Elders of Mixed Conduct, Part 2
This page carries Ru-Yi's complete translation of fascicle 36 of the Jīng Lǜ Yì Xiàng (經律異相): "Elders of Mixed Conduct, Part 2" (雜行長者部下) — nineteen entries, most of them short, from thirteen sources. Among them: the physician Flowing Water borrowing twenty elephants to carry water to ten thousand fish dying in a drained pool, and then wading in to recite the twelve links of dependent origination over them; Jyotiṣka, whose bath-towel is mistaken for a heavenly omen and whose house the king comes to seize with four hundred thousand men; a boy born with no ears, eyes, tongue, hands, or feet who inherits his father's fortune because the law recognizes the one feature he has; an orphan who hires himself out for a year to buy one meal for the saṅgha, and finds that the monks arrive already full; a rival teacher who asks the Buddha for a congratulatory verse and is warned twice that he does not know when to use it; a laundry stone that keeps a god in a heavenly palace centuries after the monastery it propped up has fallen down; and a man who burns aloeswood into charcoal because charcoal sells faster.
Translation Method
Fascicle 36 completes the section on elders. Its heading distinguishes it from fascicle 35: those were elders who attained the path, these are elders of 雜行, mixed conduct. The looser criterion shows in the contents. The fascicle runs from the Golden Light Sūtra's Jalavāhana narrative to a four-sentence anecdote about pearl-eating birds, and includes several entries whose subject is not merit at all but its miscarriage: a judge broken by a threat to his son, a miser who cannot enjoy what he hoards, a brother who murders a brother, and a merchant who destroys his own cargo.
Most of these entries are very short, and several are the whole of what the compendium preserves from parable collections that survive only in Chinese. Six come from the Ten-Fascicle Parables Sūtra alone. We give each source note as the Chinese gives it, including the two entries that cite two sources.
On names: Jyotiṣka, Prasenajit, Ajātaśatru, Ānanda, Rāhula, Śuddhodana, Devadatta, Anāthapiṇḍada, Sumati, Pūraṇa Kāśyapa, Candana, Vipaśyin, the Buddha Kāśyapa, Śrāvastī, Vārāṇasī, Rājagṛha, Gṛdhrakūṭa, the Jetavana, Jambudvīpa, and Kaśmīra are given in their standard forms. Where a transliteration has no confident correspondence — Màncípílí, Tánruòshìzhì, Shīluóshìzhì, Jiūliú, Rìnán, Xūtán, Xiūyéshè, Líqímí, Tánmóhēměi, Yōunàchán — we keep the Chinese in pinyin. Names transparently descriptive in Chinese (Flowing Water, Water-Space, Water-Store, Sound-Delight, Jewel-Victor, Heavenly-Sovereign-Light, the Suddenly Risen Elder) are translated, with the Chinese kept in the contents list. 迦羅越, which appears as though it were a personal name in entries 3 and 4, is a transliteration of the word for a householder, and we render it so.
Two textual points. The fascicle's table of contents writes the minister of entry 18 as 犁耆彌 while the entry writes 梨耆彌; we follow the entry. And entry 9 ends with a verse, which we set off in italics with slashes for the line breaks of the Chinese; the source note falls after the verse in the original and we keep it there.
Entry 17 identifies the Buddha, in a former life, as the murderer of his own brother, and entry 7 turns on the Buddha knowingly giving a man something that will get him beaten. Both are translated without softening and discussed in the reading notes.
Fascicle Contents
- 1. Flowing Water Saves Ten Thousand Fish 流水救十千魚一
- 2. Jyotiṣka, Born Among Humans, Receives a Heavenly Reward 樹提伽身生人中受天果報二
- 3. A Householder Whose Hand Can Rain Treasure 迦羅越手能雨寶三
- 4. A Householder Feeds Birds Their Fill So That They Bring Up the Pearls in Their Bellies 迦羅越以飽食施鳥令出腹中珠四
- 5. The Suddenly Risen Elder: a Poor Hired Boy Holds a Feast and Gets the Flower of the Reward at Once 忽起經暫貧客作設會即獲花報五
- 6. The Former Causes of One Born Without Ears, Eyes, or Tongue 無耳目舌先世因緣六
- 7. Sound-Delight Receives Four Rewards of Former Lives in This Body 音悅今身受先世四種報七
- 8. Jiūliú, Starving, Meets a Tree Spirit and Comes to Faith and Understanding 鳩留飢遇樹神因得信解八
- 9. Rìnán, Rich in the Hundreds of Millions, Was Miserly and Gave Nothing, and Was Poor and Blind in the Next Life 日難財富巨億慳惜不施後世貧盲九
- 10. An Elder Gives Rise to the Bodhisattva Mind, Takes the Poor with Him, and Obtains Treasure 長者發菩薩心將諸貧人取得珍寶十
- 11. An Elder, Fallen Poor, Borrows Money for Almsgiving, Ploughs Up a Thousand Cauldrons, and Never Exhausts Them 長者後貧舉財供施耕遇千鼎用之不盡十一
- 12. The Fragrant-Bodied Elder's Wife Is Taken by the King 香身長者婦為國王所奪十二
- 13. An Elder's Wife, Pregnant, Has Fragrant Breath 長者婦懷妊口氣香十三
- 14. Miserly with Wealth, He Is Born in the Hell of Wailing 慳財生號哭地獄十四
- 15. Giving a Fulling-Block to Someone Raising a Stūpa, He Is Born in Heaven 以擣衣石施人起塔生天十五
- 16. Sudatta's Three Sons Come to Faith Only When Driven to the Wall 須達三子事窮方信十六
- 17. Xūtán's Son, Coveting the Property, Kills His Younger Brother 須檀子貪財殺弟十七
- 18. Líqímí's Seventh Son's Wife Bears Thirty Eggs, and from Each Egg Comes a Boy 犁耆彌第七兒婦生三十卵卵出一男十八
- 19. A Foolish Son, Slow to Sell His Incense, Burns It into Charcoal to Sell It Faster 癡子賣香遲燒之為炭以求速售十九
1. Flowing Water Saves Ten Thousand Fish
A physician finds ten thousand fish dying in a drained pool, borrows twenty elephants from the king to carry water, empties his own household's larder into the pool, then wades in and recites the twelve links of dependent origination to them.
流水長者子。於天自在光王國內。治一切眾生無量苦患。令身平復。以病除故多設福業。作如是言。善哉長者。能益眾生無量壽命。必是菩薩解諸方藥。時長者共二子水空水藏。將其二子次第遊行城邑聚落。最後到一大空澤中。見諸虎狼狗犬鳥獸。悉皆一向馳奔而去。長者逐而觀之見有一池。其水枯涸。於其池中多有諸魚。見是魚已生大悲心。時有樹神示現半身。作如是言。大善男子。此魚可愍汝可與水。是故號汝名為流水。汝今應當隨名定實。時長者子問樹神言。此魚頭數為有幾所。樹神答言。足滿十千。增大悲心。時此空池為日所曝。唯少水在。是十千魚。將入死門四向婉轉。見是長者心生恃賴。隨是長者所至方面。隨逐瞻視目未曾捨。是時長者馳趣四方。推求索水了不能得。見有大樹尋取枝葉。還到池上與作蔭涼。復更推求是池中水本從何來。即出四向周遍求覓。莫知水處。復更疾走見一大河。名曰水生。有諸惡人為捕此魚故於上流懸嶮之處。決棄其水不令下過。長者向王說其因緣。唯願大王借二十大象。令得負水濟彼魚命。如我與諸病人壽命。王勅大臣速疾供給。汝今自可至象厩中隨意選取利益眾生。是時流水及其二子。將二十象借索皮囊。疾至河上盛水象負。水遂彌滿還復如本。時長者子於池四邊傍佯而行。魚亦隨逐循岸而行。時長者子復作是念。是魚必為飢火所惱。復欲從我求索飲食。我今當與。時長者子告其子言。汝取一象最大力者。速至家中。所有可食之物。乃是父母飲噉之分。及以妻子奴婢之分。一切聚集悉載象上。急速來還。爾時二子往至家中。白其祖父說如上事。收取家中可食之物。載象背上疾還父所至空澤池。時長者子見其子還。心生歡喜踊躍無量。從子邊取飲食之物。散著池中與魚食已。即自思惟。我今已能與此魚食。令其飽滿。未來之世當施法食。曾聞過去空閑之處有一比丘讀誦大乘方等經典。其經中說。若有眾生臨命終時。得聞寶勝如來名號。即生天上。我今當為是十千魚。解說甚深十二因緣。亦當稱說寶勝佛名。即便入水。作如是言。南無過去寶勝如來。本往昔時行菩薩道。作是誓願。若有眾生於十方界。臨命終時聞我名者。當令是輩尋得上生三十三天。復為是魚解說如是甚深妙法。所謂十二因緣。說是法已。即共還家。是長者子復於後時。賓客聚會醉酒而臥。爾時其地卒大震動。時十千魚同日命終生忉利天。既生天已作是思惟。我等以何善業得生天中。復相謂言。我等先於閻浮提內。墮畜生中受於魚身。流水長者與我等水及以飲食。為我等說十二因緣。并稱寶勝如來名號。以是因緣令我等輩得生此天。我等今當報恩供養。時長者子在樓屋上露臥眠睡。是十千天子。以十千真珠天妙瓔珞置其頭邊。復以十千置其足邊。復以十千置右脇邊。復以十千置左脇邊。雨曼陀羅花摩訶曼陀羅華積至于膝。種種天樂出妙音聲。閻浮提中有睡眠者皆悉覺悟。流水長者子亦從睡悟。是十千天子於上空中飛騰遊行。天自在光王國內處處皆雨天妙蓮華。是諸天子復至本處空澤池所。復雨天華。便從此沒還忉利宮。隨意自在受天五欲。過是夜已。天自在光王。問諸大臣。昨夜何緣示現如是淨妙瑞相。大臣答言。大王當知。忉利諸天於流水長者子家。雨四十千真珠瓔珞及不可計曼陀羅華。王即告臣。卿可往至彼長者家喚令使來。即至其家宣王教令。是時長者尋至王所。王問長者。何緣示現如是瑞相。長者子言。我必定知。是十千魚其命已終。時大王言。今可遣人審實是事。爾時流水尋遣其子至彼池所。看是諸魚死活定實。爾時其子向於彼池。見其池中多有摩訶曼陀羅華。積聚成[卄/積]其中。諸魚悉皆命終。還白父言。彼諸魚等悉已命終。爾時流水復往王所。是十千魚悉皆命終。王聞歡喜。爾時世尊告善女天。時流水長者子今我身是。長子水空羅睺羅是。次子水藏今阿難是。時十千魚者今十千天子是。是故我今為其受記。爾時樹神現半身者今汝身是(出金光明經第四卷)。
The elder’s son Flowing Water, in the kingdom of King Heavenly-Sovereign-Light, treated the measureless sufferings and afflictions of all beings and restored their bodies to health. Because he cured the sick, he set up many works of merit, and people said: excellent, elder. You can benefit beings with measureless length of life. He must be a bodhisattva, who understands all medicines.
