Ordinary Women, Part 2
This page carries Ru-Yi's complete translation of fascicle 45 of the Jīng Lǜ Yì Xiàng (經律異相): "Ordinary Women, Part 2" (女庶人部下) — seventeen entries closing the section on common people, and almost all of them set in ordinary households. Among them: a woman with hair as long as her body who sells it at half price to buy the Buddha a single meal; the mother of a hundred sons, born from a hundred eggs floated downriver under Śakra's seal, who stops their invading army from a tower by argument and then by turning her breasts toward them; a miserly old woman's near-death tour of a hell and a heaven, each of which turns out to be reserved for someone in her own household; an old woman who built a monk's hut with her own hands until her fingers wore through; a wife who could not make her husband practice and so hung a bell on the door; the birth of Jyotiṣka alive in the middle of his poisoned mother's funeral pyre, with Jīvaka walking into the fire to fetch him; the woman who strapped a wooden bowl under her robe to accuse the Buddha of fathering her child; a cowherd boy of seven who out-argues a monk on emptiness and goes on reciting the perfection of wisdom from inside his next mother's womb; and a maidservant who mistakes a hanged woman's reflection for her own face.
Translation Method
Fascicle 45 completes the section on ordinary people, and its subject is women in ordinary households. The scale is domestic throughout — a maid who makes a practice of not pouring hot water on the ground, a sister who packs the flour down when she borrows it, a wife who hangs a bell on a door — and the consequences the compendium attaches to acts of that scale are correspondingly enormous.
Entry 3 is a doublet of fascicle 38's entry 7 from a different source; the two differ in what they say at the end, and both are printed without cross-reference. Entry 8 is the birth of Jyotiṣka, whose adult life is fascicle 36's entry 2; entry 9 is the Ciñcā slander, the companion piece to the Sundarī affair in fascicle 40's entry 12; and entry 2's closing identification repeats the otherwise unattested name given to the Buddha's mother in fascicle 32's entry 4. We set out these connections in the reading notes.
On names: Śakra, Śuddhodana, Ānanda, Śāriputra, Maudgalyāyana, Uruvilvā-Kāśyapa, Bimbisāra, Mallikā, Sudatta, Jīvaka, Jyotiṣka, Māṇavikā, Vipaśyin, Prasenajit, the Buddha Kāśyapa, Śrāvastī, Rājagṛha, Campā, the Jetavana, the Trāyastriṃśa heaven, and Avīci are given in their standard forms. Where a transliteration has no confident correspondence — Shèmiào, Chénjū, Fúnízhí — we keep the Chinese in pinyin. Names transparently descriptive in Chinese (Good-Giving) are translated, with the Chinese kept in the contents list. The name Jyotiṣka is explained by the entry itself, from the fire he was born in, and we keep that explanation.
Entry 14 carries three verses in an exchange at a door. We set these off in italics with slashes for the line breaks of the Chinese; the Chinese column keeps them running on within the paragraph, as the source has them.
Two entries are severe: entry 14 contains a child drowned in a well and a matricide, and entry 17 turns on a woman's suicide seen only as a reflection. Both are translated as they stand, and the reading notes say where the text withholds the judgment a reader might expect.
