerities, he could not fulfil his wish to benefit others. His thought was to fly high up and ride the cloud, yet he lost his wings in mid-air. In Amarava in Central India Xuanzhao became ill and died. He was over 60 years old.

  Translated by Koichi Shinohara from Nanhai jigui naeifa zhuan, T 2125.

  11

  A SACRED PEAK

  Pilgrimage has long been regarded as a meritorious practice in Buddhism. As he was about to pass into nirvāṇa, the Buddha is said to have recommended paying homage to the sites of his birth, enlightenment, first sermon and death. Pilgrimage centres developed at these and other places in India, places often associated with events from the life of the Buddha, as seen in the previous chapter. As Buddhism spread across Asia, the distance of the Buddha’s devotees from the famous sites in his life also increased; pilgrimage to them was undertaken only by the most stalwart travellers. Fortunately for others, places of pilgrimage also developed in more accessible locales.

  But how could there be a sacred Buddhist site in a land that the Buddha never visited? Most often, the presence of the Buddha would be imported in the form of a relic, sometimes delivered to the monarch by a foreign monk, to be enshrined in a stūpa (see Chapter 22). Sometimes stories were told of magical visitations of the Buddha to a land beyond India. And sometimes, a mountain mentioned in an Indian Buddhist text would be identified with a local peak.

  Wutai Shan (‘Five-terraced Mountain’) is a cluster of five peaks situated in northern Shanxi Province in China. Buddhist pilgrimage sites often developed in places that were regarded as somehow sacred or extraordinary prior to the introduction of Buddhism to the region. In the case of Mount Wutai, it appears to have been regarded as an abode of medicinal herbs and Daoist immortals. With the steady growth of Buddhism under the northern Wei dynasty (424–532), Wutai came to be identified with the mythic Mount Clear-and-Cool (Qingliang shan), the earthly abode of the bodhisattva of wisdom, Mañjuśrī, described in the Avataṃsaka Sūtra (Huayan jing). With the rise of the Huayan School (which regarded the Avataṃsaka Sūtra as the Buddha’s highest teaching) during the Tang Dynasty (618–774), Wutai gained fame as a pilgrimage destination, and a wide array of monasteries and sacred sites developed there, many of which can still be seen today. Also during the Tang, lore about the mountain began to be compiled in chronicles that would gain wide popularity.

  The earliest extant chronicle of lore and miracle tales concerning the pilgrimage site of Mount Wutai was composed in 677 by the monk Huixang of Langu. It is entitled The Old Record of [Mount] Cool and Clear (Gu qingliang zhuan). Two selections from this text appear here. The first is the introduction, explaining how the mountain gained its fame, and noting that its importance surpasses that of other Chinese sites because Mount Wutai is mentioned in a work of Indian origin, the Avataṃsaka Sūtra. The second selection is a typical miracle story about the mountain and its mysterious inhabitants.

  The Avataṃaka Sūtra states in the Chapter on the Stations of the Bodhisattva, ‘In the northeastern direction there is a place where bodhisattvas dwell known as Mount Clear and Cool (Qingliang). Over the ages past bodhisattvas have constantly inhabited its recesses. At present there is a bodhisattva dwelling there by the name of Mañjuśrī. He has [a retinue of] some ten thousand bodhisattvas who are constantly engaged in preaching the dharma.’

  Whenever I look over the famous mountains of this land, whether it be the lore of mounts Song and Tai as guardians of the four directions, or the immortals’ caverns of Peng [Lai] and Ying[zhou], I see that [their lore] derives entirely from vulgar sources and stops with [the borders of] this land of ours. Not one of them has ever appeared in the precious canon transmitted from the golden mouth [of the Buddha]. Only after [a mountain] has broadcast its transforming influence as the home to ten thousand sages, or its reputation has been spread through the five continents of India will it take on such a legacy [as Wutai]. [Wutai’s] beauty outshines that of the Numinous Peak [Gṛdhrakūṭa]; its [supernatural] benefits endure through the entire Fortunate Aeon. How could one expect to find mention of it in the commonplace records or in the hearsay of our contemporaries? And yet, on top of present-day [Wutai] there stands the Qingliang Monastery. At its foot lies the Qingliang district of Wutai prefecture. Surely this is as lucid a testimony as ‘[divination by] tortoise and [reflection in a] mirror’.