Then the elder, with his two sons Water-Space and Water-Store, took the two of them and travelled in turn through the cities and villages, and came at last into a great empty marsh, where he saw tigers, wolves, dogs, birds, and beasts all racing away in one direction. The elder followed and looked, and saw a pool whose water had dried up, and in that pool were many fish.
Seeing these fish, he gave rise to great compassion. Then a tree spirit showed half its body and said: excellent, good man. These fish are pitiable and you can give them water. It is for this that you are called Flowing Water; you should now make the name match the reality.
The elder’s son asked the tree spirit: how many fish are there, by count? The tree spirit answered: a full ten thousand. His great compassion increased. At that time the empty pool was baked by the sun and only a little water remained, and the ten thousand fish, going toward the gate of death, were writhing in all four directions. Seeing this elder, their hearts took hope in him, and wherever the elder went they followed with their gaze, never once letting him out of sight.
Then the elder rushed in all four directions searching for water and could find none at all. Seeing a great tree, he took branches and leaves from it and came back to the pool to make shade for them. Then he searched further for where this pool’s water had originally come from, and went out in all four directions to look for it, and could not learn where the water was.
He ran on further and saw a great river named Water-Born. Some evil men, in order to catch these fish, had at a steep place upstream broken the channel and thrown the water away so that it could not come down.
The elder explained the matter to the king: I ask only that the great king lend me twenty great elephants, that I may carry water and save the lives of those fish, as I have given the sick their lives. The king ordered his great minister to supply them at once: you may go to the elephant stables and choose as you like, for the benefit of beings.
Then Flowing Water and his two sons took twenty elephants and borrowed leather bags, hurried to the river, filled them with water, loaded them on the elephants, and so the water filled the pool up and it was as it had been.
Then the elder’s son walked back and forth along the four sides of the pool, and the fish followed him along the bank. And the elder’s son thought: these fish must be tormented by the fire of hunger, and want to ask me for food as well. I shall give it to them now.
Then the elder’s son told his sons: take the strongest of the elephants and go quickly to the house; gather up everything edible there — your grandparents’ portion of food and drink, and the portion of the wives, children, servants, and maids — load it all on the elephant, and come back quickly.
His two sons went to the house and told their grandfather all of the above, gathered up everything edible in the house, loaded it on the elephant’s back, and hurried back to their father at the pool in the empty marsh. The elder’s son, seeing his sons return, was glad and leapt for joy beyond measure, took the food and drink from his sons, scattered it in the pool, and fed the fish.
Then he thought to himself: I have now been able to give these fish food and fill them. In a future age I shall give them the food of the Dharma. I have heard that in a lonely place in the past there was a monk who recited the Mahāyāna vaipulya sūtras, and in those sūtras it is said that if a being at the point of death hears the name of the Tathāgata Jewel-Victor, he will at once be born in heaven. I shall now expound for these ten thousand fish the profound twelve links of dependent origination, and also proclaim the name of the Buddha Jewel-Victor.
So he went into the water and said: homage to the Tathāgata Jewel-Victor of the past, who long ago, practicing the bodhisattva path, made this vow — that if any being in the ten directions, at the point of death, hears my name, I shall cause such a one straightway to be born above in the Trāyastriṃśa heaven. And he expounded for the fish that profound and subtle Dharma, the twelve links of dependent origination. Having taught this, they all went home together.
Afterward the elder’s son, at a gathering of guests, drank and lay down drunk. At that time the ground shook violently, and the ten thousand fish all died on that same day and were born in the Trāyastriṃśa heaven.
Being born there, they thought: by what wholesome deed have we been born among the gods? And they said to one another: earlier, in Jambudvīpa, we had fallen among the animals and taken the bodies of fish. The elder Flowing Water gave us water and food and drink, and expounded for us the twelve links of dependent origination, and proclaimed the name of the Tathāgata Jewel-Victor. By that cause we have been born in this heaven. We should now repay that kindness with offerings.
The elder’s son was lying asleep in the open on the upper storey of his house. These ten thousand gods placed ten thousand strings of pearls, fine heavenly necklaces, beside his head; another ten thousand beside his feet; another ten thousand at his right side; and another ten thousand at his left side. They rained down mandārava and mahāmandārava flowers until they lay knee-deep, and heavenly music of every kind gave out a fine sound, and everyone asleep in Jambudvīpa woke; and Flowing Water the elder’s son woke from sleep too.
These ten thousand gods flew and coursed above in the sky, and everywhere in the kingdom of King Heavenly-Sovereign-Light there rained fine heavenly lotuses. And the gods came back to the original place, the pool in the empty marsh, and rained heavenly flowers there too, and then vanished from there and returned to the Trāyastriṃśa palace, to enjoy the heavenly five desires freely as they wished.
When the night had passed, King Heavenly-Sovereign-Light asked his great ministers: what was the cause of such pure and marvelous signs appearing last night? The great ministers answered: let the great king know — the gods of the Trāyastriṃśa heaven rained down forty thousand pearl necklaces and uncountable mandārava flowers on the house of Flowing Water the elder’s son.
The king told his minister: go to that elder’s house and summon him to come. So he went to the house and proclaimed the king’s command, and the elder came at once to the king. The king asked the elder: what caused such signs to appear? The elder’s son said: I know for certain that the ten thousand fish have come to the end of their lives.
Then the great king said: you may now send someone to verify the matter. So Flowing Water sent his son to that pool to see whether the fish were dead or alive. His son went to that pool and saw many mahāmandārava flowers in it, heaped into piles, and the fish all dead; and he came back and told his father: those fish are all dead. Then Flowing Water went again to the king: the ten thousand fish are all dead. The king heard it and rejoiced.
Then the World-Honored One told the good goddess: Flowing Water the elder’s son of that time is myself now; his eldest son Water-Space is Rāhula; his second son Water-Store is Ānanda now; the ten thousand fish of that time are the ten thousand gods now — and that is why I now give them their prediction. And the tree spirit who showed half its body is yourself now (Source: Sūtra of Golden Light, fascicle 4).
The Jalavāhana story from the Sūtra of Golden Light, and one of the few narratives in this compendium where the whole of the rescue is practical logistics: locating the drained channel upstream, identifying the men who broke it, petitioning the king, borrowing twenty elephants and leather bags, and hauling the water back. Only when the fish are watered and fed does the religious content begin.
Note what he feeds them with. He sends his sons home for everything edible in the house — specifying his own parents' portion, and the portions of the wives, children, servants, and maids. The whole household goes without so that ten thousand fish can eat once.
Note also the sequence at the end, which is easy to read past: he recites the Buddha Jewel-Victor's name and the twelve links standing in the water, goes home, and gets drunk at a party. The earthquake and the death of the ten thousand fish happen while he is asleep on the roof, and he wakes to forty thousand pearl necklaces stacked around him on four sides.
2. Jyotiṣka, Born Among Humans, Receives a Heavenly Reward
The richest layman in the tradition, whose bath-towel blows into the royal hall and is taken for a heavenly omen. The king visits, stays a month, and comes home determined to take the house by force.
昔有一長者。名樹提伽。倉庫盈溢金銀具足。奴婢成行無所乏少。有一白㲲手巾掛著池邊。遇天風起吹來國王殿前。群臣參論卜問所以。諸臣皆言。國將欲興天賜白㲲。臣樹提伽默然無言。王問。卿何以無言。提伽答曰。不敢欺王。是臣家拭體之巾。掛著池邊。遇天風起吹來殿前。却後數日。九色之華大如車輪。又遇天風吹來王殿前。王復與群臣參論卜問。提伽答言。是臣家園中萎落之華風吹來耳。王問提伽。卿家乃爾。吾欲將領二十萬眾到卿家看。提伽答言。願王即相隨去。王即將領二十萬眾。到樹提伽家。南門直入。有三十童子顏容端正。王問樹提伽。是卿家兒孫耶。答言。是臣家守門奴。進到中閣。有二十童女顏容端正。王問。是卿家婦女耶。提伽答言。是臣家守閣之婢。進到其戶。白銀為壁水精為地。王見水流疑不得進。樹提伽即導王前戶中。以黃金為床白玉為机。樹提伽婦有百二十重金銀幃帳端正無雙。為王作禮眼中淚出。王問。卿婦見我有何不㤿眼中淚出。答言。王衣烟氣是故淚出。王言。庶民燃脂。諸侯燃蠟。天子燃漆。亦無烟也。何得淚出。樹提伽答言。臣家有一。明月神珠。掛著堂上。晝夜無異不須火光。王是烟中之王。是故聞氣耳。樹提伽家堂前。有十二重高樓。將王上頭。視東忘西。視南忘北。掩掩寂寂。王謂須臾小復可忍。到後園中流泉浴池。食諸果苽自適甘美。甚復可愛以至一月。大臣白王。可須還國。樹提伽即布施金銀珍寶綾羅繒綵。二十萬眾人馬車乘一時還國。王即會群臣怪其所以。樹提伽是我之臣。婦女宅舍過甚於我。我欲伐之。可取與不。諸臣皆言。宜可取之。王即與四十萬眾椎鍾鳴鼓圍提伽舍。毀百重牆。提伽門中有一力士。手捉金杖以擬四十萬眾。一時俱倒眠地不起。提伽乘飛雲輪車在虛空中問。諸人等來時何意眠地不起。諸人答如上事。樹提伽問。欲得起不。皆言欲得。樹提伽放大神目一視。四十萬眾一時俱起。還其本國。王即遣使喚樹提伽。共至佛所問言。世尊。樹提伽是我之臣。前身有何功德。婦女舍宅過甚於我。佛答言。樹提伽布施功德。見天上愛樂。五百商主將諸商人。齎持重寶奔空山中。逢一病道人。給其草屋厚敷床縟。給水漿鎢錥米糧。給其燈燭。于時乞願天堂之供。今得果報如是。佛言。是時布施者。今樹提伽夫婦是也。于時病道人者。今我身是也。五百商人皆得阿羅漢道(出樹提伽經)。
Long ago there was an elder named Jyotiṣka. His storehouses overflowed, he had gold and silver in full, servants and maids in rows, and lacked nothing.
A white cotton hand-towel of his was hung by a pool, and a wind from heaven rose and blew it in front of the king’s hall. The ministers debated it and consulted the diviners about what it meant, and all the ministers said: the kingdom is about to prosper; heaven has sent down white cloth. The minister Jyotiṣka alone said nothing. The king asked: why do you say nothing? Jyotiṣka answered: I dare not deceive the king. It is the towel my household wipes itself with; it was hung by a pool, and a wind from heaven rose and blew it in front of the hall.
Some days later a nine-colored flower as large as a chariot wheel was likewise blown by a wind from heaven in front of the king’s hall. The king again debated it with his ministers and consulted the diviners. Jyotiṣka answered: it is a withered and fallen flower from my household’s garden, blown here by the wind.
The king asked Jyotiṣka: is your household really like this? I mean to bring two hundred thousand men to your house and look. Jyotiṣka answered: let the king come along at once.
So the king brought two hundred thousand men to Jyotiṣka’s house and went straight in by the southern gate. There were thirty boys of upright and handsome appearance, and the king asked Jyotiṣka: are these your household’s sons and grandsons? He answered: they are my household’s gatekeeping servants.
Going on to the middle chamber, there were twenty girls of upright and handsome appearance. The king asked: are these the women of your household? Jyotiṣka answered: they are my household’s chamber-keeping maids.
Going on to the door, the walls were of white silver and the ground of crystal. The king, seeing the water flowing, hesitated and could not go on, and Jyotiṣka led the king forward. Inside the door the couches were of yellow gold and the tables of white jade. Jyotiṣka’s wife had a hundred and twenty layers of gold and silver curtains, and was beautiful beyond compare. She bowed to the king, and tears came from her eyes.
The king asked: your wife has seen me — what displeases her, that tears come from her eyes? He answered: it is the smoke of the king’s clothing, and that is why her eyes water. The king said: the common people burn tallow, the feudal lords burn wax, and the Son of Heaven burns lacquer, and there is no smoke in it. How can her eyes water? Jyotiṣka answered: my household has a bright-moon divine pearl hung in the hall, and day and night are no different there and we need no firelight. The king is a king among smoke, and so she smelled it.
In front of Jyotiṣka’s hall there were twelve storeys of high towers. He took the king to the top; looking east he forgot the west, looking south he forgot the north — everything was hushed and still. The king thought a little while more might be borne. Going into the rear garden with its flowing springs and bathing pools, eating the fruits and melons, he found it agreeable and sweet and altogether delightful — and stayed a month.
His great ministers said to the king: it is time to return to the kingdom. Jyotiṣka then gave gifts of gold, silver, treasure, and figured silks, and the two hundred thousand men, horses, and carriages all returned to the kingdom together.
The king then assembled his ministers, wondering at it: Jyotiṣka is my subject, and his women and his house far exceed mine. I mean to attack him. May I take it or not? All the ministers said: it ought to be taken.
So the king, with four hundred thousand men, beating bells and sounding drums, surrounded Jyotiṣka’s house and broke through a hundred layers of wall. In Jyotiṣka’s gateway there was a strongman who took a golden staff in his hand and gestured at the four hundred thousand men, and all at once they fell asleep on the ground and could not get up.
Jyotiṣka, riding a flying cloud-wheeled chariot in the open air, asked: you people who came here — why are you asleep on the ground and cannot get up? The people answered as above. Jyotiṣka asked: do you wish to get up? They all said they did. Jyotiṣka let his great divine gaze look upon them once, and the four hundred thousand men all rose at once and returned to their own country.
The king then sent a messenger to summon Jyotiṣka, and they went together to where the Buddha was, and he asked: World-Honored One, Jyotiṣka is my subject. What merit did he have in a former body, that his women and house exceed mine so far?
The Buddha answered: by the merit of Jyotiṣka’s giving, he sees and delights in what is in the heavens. Five hundred caravan leaders once took their merchants and hurried into an empty mountain carrying heavy treasure, and met a sick religious. They gave him a grass hut with bedding thickly spread, water and gruel, cooking vessels and grain, and lamps and candles; and at that time they wished for the provision of the heavenly halls, and now they obtain this result.
The Buddha said: the one who gave at that time is Jyotiṣka and his wife now; the sick religious of that time is myself; and the five hundred merchants all attained arhatship (Source: Sūtra of Jyotiṣka).
Jyotiṣka is the tradition's standard type of the fabulously wealthy layman, and this entry is essentially a catalogue of his house, told as a series of the king's mistakes: the towel taken for a heavenly portent, the fallen garden flower taken for another, the gatekeepers taken for the sons, the maids taken for the wives, the crystal floor taken for water. The king's own final mistake is the one the story is built toward.
The exchange over the smoke is the sharpest thing in it. The wife weeps; the king assumes offense; the answer is that his clothes smell of smoke, since her household is lit by a moon-bright pearl and has no need of fire. The king protests that even a Son of Heaven's lamps are smokeless, and is told that he is nonetheless a king among smoke. It is the whole story's argument in one line, and it is delivered by the character with fewest lines in it.
The merit accounted for at the end is one grass hut, bedding, gruel, cooking vessels, and lamps, given to a sick religious in an empty mountain.
3. A Householder Whose Hand Can Rain Treasure
A householder who feeds twenty thousand monks for a year tells the king he owns nothing at all. The king sends inspectors, who find a palace of the seven treasures and no money in it.
昔阿育王國。有迦羅越。供養二萬比丘。長請一年。名聞國王。王召見之。聞卿大富。盡有何物耶。對曰。實無所有。王不信之。留迦羅越遣人看其家。見其門有七重舍宅堂宇。皆以七寶。有勝王宮。婦女亦勝。但無穀帛錢物。便還白王王意漸解。迦羅越即時便笑。王問何所笑耶。答言。王不見信耳。迦羅越以手指東。便滿中七寶。指南亦然。王便遣還。而眾僧精舍去宮不遠。王便詣精舍。見比丘僧。作禮恭肅問上座。彼迦羅越宿有何福自然珍寶念之便至。上座比丘入三昧。見四百由旬之物心念。見是長者。乃惟衛佛時有四人共立塔寺。中有一人用意慇懃。塔寺成後以金銀七寶及眾好華共合和之。上三重塔上。以散四面。願後食福恒不斷絕。今得自然寶者。是此一人。王聞大修功德(出譬喻經第一卷)。
Long ago, in the kingdom of Aśoka, there was a householder who made offerings to twenty thousand monks, inviting them for a whole year at a stretch. His fame reached the king, who summoned him and saw him: I hear you are very rich. What do you have? He answered: in truth I have nothing at all.
The king did not believe him, and kept the householder there and sent men to look at his house. They saw that his gate had seven doors, and the halls and buildings of his residence were all of the seven treasures, better than the royal palace, and his womenfolk were finer too — only there was no grain, cloth, coin, or goods. They came back and reported to the king, and the king’s mind began to be persuaded.
The householder then laughed, and the king asked what he was laughing at. He answered: only that the king did not believe me. And the householder pointed east with his hand, and the place filled with the seven treasures; he pointed south, and it was the same. The king then sent him home.
The monks’ monastery was not far from the palace, and the king went to the monastery, saw the monks, bowed with respect, and asked the senior monk: what merit did that householder have in the past, that treasures come to him spontaneously as soon as he thinks of them?
The senior monk entered samādhi and saw things four hundred yojanas off, and thought about it, and saw that this elder, in the time of the Buddha Vipaśyin, had been one of four men who together built a stūpa and monastery. One of them was diligent in his intention, and after the stūpa was finished he mixed gold, silver, the seven treasures, and fine flowers together, went up onto the third storey of the stūpa, and scattered them on all four sides, making the vow that in later lives his merit should never be cut off. The one who now obtains treasures spontaneously is that man. The king, hearing it, greatly cultivated meritorious works (Source: Parables Sūtra, fascicle 1).
4. A Householder Feeds Birds Their Fill So That They Bring Up the Pearls in Their Bellies
Four sentences: an elder works out where the pearl-eating birds roost, and feeds them very well.
昔有迦羅越長者。聰明博達財富巨億。居近海邊。多植樹木榮茂參天。時海渚上大有珍寶。價直千億如人不得近。唯鳥往來。唯噉明月之珠。朝入暮出。栖宿長者叢林。長者多智方便圖之。即作百味之食。以用與鳥。鳥食之飽滿便吐珠覆地。長者得之。遂成大富(出譬喻經第七卷)。
Long ago there was a householder elder, intelligent and broadly learned, whose wealth was in the hundreds of millions. He lived near the seashore, and had planted many trees, which flourished and reached to the sky. At that time on an island in the sea there were many precious things worth a hundred billion, to which no one could come near; only birds came and went there, and they ate nothing but bright-moon pearls, going in at dawn and coming out at dusk, and roosting in the elder’s grove.
The elder, being of many wits, contrived a plan for them: he made food of a hundred flavors and gave it to the birds; and the birds, having eaten their fill, then vomited up pearls until they covered the ground. The elder collected them and so became very rich (Source: Parables Sūtra, fascicle 7).
5. The Suddenly Risen Elder: a Poor Hired Boy Holds a Feast and Gets the Flower of the Reward at Once
An orphan hires himself out for a year at half his asking price so that he can feed the Buddha and the saṅgha once. The feast falls on a festival day and the monks arrive already full.
舍衛國有一居士。亡失田宅家人得罪死亡都盡。唯餘一子無復所依。子聞人說。飯佛及僧者生忉利天。乃願飯佛僧。惟當客作以果此願。有一居士(彌沙塞律云大臣)多有田宅。此兒雖小多諸藝能。求欲傭賃。居士問。汝何所能。答曰。能書算文義別金銀珠貝錢財系羽監田。坐肆無所不解。問歲索幾物。答曰。年一千金錢。居士曰。今世飢饉乃雇五百。年滿并還小兒言。我才不施堪此須用既急。今為君與。即使坐肆。始滿一月。挍計所得已盈三倍。日止一食留一食分。更使監田比及冬藏復獲三倍。歲滿索金及食。居士慮其便去屢託不在。後謂之言。急索作底。小兒言。我欲飯佛及僧。居士聞之即生信心。又問欲何處作。答曰。欲往祇洹。居士曰。但住我門器[荴-夫+焦]相助。小兒白佛。願明日受我食。佛僧默然(彌沙律云即將財物往至佛所。供辦珍味極世甘美。緣其意至鬼神助焉倏忽之頃自能都辦)正遇節日。諸白衣多送豬肉乾餅種種飲食。眾僧受取共相謂言。今日貧兒竭力作會。人人皆當為之稍食。及到居士舍。手自行食。皆云少與。食遂無減。貧兒問僧。為食麁澁為愍我貧。答曰。今日是節日。早起人送食。初乃少與。家數既多。遂成飽滿。貧兒愁憂恐所期不果。涕泣問佛。佛為說法必得生天。汝疾還去。貧兒歡喜。更行僧食隨僧意取。我肆力時期盡供養。今諸大德雖不能噉。隨意將去。時五百商客。從優那禪國來晡至。道路遼遠。絕糧三日。入城買食。時世飢儉且天盛熱都無所得。商主歎曰。海中不乏大城無食。宜更遍求隨須何物。貧兒啼向佛。時多人見之語估客云。某舍有食。即往居士家。白小兒言。我等須食。小兒問言。有幾人。答曰。有五百。可盡喚來。何須論直。至即設食皆得飽滿。有一大銅杅。一估客主。解衣角珠。直十萬金錢。置於杅中。其餘估客皆解珠。投於杅內。小兒言。我不賣食。何忽與珠留。客小住待我問佛。佛言。但取不妨得生天。此是花報果報在後還受寶物。估客又問。居士此城先有某甲今何所在。答曰。已往。又問。有子孫不。答曰。向之施主即其子也。估客語小兒言。君父是我。等師又與百千兩金以敦舊好。時居士無兒。唯有一女端正姝妙。求妻小兒。送金百千兩。居士死後。波斯匿王問。有兒不。誰相料理。答曰。唯有一女婿。當事判財物并屬女婿。拜為大臣。即勅舍衛城內大長者職(十誦律云居士位)時國人民號為忽起長者(出十誦二誦第六卷又出彌沙塞律第十卷)。
In the kingdom of Śrāvastī there was a householder who lost his fields and house; his family incurred punishment and all died, and only one son was left with nothing to depend on. The son heard people say that whoever feeds the Buddha and the saṅgha is born in the Trāyastriṃśa heaven, and so he vowed to feed the Buddha and the saṅgha, and thought he must hire himself out as a laborer to accomplish the vow.