  The region as a whole is called the Mount of Five Terraces, for it comprises five distinct peaks, on the summits of which no forests grow. Since they resemble [mounds] of piled earth, they are called ‘terraces’. Li Daoyuan’s [Commentary] to the Water Classic states that, ‘There are five precipices that majestically loom over and encircle the tops of the myriad hills. Thus it is referred to as “the five peaks”.’ In the third year of the yongjia era [307–312 CE] of the Jin, over one hundred households from Suoren Prefecture in Yanmen Commandery fled to these mountains in order to escape [civil] turmoil. They noticed that the local inhabitants ran away from them and refused to return, preferring instead to live in the craggy wilds. Scholar officials who have visited the mountain occasionally report having distantly spied persons living there. But when they went to seek them out, no one knew where they were. As a result, people consider this mountain to be an abode of immortals. A scripture of the immortals itself says, ‘Mount Wutai is known as the Purple Ministry. There are always purple pneuma on it, and immortals dwell in their midst.’

  The Jingyi ji records, ‘In Yanmen there is Mount Wutai. The shape of the mountain comprises five soaring peaks. One of its terraces is always obscured and not readily visible. But when the skies clear and the clouds part, there are times when it stands out [clearly].’ The Guodi zhi says, ‘the tiered slopes of the mountain are verdant and steeply rising, convoluted and mazelike. Its numinous peaks and spiritual valleys are not places where the shallow and vulgar can purchase a foothold. Those who stay there are all masters of dhyāna [meditation] or persons bent on pondering the mysteries [of existence]. When the sound of the dharma-thunder rumbles and the fragrant mists billow in from the four quarters, the enlightened and compassionate heart naturally withdraws into the abstruse. Those who experience such confirmations upon setting foot on this mountain, go there never to return.’

  Those who have gathered up reports [on Mount Wutai] say that Mañjuśrī is a great being who is endowed with a body of [formless] dharma. When he first realized perfect enlightenment he was known as Lord Dragon Seed, or Treasury of Happiness. He is also called Tathāgata Who is Seen by All. Through the power of expedient means he now manifests himself as a bodhisattva [on Mount Wutai], where he promotes the existence of the assembly of saints and draws the benighted to salvation. Those who are spurred by his presence gallop headlong to the other shore. But should one try to scrutinize his inner enlightenment, one will find it utterly beyond the reach of acquired knowledge; and when it comes to discussing his traces, name and number can never comprehend their extent. But because the deluded have slumbered for so long and are unable to awaken on their own, Mañjuśrī is moved to submit to the call of compassion. Seeing that, in this Sahā world, this place of [Mount] Clear and Cool has constantly been occupied by beings who have chosen to preserve the dharma of the ancient buddhas, Mañjuśrī has manifested his traces, reached out to people’s spiritual capacities, and come to attend to the needs of us sentient beings.

  The Nirv
āṇa Sūtra states that ‘merely by hearing his name one will eliminate sins from twelve aeons of rebirths’. Should one go on to venerate him in worship, one will always be born as a Buddhist. If one sings his name in praise from one to seven days, Mañjuśrī himself will come; and if someone plagued by obstacles from former lives sees his image in a dream, for one hundred thousand aeons he or she will never fall into evil paths of rebirth. How immense are such benefits! How could he possibly forget his concern for us children caught up in the burning house? And yet, Zhang Qian, the Duke of Buowang, [naively] searched for the source of the Yellow River in the Gardens of Heaven; and the monk Faxian set out to find perfect enlightenment [of the Buddha] in the land of India. How much more likely it would be to [seek out] a place as close by as [the divine caverns of] Shenzhou, the rumours of which are so widespread? The trip to and fro does not ruffle those with specious hopes. Its ascent and descent does not belabour those who would stay for a mere two nights. How could [its reputation] not but temporarily excite the dull-minded or perk up the lazy? Through such trifling suspicions as these can we ever find a ford to the road of enlightenment?

  Sometimes people ask: ‘If the great sage [Mañjuśrī] responds to and instructs beings according to the principle of perfect equality, it is fitting that [his activities] should extend to a million different lands. Why does he restrict himself to this one location?’