There was a householder (the Mahīśāsaka Vinaya says a great minister) with many fields and houses. The boy, though young, had many skills, and sought to hire himself out. The householder asked: what can you do? He answered: I can write and reckon, judge a text’s sense, distinguish gold, silver, pearls, and cowries, handle money and goods, tie up feathers, oversee fields, and mind a shop — there is nothing I do not understand.
He asked how much he wanted a year, and the boy answered: a thousand gold coins a year. The householder said: this year there is famine, and I shall hire you for five hundred, to be paid at the end of the year. The boy said: I do not give my talent away, but this will do; the need is urgent, and I shall take your terms now.
So he was set to mind the shop. Within the first month the accounting of what he had got was already threefold. He ate only one meal a day, keeping back the portion of one meal. Then he was set to oversee the fields, and by the winter storing they had again a threefold gain.
When the year was up he asked for his gold and his food; but the householder, afraid he would leave, repeatedly gave excuses and was not to be found. Afterward he said to him: you press for the settling of your wages — for what? The boy said: I wish to feed the Buddha and the saṅgha. The householder, hearing it, gave rise to faith, and asked further: where do you mean to do it? He answered: I mean to go to the Jetavana. The householder said: only stay in my gateway, and I shall help you with the vessels and the fuel.
The boy said to the Buddha: I ask you to accept my food tomorrow, and the Buddha and the saṅgha assented in silence (the Mahīśāsaka Vinaya says: he took his goods and went to the Buddha, and prepared rare dishes of the finest sweetness in the world; and because his intention was so wholehearted the spirits helped him, and in a moment it was all prepared of itself).
It happened to fall on a festival day, and many lay people sent pork, dried cakes, and food and drink of every kind. The monks accepted these and said to one another: today a poor boy has exhausted his strength to hold this gathering; every one of us should eat only a little of it. And when they came to the householder’s house, and he served the food with his own hands, they all said: give me only a little. And so the food did not diminish.
The poor boy asked the monks: is the food coarse and rough, or do you pity my poverty? They answered: today is a festival day, and people sent food early in the morning. At first we took only a little, and there being so many households, we have grown full.
The poor boy was distressed and afraid that what he had hoped for would not come about, and wept and asked the Buddha. The Buddha taught him the Dharma: you will certainly be born in heaven; go quickly back. The poor boy was delighted, and went round with the monks’ food again, letting them take as they wished: I exerted my strength for a set time in order to make this offering. Though the venerable ones cannot eat it now, take it away as you please.
At that time five hundred merchants came in the evening from the country of Yōunàchán. The road had been long and they had been without provisions for three days, and they came into the city to buy food; but the times were lean and the weather very hot, and they could get nothing at all. The caravan leader sighed: the sea does not lack, and a great city has no food. Let us search all round again, whatever we may need.
The poor boy was weeping toward the Buddha, and many people saw him and told the merchants: there is food at such-and-such a house. So they went to the householder’s house and said to the boy: we need food. The boy asked: how many are you? They answered: five hundred. He said: call them all; why speak of price? They came at once, and he set out food and all were filled.
There was a great bronze bowl there. One caravan leader untied a pearl from the corner of his robe, worth a hundred thousand gold coins, and put it in the bowl; and all the other merchants untied their pearls and threw them into the bowl. The boy said: I do not sell food. Why do you suddenly leave me pearls? Gentlemen, wait a little while I ask the Buddha. The Buddha said: take them; it will not prevent your being born in heaven. This is the flower of the reward; the fruit comes afterward, and you will receive treasure again.
The merchants also asked: householder, there used to be a certain man in this city — where is he now? He answered: he is gone. They asked: has he sons or grandsons? He answered: the donor before you is his son. The merchants said to the boy: your father was our teacher — and they gave him a hundred thousand taels of gold besides, to honor the old friendship.
At that time the householder had no son, only one daughter, upright and lovely, and he asked the boy to marry her, and sent a hundred thousand taels of gold. After the householder died, King Prasenajit asked whether he had a son and who was to manage matters, and the answer was: only a daughter and a son-in-law. So the judging of matters and the property both went to the son-in-law, and he was appointed a great minister, and given by decree the office of great elder within the city of Śrāvastī (the Sarvāstivāda Vinaya says the rank of householder). At that time the people of the country called him the Suddenly Risen Elder (Source: Sarvāstivāda Vinaya, second recitation, fascicle 6; also Mahīśāsaka Vinaya, fascicle 10).
6. The Former Causes of One Born Without Ears, Eyes, or Tongue
A boy born with no ears, eyes, tongue, hands, or feet inherits a fortune because he has the one feature that counts under the law. The Buddha explains what a single false statement in office cost.
時舍衛國有大長者。財富無量無有男兒。唯有五女端正聰達。其婦懷妊長者命終。國法無男財物入王。王遣大臣攝錄其財。其女心念。我母懷妊未知男女。若續是女財應屬王。若其是男應為財主。往白國王。時波斯匿王法平政。即可所白。其母不久月滿生兒。其身渾沌無復耳目。有口無舌又無手足。唯有男根。即為作字名鏝慈毘梨。爾時是女。具以是事往問於王。王告諸女。財屬汝弟。吾不取也。爾時大女。往適他家奉給夫主。謙卑恭敬謹如婢事。大家長者覩其如斯。怪而問言。女子對曰。我父終沒家財無量。雖有五女猶當入王。會母有身生我一弟。人相都缺但有男根。得為財主。雖有諸女不如一男。長者聞已。即與其女往至佛所。白言。世尊。彼長者子以何因緣。佛言。乃往過去有大長者兄弟二人。兄名檀若世質。弟名尸羅世質。其兄少小。忠信成實常好布施舉國稱美。王任此人為國平事。國法舉貸取與無券悉詣平事。時估客從弟尸羅世質多舉錢財。時弟長者。唯有一子其年幼小。將其子并所出錢。到平事所。白言。大兄。是估客子從我舉錢。入海來還應得爾許。我若終亡證令得之。平事言然。其弟長者不久命終。估客入海遭風失貨。估客得全。時長者子聞其空歸。便自念言。此雖負我何由可得。須有當償時。此估客復餘舉假。續復入海獲大珍寶。安隱來還。心自念言。彼長者子前雖不從我債我舉錢。時此人幼稚或時不憶。或見我前窮故不責耶。今當試之。即嚴好馬眾寶服飾。長者子見即遣人語。汝負我錢今可見償。答曰可爾。估客自念。所舉頓大重生累息。無由可畢。當作一策乃可了耳。持一寶珠到平事婦所。白言。夫人。我本從尸羅世質舉錢財。其子來責。今上一珠價直十萬。若從我責可囑平事。其婦答言。長者誠信必不肯爾。為當試語。即受其珠平事暮歸。婦即具白。長者答言。何有是事。以我忠信不妄語故王立我為國平事。若一妄語此事不可。明估客來具告情狀。即還其珠。時估客子更上一珠直二十萬。願使囑及。此既小事。但作一言得三十萬。爾時女人貪愛寶珠即為受之。暮更白夫。昨日白事願畢在意。長者答言。絕無此理。爾時長者有一男兒。其婦泣曰。若不見隨我先殺兒然後自殺。長者聞此。譬如人噎。自念。我唯一子。若其當死財無所付。若從是語人不信用。將來受苦迫憱不已。即便可之。婦語估客。長者已許。估客欣悅。還嚴大象眾寶莊校著大寶衣乘象入市。長者子見即往語曰。先所負錢今宜見償。估客驚言。我都不憶何時負君。尋共相將至平事所。長者子言。此人往日親從我父舉若干錢。伯為時平事為爾不。答言不知。其姪驚曰。伯父爾時審不見聞。又答不爾。姪子恚曰。以伯忠良。王令平事。國人信用。我親弟子非法猶爾。況於外人抂者豈少。此之虛實後世自知。佛告長者。欲知爾時平事長者。今鏝慈毘梨是。由於爾時一妄語故墮大地獄多受苦毒。從地獄出五百世中常受此身。植好布施。常生豪富得為財主(出賢愚經第七卷)。
At that time in the kingdom of Śrāvastī there was a great elder of measureless wealth who had no son, only five daughters, upright and intelligent. His wife was pregnant when the elder died. By the law of the land, where there is no son the property goes to the king, and the king sent a great minister to take charge of his wealth.
The daughters thought: our mother is pregnant and we do not know whether it is a boy or a girl. If it is another girl, the property should go to the king; if it is a boy, he should be master of the property. They went and told the king, and King Prasenajit, being fair in his government, granted what they said.
Before long their mother’s months were full and she bore a son. His body was a shapeless mass with no ears or eyes; he had a mouth but no tongue, and no hands or feet; only the male organ. And they named him Màncípílí.
Then the daughters went and put the matter to the king. The king told the daughters: the property belongs to your younger brother; I shall not take it.
Then the eldest daughter, having married into another household, served her husband, humble and respectful and as careful as a maidservant. Her father-in-law, the elder, seeing her like this, wondered and asked her about it. The girl answered: my father died and the family wealth was measureless; and though there were five daughters, it would still have gone to the king. It happened that my mother was with child and bore me a younger brother, who lacks every human feature and has only the male organ — and he could be master of the property. Though there are daughters, they are not equal to one son.
The elder, hearing this, went with his daughter-in-law to where the Buddha was and said: World-Honored One, by what cause and condition is that elder’s son as he is?
The Buddha said: long ago in the past there were two brothers, great elders. The elder was named Tánruòshìzhì and the younger Shīluóshìzhì. The elder brother, from his youth, was loyal, trustworthy, and sincere, and always delighted in giving, and the whole kingdom praised him; and the king appointed him state arbitrator. By the law of the land, all lending and borrowing done without a written bond came before the arbitrator.
At that time a merchant borrowed a great deal of money from the younger brother Shīluóshìzhì. The younger elder had one son, who was still small; and he took his son and the money he had lent out to the arbitrator and said: elder brother, this merchant’s son has borrowed money from me and is to repay so much when he returns from the sea. If I die, bear witness so that he may have it. The arbitrator said: so be it.
Before long the younger elder died. The merchant went to sea, met with a storm, and lost his goods, though the merchant himself came through whole. The elder’s son, hearing that he had come back empty, thought to himself: though he owes me this, how am I to get it? When he has it he will repay.
Then this merchant borrowed again from others and went to sea again, and obtained great treasure and came back safely. He thought to himself: that elder’s son did not press me for the debt earlier when I had borrowed. Perhaps, being a child at the time, he does not remember; or perhaps, seeing me destitute before, he does not press me. I shall test him now. And he fitted out fine horses and jeweled ornaments; and the elder’s son, seeing them, sent someone to say: repay me now what you owe me. He answered: very well.
The merchant thought to himself: what I borrowed was a great sum, and interest has piled upon interest; there is no way to finish paying it. I must devise a plan, and then it can be settled. He took a jewel to the arbitrator’s wife and said: madam, I originally borrowed money from Shīluóshìzhì, and his son has come to press me. I now present a jewel worth a hundred thousand; if he presses me, you might have a word with the arbitrator.
His wife answered: the elder is sincere and truthful and will surely not agree; but I shall try speaking to him. And she accepted the jewel. In the evening the arbitrator came home and his wife told him everything. The elder answered: how could such a thing be? It is because I am loyal and truthful and do not speak falsely that the king appointed me state arbitrator. If I told one lie, this office could not stand. In the morning the merchant came and he told him the state of the matter plainly and returned the jewel.
Then the merchant’s son presented a further jewel worth two hundred thousand, and asked that a word be put in: this is a small matter; only say one word, and you gain three hundred thousand. Then the woman, coveting the jewels, accepted them, and in the evening spoke to her husband again: what I put to you yesterday — I hope you will decide as I wish. The elder answered: there is absolutely no such possibility.
Then the elder had one son, and his wife wept and said: if you will not do as I say, I shall kill the boy first and then myself. The elder, hearing this, was as a man choking, and thought: I have only this one son. If he dies, there is no one to leave the property to; and if I do as she says, people will not trust what I say, and I shall suffer for it in a life to come. Pressed and harried without end, he consented.
His wife told the merchant that the elder had agreed, and the merchant was delighted. He caparisoned a great elephant with jeweled trappings, put on rich jeweled robes, rode the elephant into the market; and the elder’s son, seeing him, went and said: repay me now what you owed before. The merchant said in astonishment: I do not remember at all — when did I owe you anything?
They went together to the arbitrator, and the elder’s son said: this man in past days borrowed such and such a sum in person from my father. Uncle, you were arbitrator at the time. Was it so or not? He answered: I do not know. His nephew said in astonishment: uncle, did you truly neither see nor hear it at the time? And again he answered: it was not so. His nephew said angrily: because my uncle is loyal and good, the king made him arbitrator and the people of the country trust him. If he does this even to his own brother’s son, how much more must there be wrongs done to outsiders. Whether this is false or true, a later life will show it.
The Buddha told the elder: know that the arbitrator elder of that time is Màncípílí now. Because of that one lie he fell into the great hells and suffered much torment; and coming out of the hells, for five hundred lives he has constantly received this body. Because he planted much giving, he is always born to wealth and rank and becomes master of the property (Source: Sūtra of the Wise and the Foolish, fascicle 7).
The legal premise is stated flatly and never questioned: where a man dies without a son, his property goes to the crown, and five capable daughters cannot inherit. The child who saves the estate is born with no ears, eyes, tongue, hands, or feet — and the one thing he does have is the one thing the law recognizes. The eldest daughter states the moral herself, serving her husband's household like a maidservant: though there are daughters, they are not equal to one son. The entry offers no comment on it, and the Buddha's explanation, when it comes, is about a wholly different matter.
That explanation is worth reading as a study of how a good man is broken. The arbitrator refuses the first bribe and returns the jewel; refuses the second; and yields only when his wife threatens to kill their only son and then herself. His own reasoning is set out — if the boy dies there is no heir, and if I lie no one will trust me and I shall suffer for it in a later life — and he chooses the son. The one lie costs him the hells and five hundred lives in that body. The wife's part in it is not assigned any consequence at all.
7. Sound-Delight Receives Four Rewards of Former Lives in This Body
Four blessings arrive at one house on one day. A rival teacher hears what the Buddha was paid for the congratulatory verse and comes asking for a copy, and is warned twice that he does not know when to use it.
有長者名曰音悅。財富無數年老無子。以為愁慼。雖然宿福所追。其報有四。一者夫人產男。二者五百白馬同時生駒。三者國王遣使者拜授金印。四者五百寶船同時俱至。佛告阿難。長者音悅先世之時。遣五百人乘船入海。既獲眾寶安隱還家。是故如來說此四福同時普集。長者念言。天降福祚集我之庭。當作甘饌室族相慶。時四天王釋梵諸天龍神鬼王阿須倫等。各與眷屬側塞虛空。如來神達知此長者歡喜踊躍。因其歡悅而往稱歎。若其開解可殖福哉。應時歌誦吉祥八音。長者歡喜啟瞿曇言。實為神妙。知我室族吉祥無量。抂屈尊神來相讚歎。以好白㲲直千萬兩金。奉上如來佛即受之。佛告長者。財有五厄。汝今能為必獲影報。所生之處福自歸身。長者白佛。何等五厄。佛言。一者火燒。二者水漂。三者縣官。四者惡子用度無限。五者盜賊五事。一至不可抑制。長者聞說益增踊躍。於是如來忽然還到耆闍崛山。爾時國內有尼揵異道。名曰不蘭迦葉。聽聞如來詣長者家歌頌一偈。獲得長者千萬兩金。沙門尚能得金。況我往乞當不得乎。又自念言。我當往求瞿曇沙門所可說偈。然後往乞必得珍寶。嗟歎之宜當勝瞿曇。不蘭迦葉。懷此愚癡妬嫉之意。而往問佛。傳聞瞿曇。詣長者家歌頌一偈大得珍寶。寧可哀矜賜所說偈。令吾諷誦冀望得寶。如來三達知此長者却後一時財寶當散。不蘭迦葉不知時宜。遭厄之家而說吉祥。必得長者無量杖痛。如來告言。不惜此偈汝不知時。卿說此偈必得楚痛。是故違卿。若更欲得應時之說絕妙之句。吾當與汝。既使長者得聞真言。又免捶毒之痛。不蘭迦葉心自念言。瞿曇沙門不欲令我往乞珍寶。是故悋惜不肯與我。即便重啟。其於與我焉知餘事。如來慈愍諫之滿三終不信解。佛亦豫知不蘭迦葉前世因緣應受此痛。如來又云。罪不可諫。佛即為說吉祥之偈。尼揵諷誦一歲乃諳。然後長者失火燒舍珍奇了盡。五百馬駒同時燒死。所生妙子一旦終亡。王遣使者錄奪金印。後復乘船入海採寶安隱來還。泊岸五百寶船一旦漂沒。室族大小無不愁毒。不蘭迦葉往到其門。歌頌如來吉祥之偈如上所說。長者聞之舉門忿恚。天下凶殃無過於我。云何此人裸形無恥。在此妖蠱。說我吉祥益我憂煩。即出捶打。從頭至足匍匐還家。六師宗等逆問其意。答言。此變正由瞿曇。內不自剋反怨世尊。佛告眾會。不蘭迦葉前從如來求索一偈。欲詣長者歌頌求寶。如來諫之。其於不信。今已在彼遭痛毒患。阿難白佛。不蘭迦葉與此長者有何因緣而被此患。佛告阿難。乃昔久遠阿僧祇劫時。有國王亦名音悅。復有一鳥。名曰鸚鵡。在王宮上鳴聲和好。王時晝寢聞鳥鳴聲驚覺。問其左右。此為何鳥鳴聲妙好。侍者白言。有一奇鳥。五色焜煌適在宮上鳴已便去。王遣步騎逐而求之。推尋殊久捕得與王。即以七寶瓔珞其身常著左右。晝夜看視不去。須臾復有一鳥。名曰鵚梟。來在宮上。看見鸚鵡獨得優寵。即問鸚鵡。何緣致此。鸚鵡答言。我來宮上悲鳴殊好。國王愛敬於我取我常著左右。鵚梟聞之。乃懷妬嫉。心即念言。我亦當鳴令殊於卿。國王亦當愛寵我身。王時臥睡鵚梟即鳴。王即驚覺。㱇然毛竪如畏怖狀。王問左右。此為何聲驚動怖我。侍者白言。有惡聲鳥名曰鵚梟。王遣大眾分布推索。即得與王。王令左右生拔毛羽。舉身大痛步行而去。眾鳥問言。何緣致此。鵚梟瞋恚答眾鳥言。正坐鸚鵡故得此患。佛言。善聲招福惡聲致禍。罪報由己反怒鸚鵡。昔國王者音悅是。鸚鵡者我身是。鵚梟者不蘭迦葉是(出長者音悅經)。
There was an elder named Sound-Delight, of wealth beyond number, who was old and had no son, and grieved over it. Even so, drawn on by his past merit, his reward came in four things: first, his wife bore a son; second, five hundred white mares foaled at the same time; third, the king sent an envoy to confer a gold seal on him; fourth, five hundred treasure ships arrived all together.
The Buddha told Ānanda: the elder Sound-Delight, in a former age, sent five hundred men by ship to sea, and they obtained many treasures and came home safely. That is why the Tathāgata says these four blessings all gathered at once.
The elder thought: heaven has sent down blessings and gathered them in my courtyard. I shall make sweet dishes, that my household and clan may celebrate together. At that time the Four Heavenly Kings, Śakra, Brahmā, the gods, nāgas, spirits, ghost-kings, asuras and the rest, each with his retinue, crowded the open sky.
The Tathāgata, in his divine penetration, knew this elder was delighted and leaping with joy, and, on the strength of his gladness, went to praise him: if his understanding opens, he may plant merit indeed. And in due time he chanted the eight auspicious sounds.
The elder rejoiced and said to Gautama: this is truly divine and marvelous — you know that my household and clan have measureless good fortune, and have troubled your divine and honored self to come and praise us. And he offered the Tathāgata a fine white cloth worth ten million taels of gold, and the Buddha accepted it.
The Buddha told the elder: wealth has five calamities. If you can act as you have now, you will surely obtain its reflected reward, and wherever you are born blessings will return to you of themselves. The elder said to the Buddha: what are the five calamities? The Buddha said: first, burning by fire; second, washing away by water; third, the officials; fourth, a bad son who spends without limit; fifth, robbers. Once any one of these five arrives it cannot be held back. The elder, hearing this, leapt the more for joy.
Then the Tathāgata suddenly returned to Mount Gṛdhrakūṭa. At that time there was in the kingdom a Nirgrantha of the heterodox way named Pūraṇa Kāśyapa, who heard that the Tathāgata had gone to the elder’s house and chanted one verse and obtained ten million taels of gold from the elder. If a śramaṇa can get gold, how much more shall I, if I go and beg it. And he thought further: I shall go and ask the śramaṇa Gautama for the verse he spoke, and then go and beg, and shall surely get treasure; and my praises should surpass Gautama’s.
Pūraṇa Kāśyapa, holding this foolish and jealous intention, went and asked the Buddha: I have heard that Gautama went to the elder’s house and chanted a verse and obtained much treasure. Might you have pity and bestow on me the verse you spoke, that I may recite it and hope to obtain treasure?
The Tathāgata, in his threefold penetration, knew that this elder’s treasures would presently be scattered, and that Pūraṇa Kāśyapa, not knowing what suits the occasion, would speak of good fortune at a house met by disaster and would certainly earn a measureless beating from the elder. The Tathāgata told him: I do not begrudge the verse; you do not know the time. If you speak this verse you will certainly be beaten. That is why I refuse you. If you would rather have words that suit the occasion, verses of surpassing excellence, I shall give you those.
Pūraṇa Kāśyapa thought to himself: the śramaṇa Gautama does not want me to go and beg treasure, and that is why he begrudges it and will not give it to me. And he asked again pressingly: only give it to me — what do I care for the rest? The Tathāgata in compassion remonstrated with him three times, and he still would not understand; and the Buddha knew beforehand that Pūraṇa Kāśyapa, by the causes of a former life, was to suffer this beating. The Tathāgata said further: an offense cannot be remonstrated away — and taught him the auspicious verse. The Nirgrantha recited it a whole year before he had it by heart.
After that, the elder’s house caught fire and his rarities were entirely burned; the five hundred foals all burned to death at once; the fine son who had been born to him died in a day; the king sent an envoy to record and take back the gold seal; and afterward he took ship to sea to gather treasure and returned safely, and, on mooring at the shore, the five hundred treasure ships all sank in a day. Everyone in the household, great and small, was in bitter grief.
Pūraṇa Kāśyapa came to his gate and chanted the Tathāgata’s auspicious verse as above. The elder heard it, and the whole house was enraged: no calamity under heaven exceeds mine. How is it that this man, naked and shameless, stands here working his sorcery, telling me of good fortune and adding to my grief? And they came out and beat him from head to foot, and he crawled home.
The six heterodox teachers and their following asked him what had happened, and he answered: this reversal is all Gautama’s doing. Unable to blame himself within, he turned instead to resenting the World-Honored One.
The Buddha told the assembly: Pūraṇa Kāśyapa earlier asked me for a verse, wishing to go to the elder and chant it and seek treasure. The Tathāgata remonstrated with him and he would not believe it; and now he has met with that painful affliction there.
Ānanda said to the Buddha: what cause and condition is there between Pūraṇa Kāśyapa and this elder, that he should suffer this?
The Buddha told Ānanda: long ago, in the far distant asaṃkhya kalpa, there was a king also named Sound-Delight; and there was a bird named Parrot, above the king’s palace, whose cry was harmonious and fine. The king was sleeping in the daytime and woke at the bird’s cry, and asked those about him: what bird is this, whose cry is so fine? An attendant said: there is a rare bird of five brilliant colors that was just now above the palace, and cried and then went away. The king sent foot and horse to pursue and find it; after a long search they caught it and brought it to the king, and he hung necklaces of the seven treasures on its body and kept it always at his side, watching it day and night without leaving.
After a little while another bird, named Owl, came above the palace, and, seeing that the parrot alone had this favor, asked the parrot: how did you come by this? The parrot answered: I came above the palace and my mournful cry was very fine, and the king loved and respected me and took me and keeps me always at his side. The owl, hearing this, was seized with jealousy, and thought: I too shall cry, and better than you, and the king will love and favor me as well.
While the king was asleep the owl cried, and the king woke with a start, his hair standing on end as if in terror, and asked those about him: what sound is this that startles and frightens me? An attendant said: there is a bird of evil sound named Owl. The king sent out a great company to spread out and search for it, and it was caught and brought to him, and the king had his attendants pluck out its feathers alive; and in great pain over its whole body it walked away.
The other birds asked: how did you come by this? The owl answered them in anger: it is entirely on account of the parrot that I have suffered this affliction.
The Buddha said: a good sound draws blessing and an evil sound brings calamity; the retribution of an offense comes from oneself, and he turned his anger instead upon the parrot. The king of that time is Sound-Delight; the parrot is myself; and the owl is Pūraṇa Kāśyapa (Source: Sūtra of the Elder Sound-Delight).
The mechanism here deserves attention because the Buddha states it in advance and it still happens. He knows the elder's four blessings are about to be reversed; he knows Pūraṇa Kāśyapa will arrive with a congratulatory verse at a house in mourning; he knows the beating that will follow; he refuses the verse, offers an alternative, and remonstrates three times. Pūraṇa Kāśyapa reads the refusal as commercial jealousy and insists, and the Buddha teaches him the verse with the words that an offense cannot be remonstrated away.
The parrot and owl story appended at the end recasts the whole thing. The owl is not punished for an evil deed but for an unpleasant voice, and its own account of what happened is that the parrot is to blame. The Buddha's gloss — a good sound draws blessing and an evil sound brings calamity, and the retribution of an offense comes from oneself — is placed immediately after a scene in which the offender's grievance against the favored bird looks, at least in the telling, not entirely unfounded.
The list of the five calamities of wealth, given by the Buddha at the height of the elder's good fortune, functions as the story's outline: fire, water, the officials, a bad son, and robbers. Four of the five arrive within the entry.
8. Jiūliú, Starving, Meets a Tree Spirit and Comes to Faith and Understanding
Five hundred starving traders find a tree spirit whose fingertips produce food and water. His merit turns out to be that he used to polish mirrors at a city gate and tell passing monks where to beg.
昔有長者名鳩留。不信今世後世善惡報應。與五百人共行治生。未到他國絕食三日。前行遙見叢林。想是居家。到見樹神。即為作禮。其人飢乏。神即舉手。五指端自然出飲食甘水與之鳩留飽滿復大號哭。神問何故。答曰。吾伴五百人皆大飢渴。神令呼來。復與飲食。人馬皆足。鳩留問神。本有何福自致如是。神曰。我本迦葉佛時作貧窮人。恒於城門磨鏡。有沙門出入。常喜指示分衛之處。及佛圖精舍。如是非一。壽終生此。自然受福無所乏短。長者心悟大修布施。日飯八千人。濤米之汁流出城門。足以乘舟。後生第二天上。作散花天人(出十卷譬喻經第二卷)。
Long ago there was an elder named Jiūliú who did not believe in this world or the next, or in the retribution of good and evil. He went with five hundred men to trade, and before reaching another country they were without food for three days. Going on, they saw a grove in the distance and supposed there were dwellings there; and coming to it they saw a tree spirit and made obeisance to it.
The men being famished, the spirit raised its hand, and from the tips of its five fingers food and sweet water came forth of themselves and were given to them. Jiūliú, having eaten his fill, wept aloud again. The spirit asked why. He answered: my five hundred companions are all famished and thirsty. The spirit had them called, and gave them food and drink too, and there was enough for both men and horses.
Jiūliú asked the spirit: what merit did you originally have, to come to this? The spirit said: in the time of the Buddha Kāśyapa I was a poor man, and I always polished mirrors at the city gate. Śramaṇas came and went, and I always gladly pointed out to them where alms were to be had, and where the stūpas and monasteries were; and this happened more than once. When my life ended I was born here, and receive blessings spontaneously and lack nothing at all.
The elder’s mind was opened and he greatly cultivated giving, feeding eight thousand people a day; the water from washing the rice flowed out of the city gate deep enough to float a boat. Afterward he was born in the second heaven and became a flower-scattering god (Source: Ten-Fascicle Parables Sūtra, fascicle 2).
9. Rìnán, Rich in the Hundreds of Millions, Was Miserly and Gave Nothing, and Was Poor and Blind in the Next Life
A miser who kept his gate shut against beggars is reborn blind, to a blind mother, in a heap of rubble — and goes begging to the house of the son he left his fortune to.
昔波羅奈國長者。名曰日難。大富珍琦。為人慳嫉。日未沒時常勅門監。乞者勿通。日難子旃檀。亦復慳貪。難後壽盡還生國中。為盲婦作子。其夫語婦。汝身重病今復懷軀。我無衣食汝便自去。婦出門去得大聚廧。便止其中。九月生子兩目復盲。乞食養之。至年七歲其母悲言。今有乞我少飯愈飢如雨渴者。兒聞母說便行乞食到其子家。時守門者這小出外入到中庭。栴檀聞語。呼守門問。門監懼罪。即掔盲兒撲於門外傷頭折臂。母聞走到何人無道。時門上神便謂之言。汝得是痛尚為小小。其大在後。汝坐前世有財不施故得勤苦。死更苦痛觀者聞聲。佛問阿難。是何等聲。阿難具說。願佛哀矜。到此兒所分越飯已。往視盲兒以手摩頭。目便開明。折傷即愈。因識宿命。佛問。汝是前世長者字日難非。對曰是也。佛告阿難。人居世間甚苦愚癡。一世父子不相識知。時佛說經解散其意。有求子索財 於此二事中甚憂勤苦痛 他人所得果有身不能保 何況子與財譬如夏月暑 息止樹下涼須臾當復去 世間無有常(出日難經)
Long ago in the kingdom of Vārāṇasī there was an elder named Rìnán, very rich in rarities, and by nature miserly and grudging. Before the sun had set he would always order the gatekeeper to let no beggar through. Rìnán’s son Candana was likewise greedy and miserly.
When Rìnán’s life was exhausted he was born again in that same country, as the son of a blind woman. Her husband said to her: your body is already heavy with sickness and now you are with child; I have no clothing or food — you may go away. The wife went out of the gate and found a great heap of walls and stayed there. In the ninth month she bore a son, blind in both eyes as well, and begged food to raise him.
When he was seven years old his mother said in grief: if only someone would give me a little food now, it would relieve my hunger as rain relieves the thirsty. The boy, hearing his mother speak, went out begging for food and came to his own son’s house. The gatekeeper had just stepped out a moment, and he went inside to the courtyard. Candana heard the voice and called the gatekeeper and questioned him; and the gatekeeper, fearing punishment, dragged the blind boy and threw him outside the gate, wounding his head and breaking his arm.
His mother heard and ran to them: what man is so lawless? Then the spirit over the gate said to him: the pain you have suffered is still a small thing; the great part is yet to come. You are in this hardship because in a former life you had wealth and did not give; when you die the pain will be worse still.
Those who watched heard the crying. The Buddha asked Ānanda: what sound is that? Ānanda told him the whole of it: I ask the Buddha to have pity. He went to the boy, shared out food to him, and then went to look at the blind boy, and stroked his head with his hand, and his eyes at once opened and saw, and the broken bones were healed; and by this he knew his former lives.
The Buddha asked: were you not in a former life the elder named Rìnán? He answered: I was. The Buddha told Ānanda: people dwelling in the world are much in suffering and foolishness. Within a single lifetime father and son do not know one another. Then the Buddha taught the sūtra and dissolved their thoughts:
“There is the seeking of sons and the seeking of wealth; / in these two matters / is much anxiety and bitter pain — / the fruit that others obtain. / Having a body one cannot keep, / how much less a son and wealth? / It is as in the heat of a summer month / one stops to rest in the cool beneath a tree; / in a moment one must go on again — / in the world there is nothing permanent.” (Source: Sūtra of Rìnán)
The structure is unusually cruel and unusually exact. The miser's standing order was that the gate be shut against beggars before sunset; reborn blind, the beggar he becomes is thrown out of that same gate, by that same gatekeeper's successor, on the orders of his own son — who is in the house because he inherited what the miser would not give away. Nobody in the scene knows who anyone is.
The Buddha's line at the close is not about the miserliness at all: people dwelling in the world are much in suffering and foolishness, and within a single lifetime father and son do not know one another.
10. An Elder Gives Rise to the Bodhisattva Mind, Takes the Poor with Him, and Obtains Treasure
An elder financing five hundred poor men on a treasure voyage meets, on a mountain at night, a radiant being with a pig's mouth who explains the discrepancy.
昔有長者。發菩薩心。聚諸貧人凡得五百。資給衣糧。入海採寶宿一大山。眾人昏鈍唯長者獨坐。並有所瞻。夜見山腹出於一人。光炎非恒面目端正。口似猪口以伎樂自娛。周旋山側。長者問曰。卿為何人。聞聲愕曰。吾是受福之人解住在此。長者問曰。身形端正口何獨爾。答曰。坐犯口過常喜泄語。天人曰。卿是何人。答曰。吾是國中長者。憂念貧匱欲令安隱故將眾人入海採寶。並欲運寶饒益閻浮。天人曰。卿得無是菩薩耶。長者曰。吾發菩薩心。救濟一切婬怒癡病。諸未度者吾是度之。天人曰。善哉。遂送寶所重載而還(出十卷譬喻經第五卷)。
Long ago there was an elder who gave rise to the bodhisattva mind. He gathered poor people, five hundred in all, provided them with clothing and provisions, and went to sea to gather treasure; and they lodged one night on a great mountain.
The rest were dull with sleep and the elder alone sat up, watching. In the night he saw a man come out of the mountain’s belly, his light and flame not of the ordinary and his face upright, but his mouth like a pig’s mouth; and he diverted himself with music and went round and round the mountainside.
The elder asked him: who are you? Startled at the voice, he said: I am one who receives blessings, and I have come to dwell here. The elder asked: your body and form are upright — why is your mouth alone like this? He answered: it is because I offended by my mouth and always delighted in letting things slip out.
The god then asked: and who are you? He answered: I am an elder of the kingdom. I grieve over the poor and destitute and wish to set them at ease, and so I have brought these people to sea to gather treasure, and mean to carry the treasure back to enrich Jambudvīpa. The god said: could you be a bodhisattva? The elder said: I have given rise to the bodhisattva mind, to rescue all from the sicknesses of lust, anger, and delusion, and to deliver those not yet delivered.
The god said: excellent. And he sent them to the place of treasure, and they came back heavily laden (Source: Ten-Fascicle Parables Sūtra, fascicle 5).
11. An Elder, Fallen Poor, Borrows Money for Almsgiving, Ploughs Up a Thousand Cauldrons, and Never Exhausts Them
A couple pawn themselves for a hundred taels to keep up the almsgiving they can no longer afford, and go off to work the debt off. The husband's first day at the plough settles the matter.
昔罽賓國有一長者。本大富。父母亡後。常供養數道人。數年之中家欲貧困。無復有得。為父母作福念之愁毒。婦語婿言。寧一世懃苦後長解脫。遠使父母得福無量。長者言然。持我二人權舉百兩金。約用金盡就作畢直。得金便施盡乃往作。遣夫耕田婦厨下炊。耕得大石似磨蓋。發視見金千鼎。便還覆之不復還食。長者遣婦餉夫。夫便擔金自歸其家。明日稱金還耳。主人夫婦反舍。復為七世父母布施用之。終身不盡(出十卷譬喻經第一卷)。
Long ago in the kingdom of Kaśmīra there was an elder, originally very rich. After his parents died he constantly made offerings to a number of religious men, and within a few years his household was falling into poverty and there was nothing more to be had. Making merit for his parents, he thought of it and was sick with grief.
His wife said to her husband: better to toil bitterly for one lifetime and afterward be long at liberty, and moreover let your parents obtain measureless merit. The elder said: so be it. Let the two of us borrow a hundred taels of gold on the security of ourselves, and agree that when the gold is spent we shall go and work off the sum. So they got the gold and gave it all away, and when it was gone they went to work: the husband was sent to plow the fields and the wife to cook in the kitchen.
Plowing, he struck a great stone like the cover of a mill. Opening it and looking, he saw a thousand cauldrons of gold. He covered it again and did not come back for his food. The elder sent his wife with food out to her husband, and the husband then carried the gold home himself, and the next day weighed out gold and repaid it.
Husband and wife returned to their own house, and again gave alms for the seven generations of their forebears; and they used it all their lives and it was never exhausted (Source: Ten-Fascicle Parables Sūtra, fascicle 1).
12. The Fragrant-Bodied Elder's Wife Is Taken by the King
A king takes an elder's wife by force; the elder ordains, attains arhatship, and gives off a fragrance that fills a kingdom. The queen weeps over the king's flowers and tells him why.
昔有國王。貪於婬色所作無道。聞好婦女尋往掠奪。舉國患之。有一長者。財富無數高才博達。婦容端正。臣下啟王。王聞心動遣使強奪。其夫愁惱。便棄家居行作沙門。口中出香薰四十里。身體周遍有旃檀氣。王見其人。既無子姓。皆收家財。王立其婦以為正后。國中生好蓮華。青黃紅白甚大香潔。王敬夫人先持與之。夫人得華益甚悲感。王問。卿今一國之母。相敬不相失。意有何不可。乃爾不樂耶。夫人曰。不敢不樂。但念我前夫身口之香勝此眾華。竊思舊意不覺自悲。王不信言乃遣請之。前婿已得羅漢。神通飛行身出眾香充遍一國。王使澡洗重加揩拭。身香益甚。王試問佛。佛言。過去有一貧子。窮困無業賣薪自活。採薪還未及城門。城門已閉。門外有寺僧夜誦經。其人寄宿便坐聽經。燒香讚歎至於天曉。緣是五百世不墮惡道。常生天上身口香潔(出十卷譬喻經第四卷)。
Long ago there was a king who coveted lust and acted without principle. Hearing of a fine woman he would go at once and carry her off, and the whole kingdom suffered from it.
There was an elder of wealth beyond number, of high talent and broad learning, whose wife was upright and beautiful. His ministers told the king; the king’s heart was moved and he sent men to seize her by force. Her husband, in grief and distress, abandoned his household and went off to become a śramaṇa; and fragrance came from his mouth and perfumed forty li, and his whole body had the scent of sandalwood.
The king, seeing that the man had no children, took all his household property and set up his wife as principal queen. In the kingdom there grew fine lotus flowers, blue, yellow, red, and white, very large and fragrant and pure, and the king out of respect brought them to her first. But the lady, receiving the flowers, only grew the more sorrowful.
The king asked: you are now the mother of a kingdom; we respect one another and have not fallen out. What is it that displeases you, that you are so unhappy? The lady said: I do not dare be unhappy. But I remember that the fragrance of my former husband’s body and mouth surpassed all these flowers, and thinking privately of what once was, I found myself grieving before I knew it.
The king did not believe her words, and sent for him. Her former husband had already attained arhatship, and flew there by his supernormal power, and his body gave off every kind of fragrance filling the whole kingdom. The king had him bathed and scrubbed over again, and the fragrance of his body was stronger still.
The king put the question to the Buddha, and the Buddha said: in the past there was a poor man, destitute and without a trade, who kept himself alive by selling firewood. Coming back with his firewood, he had not reached the city gate before it was shut. Outside the gate there was a monastery where the monks were reciting sūtras at night, and the man lodged there and sat listening to the sūtras, burning incense and praising them until dawn. Because of this, for five hundred lives he did not fall into the evil destinies, but was always born in heaven, his body and mouth fragrant and pure (Source: Ten-Fascicle Parables Sūtra, fascicle 4).
13. An Elder's Wife, Pregnant, Has Fragrant Breath
A brief companion piece: fragrant breath and a robe of gold thread that grows back each time it is taken off.
昔有長者。夫人懷妊。口出好香氣滿一國。阿闍世王。遣使尋求見長者家。以問長者。長者具答。使者白王。王大歡喜召語長者。卿若生男者當持與我所生之女後乃生女。有金縷衣自然著身。母怪解去。隨生一重還著其身。便往問佛。佛言。昔有貧家。婦出行遇雨。見一老沙門是辟支佛。泥倒躄地傷膝流血出。即扶沙門起洗去。其血自裂己衣用裹傷膝。婦人雖未奉法要。常好稱譽佛道。死生第二天上。壽終下生。故有自然之衣。口出好香(出十卷譬喻經第一卷)。
Long ago there was an elder whose wife was pregnant, and a fine fragrance came from her mouth and filled a whole kingdom. King Ajātaśatru sent men to look for the source, and they found the elder’s house; and they asked the elder about it, and the elder told them everything.
The messenger reported to the king, and the king was greatly delighted and summoned the elder and said: if you bear a son, present him to me; if a daughter is born, then — And afterward a daughter was born, with a robe of gold thread on her body of itself. Her mother, wondering at it, took it off, and as soon as she did another layer appeared on her body again.
So they went and asked the Buddha, and the Buddha said: long ago there was a poor household whose wife went out and met rain, and saw an old śramaṇa — a pratyekabuddha — who fell in the mud and hurt his knee so that blood flowed. She helped the śramaṇa up and washed the blood away, and tore her own clothing to bind the wounded knee. Though this woman had not yet taken up the Dharma’s essentials, she always spoke well of the buddha-path; and when she died she was born in the second heaven, and when that lifespan ended she was born below. That is why she has spontaneous clothing and a fine fragrance from her mouth (Source: Ten-Fascicle Parables Sūtra, fascicle 1).
14. Miserly with Wealth, He Is Born in the Hell of Wailing
A rich man who died with nothing given away and nothing enjoyed. The Buddha traces both halves of that to a single gift followed by a single regret.
舍衛城中有富長者。命終無兒。所有錢財皆悉沒官。長者生時食噉麁惡衣裳單弊以樹葉為蓋。佛曰。雖得豪位不自養身。亦不養子不供父母。不通朋友不施沙門。今日命終入啼哭地獄。佛言。過去以食施辟支佛。施已心悔云。我不以與奴婢。乃與剃頭沙門。由是善報。七反生天七反生人常得豪貴。由悔心故是業果報。不食好食不衣好衣。亦不貪五欲。波斯匿王。當勤行精進除去懈怠(出長者命終無子經)。
In the city of Śrāvastī there was a rich elder who died without a son, and all his money and goods were confiscated by the officials. While the elder was alive he ate only coarse and poor food, his clothing was thin and worn, and he used tree leaves for a cover.
The Buddha said: though he obtained wealth and position, he did not nourish himself with it, nor nourish his son, nor provide for his parents, nor share it with friends, nor give to śramaṇas. Today his life has ended and he has entered the Hell of Wailing.
The Buddha said: in the past he gave food to a pratyekabuddha; and having given it, he regretted it in his heart and said: I would not give it to my own servants, and I have given it to a shaven-headed śramaṇa. By that good reward he was born seven times in heaven and seven times among humans and was always noble and rich; and because of the regret in his heart, the fruit of that deed was that he did not eat good food or wear good clothing, and took no pleasure in the five desires either. King Prasenajit, you should apply yourself with diligence and put idleness aside (Source: Sūtra of the Elder Who Died Without a Son).
15. Giving a Fulling-Block to Someone Raising a Stūpa, He Is Born in Heaven
The whole story hangs on one stone. Long after the monastery it propped up has fallen to ruin, a ploughman hits it, and a god comes down to bargain for it.
有一長者欲起塔寺。材木悉辦。唯少一石。無著柱下。有一長者。雖不奉佛猶知有福。便以家中一擣衣石施之。便得成寺。其施石人命終。即生第二天上七寶宮殿。玉女侍衛衣食自然。如是久後其國磨滅。無人修治寺都壞盡。唯有一石沒在地中。人民耕地石妨其犁。舉意欲掘。石主天人入心忪動。以天眼觀見人掘石。心中自念。我因此石福來生天。今人取去福將無盡乎。便下化作凡人住掘石人前。問曰。君欲取此石去耶。其人答曰。吾欲耕地值石妨犁故欲去耳。天人問曰。設耕此地種得數十斛耳。天曰。卿勿取此石。吾以五百兩金與卿。其人問曰。君得無是神乎。答曰。吾是天人也。即復天身語其人曰。吾本是此土人耳。前身以此石與道人立寺。我因此福得生天上封受自然。向者天宮振動怪其所以。觀見君是故來耳。此石是吾福之根本也。卿勿取之。其人聞之曰。本所不知。此是神明塔寺。天人福田不敢犯也天還天上其人思惟。此天但施此石得福如此。吾當更立塔寺。便即興功修塔如故(出福報經又出十卷譬喻經第一卷)。
There was an elder who wished to raise a stūpa and monastery. The timber was all prepared and only one stone was lacking to set beneath a pillar. There was another elder who, though he did not serve the Buddha, still knew that there was such a thing as merit; and he gave a fulling-block from his house, and so the monastery was completed.
The man who gave the stone died and was at once born in the second heaven, in a palace of the seven treasures, waited on by jade maidens, with clothing and food spontaneous.
Long afterward that country fell into ruin, and there was no one to maintain the monastery and it was wholly destroyed; only the one stone remained, sunk in the ground. People plowing the land found the stone in the way of the plough and had a mind to dig it out.
The stone’s owner, the god, felt a stirring within, and, looking with the divine eye, saw a man digging out the stone, and thought to himself: it was through this stone that my merit brought me birth in heaven. If someone now takes it away, will my merit not be exhausted? So he came down, transformed himself into an ordinary man, stood before the man digging, and asked: sir, do you mean to take this stone away? The man answered: I am ploughing the land, and the stone is in the way of the plough, and so I mean to remove it.
The god asked: if you plough this land, how many bushels will you get by planting it? [The man told him.] The god said: do not take this stone; I shall give you five hundred taels of gold. The man asked: could you be a spirit? He answered: I am a god. And he resumed his heavenly body and said to the man: I was originally a man of this land. In a former body I gave this stone to a religious to build a monastery, and by that merit I obtained birth in heaven and enjoy what comes of itself. Just now the heavenly palace shook, and, wondering at it, I looked and saw you, and so I came. This stone is the root of my merit — do not take it.
The man, hearing this, said: I did not know it before. This is a stūpa and monastery of the gods, a field of merit for gods and men; I dare not offend against it. The god returned to heaven, and the man reflected: if this god obtained such merit merely by giving this stone, I shall raise a stūpa and monastery myself. And he set to work at once and restored the stūpa as it had been (Source: Sūtra of the Reward of Merit; also Ten-Fascicle Parables Sūtra, fascicle 1).
A small story with an unusual shape. The donor is explicitly not a Buddhist — he does not serve the Buddha, but knows that there is such a thing as merit — and what he gives is a laundry stone. Everything else in the monastery is gone centuries later; the stone is still there, sunk in a field, and it is still generating the merit that keeps a god in a palace of the seven treasures.
The god's motive for coming down is worth noting: he is not protecting the Dharma or the monastery, both of which are already ruined, but the physical object his own continued good fortune is attached to, and he begins by offering the ploughman five hundred taels for it. What actually settles the matter is the ploughman working out, on his own, that he could do the same thing himself.
16. Sudatta's Three Sons Come to Faith Only When Driven to the Wall
Anāthapiṇḍada's three sons, unreachable by argument, are put into grass clothing and fed on beans until they change their minds. Then he offers them money.
昔給孤獨氏有三子。皆背正向邪酒荒女色。馳騁田獵樗蒲博弈。去明即暝日成狂愚。父愍悼之。慈惻誨喻指示禍福無日不爾。子獨不移放蕩日甚。父乃以苗草衣之以豆麥食之。窮而悔焉。父言。爾為不善現世獲殃甚困如此。豈況地獄燒煮之痛誰當濟爾。子叩頭曰。邪友所導狂惑習之。由猪處溷不知其臭。自今束身奉戴三尊。父曰大善。汝若洗心奉佛五戒終身不犯。歲與汝五千萬金。三自歸三千萬。子對曰。唯既奉尊教。即令洗浴將至佛所。稽首受戒退歸修德。清潔其志周窮濟乏。惠逮眾生國儒稱德。名齊古賢(出教子經)。
Long ago Anāthapiṇḍada had three sons, all of whom turned their backs on the right and toward the wrong — drowning in wine and women, galloping after the hunt, gambling at dice and board games. Leaving the light they went straight into the dark, and by the day grew mad and stupid.
Their father pitied and grieved over them, and with kindness and concern instructed and admonished them, pointing out calamity and blessing, and there was no day he did not do so. But his sons alone would not shift, and their dissipation grew worse by the day. So their father clothed them in grass and fed them on beans and barley, and, being brought to destitution, they repented.
Their father said: you have done what is not good and reap the calamity of it in this present life, and are as hard pressed as this. How much more the pain of the burning and boiling of hell — who then shall save you? His sons knocked their heads on the ground and said: evil friends led us, and in our madness and confusion we grew used to it — like a pig living in a sty, who does not know its own stench. From today we bind ourselves to serve and uphold the Three Honored Ones.
Their father said: excellent. If you cleanse your hearts and serve the Buddha, and to the end of your lives do not break the five precepts, I shall give you fifty million in gold each year; and thirty million for the three refuges. His sons answered: yes. And having received their honored father’s instruction, he had them bathed and brought to where the Buddha was, and they bowed their heads and received the precepts, and returned and cultivated virtue, keeping their aims pure, relieving the destitute and helping the needy, their kindness reaching all beings; and the scholars of the kingdom praised their virtue, and their names ranked with the worthies of old (Source: Sūtra on Instructing Sons).
17. Xūtán's Son, Coveting the Property, Kills His Younger Brother
Three sentences of narrative and one line of identification, in which the Buddha names himself as the murderer.
昔羅閱祇城。有長者。名曰須檀。大富多財。子名須摩提。其父命終。弟名修耶舍摩提。設計不與弟分。念當殺之。兄語弟言。共詣耆闍崛山上有所論說。即執弟手上至絕崖。便推置底以石垖之。便即命絕。須檀者則真淨父王是也。時須摩提者則我身是。修耶舍者則今陀婆達兜是(出興起行經下卷)。
Long ago in the city of Rājagṛha there was an elder named Xūtán, very rich and with much property, whose son was named Sumati. When his father died, his younger brother was named Xiūyéshè; and Sumati laid a plan not to give his brother a share, and thought he should kill him.
The elder brother said to his younger brother: let us go together up Mount Gṛdhrakūṭa, where there is something to discuss. And he took his brother’s hand and climbed to a sheer cliff, and pushed him off to the bottom and piled stones on him, and he died at once.
Xūtán is King Śuddhodana; the Sumati of that time is myself; and Xiūyéshè is Devadatta now (Source: Sūtra of the Arising of Practices, lower fascicle).
Three sentences of narrative, and then the identification that makes it worth including: the elder brother who lured his younger brother up Gṛdhrakūṭa, pushed him off the cliff, and piled stones on the body is the Buddha in a former life. The victim is Devadatta.
The source, the Sūtra of the Arising of Practices, is a collection devoted specifically to the Buddha's own past evil deeds and the residual retributions he still underwent after awakening — in this case the tradition that Devadatta rolled a stone down at him on that same mountain. Placing it here, in a fascicle of elders' merit stories, between a tale about instructing wayward sons and a tale about thirty eggs, is characteristic of the compendium's arrangement by subject rather than by theme.
18. Líqímí's Seventh Son's Wife Bears Thirty Eggs, and from Each Egg Comes a Boy
One paragraph: thirty eggs, thirty sons, each with the strength of a thousand men.
波斯匿王。有一大臣。名梨耆彌。為第七子納妻。乃娶波斯匿王弟曇摩訶美女。此女聰黠利根多諸德藝。懷妊十月產三十卵。卵出一男。形體挺特勇健無雙。一人之力有過千夫。父母愛念合國敬畏(出賢愚經第十卷)。
King Prasenajit had a great minister named Líqímí, who took a wife for his seventh son — the daughter of Tánmóhēměi, King Prasenajit’s younger brother. This girl was clever, of sharp faculties, and had many virtues and skills. She was pregnant ten months and bore thirty eggs, and from each egg came a boy, of outstanding physique and unmatched in bravery and strength, one man’s strength surpassing a thousand men’s. Their parents loved them, and the whole kingdom held them in awe (Source: Sūtra of the Wise and the Foolish, fascicle 10).
19. A Foolish Son, Slow to Sell His Incense, Burns It into Charcoal to Sell It Faster
The most famous parable in the collection it comes from, and the shortest entry in the fascicle.
有富長者。生子愚癡。乘船興生唯載沈香。香精且貴。買者希。久滯不售。同侶反鄉獨不堪得去。恐失宗伴。遍觀市中貨炭最駛。即燒香作炭希得應速。眾人見之。咸共責笑。大顛狂人賣香雖遲獲直不少。今燒成炭復何所得(出百句譬喻經第一卷)。
There was a rich elder whose son was born a fool. Taking ship to make a living, he loaded nothing but aloeswood. The incense was fine and expensive, and buyers were few; it lay long unsold. His companions were going back home and he alone could not manage to leave, and he feared losing his party.
Looking about the market, he saw that charcoal sold fastest of all, and so he burned the incense into charcoal, hoping to be quickly rid of it. When people saw it they all blamed and laughed at him: what a great madman. Selling incense was slow, but the price you would have got was not small; now that you have burned it into charcoal, what have you got instead? (Source: Sūtra of the Hundred Parables, fascicle 1)
This closes fascicle 36, and the second half of the section on elders, with the best-known parable in the Sūtra of the Hundred Parables: a man who cannot sell aloeswood burns it into charcoal because charcoal moves fast. The point turned on in the crowd's mockery is not that he was wrong about the market — charcoal did sell faster — but that he solved for the wrong quantity.
Read against the fascicle as a whole, the placement is pointed. The eighteen entries before it are almost all about the arithmetic of merit: a grass hut for a sick monk becomes Jyotiṣka's palace, a laundry stone becomes a heaven, a lie in office becomes five hundred deformed lives, one meal given and then regretted becomes seven heavens and a lifetime of eating badly. This last entry is about a man who could not wait.