Fascicle Contents
- 1. A Long-Haired Woman Gives Up Her Hair to Make an Offering to the Buddha 長髮女人捨髮供養佛一
- 2. A Solitary Woman Sees a Śramaṇa's Supernormal Power and Vows to Bear a Hundred Sons 獨母見沙門神足願後生百兒二
- 3. A Pregnant Woman Meets the Buddha and Vows to Give Her Child to the Path 母人懷妊遇佛願以兒為道三
- 4. A Miserly Old Woman, Ill, Sees Hell; Her Maid, Practicing Good, Sees a Heaven 老母慳病時見地獄婢行善覩有天堂四
- 5. A Woman Builds a Hut for a Monk and at Death Is Born in Heaven, and Things Come Out of Her Hand 母人為比丘起屋壽終生天手出眾物五
- 6. A Mother's Two Sons Drown, and She Weeps for the One Who Could Swim 母二兒溺死哭知浮者六
- 7. A Wife Converts Her Husband by Hanging a Bell on the Door So That the Sound Makes Him Say the Buddha's Name, and He Escapes Hell 婦人化婿戶上懸鈴使聞聲稱佛後免地獄七
- 8. A Woman of Campā Dies, and at the Cremation a Son Is Born in the Fire 瞻婆女人身死闍維於火中生子八
- 9. Māṇavikā Straps On a Bowl and Slanders the Buddha, and the Earth Splits and Her Body Sinks into Hell 摩那祇女懷杅謗佛地即震裂身陷地獄九
- 10. A Lustful Woman Torments a Śramaṇa, and by His Sincerity the Fire Turns to Water 婬盪婦人苦一沙門沙門心至火變為水十
- 11. A Young Girl Conceives from the Warmth of a Fire and Bears a Handsome Son 童女火氣入身懷妊生端正子十一
- 12. A Pregnant Woman Constantly Recites the Sūtra with Her Mouth and Bears a Son of Great Wisdom Whom All Honor 女人懷妊口常誦經生兒多智為眾人所宗十二
- 13. A Woman with Child Gives Birth to Four Strange Things 女人懷妊生四種異物十三
- 14. A Woman Whose Mind Is on a Man Mistakenly Lowers Her Child into a Well 女人心緣丈夫誤繫兒入井十四
- 15. One Who Took More and Returned Less in a Loan Ended Her Life as a Calf 換貸自取多還少命終為犢十五
- 16. A Maidservant Shares Her Food with a Pratyekabuddha, Her Ugly Face Is Changed at Once, and She Becomes the Lady of the House 青衣割食施辟支佛立改醜顏得為夫人十六
- 17. An Ugly Maidservant, Looking into Water, Sees Another's Reflection and Takes Herself for Beautiful 醜婦臨水見他影謂其端正十七
1. A Long-Haired Woman Gives Up Her Hair to Make an Offering to the Buddha
A woman with hair as long as her body who had refused a thousand taels of gold for it sells it for five hundred to buy the Buddha one meal.
昔有一女。端正紺髮髮與身等。國王夫人請頭髮與千兩金而不肯與。見佛歡喜願設供養。請其父母乞為呼之。父母言。家貧無以飯之。女言。取髮直以用供養。父母白佛願佛明日暫顧微飯。女割髮與王夫人。夫人知其懸急但與五百兩金。女取金買食歡喜無量。悔昔慳貪今世貧窮。願令我後莫值此苦。女見世尊。金光五色照其門內。頭面著地遶佛三匝。頭髮還復如故。佛言。此女上世貧無可施。常持頭面著地作禮。後八十一劫常生人中。此福已盡今生貧家。猶識功德見我歡喜福祐無量。命終當生第二忉利天上。盡天。福壽當發菩薩道心。女父母兄弟莫不歡喜命盡生天(出十卷譬喻經第三卷)。
Long ago there was a girl, beautiful, with dark-blue hair as long as her body. The king’s consort asked for the hair and offered a thousand taels of gold, and she would not give it.
She saw the Buddha and was glad and wished to set out an offering, and asked her parents to invite him for her. Her parents said: our household is poor and we have nothing to feed him with. The girl said: take the price of my hair and use it for the offering. Her parents said to the Buddha: we ask the Buddha to look in tomorrow on a humble meal.
The girl cut off her hair and gave it to the king’s consort; and the consort, knowing she was pressed for time, gave her only five hundred taels of gold. The girl took the gold and bought food, glad beyond measure, and regretted the greed of the past that had made her poor in this life: may I never again meet with such hardship.
The girl saw the World-Honored One, and a golden light of five colors shone within her gate, and she put her head and face to the ground and circled the Buddha three times, and her hair was restored as before.
The Buddha said: this girl, in a former age, was poor and had nothing to give, and always put her head and face to the ground in obeisance; and for eighty-one kalpas thereafter she was always born among humans. That merit being now exhausted, she is born into a poor household; and still she knows merit, and seeing me she is glad, and her blessing is measureless. When her life ends she will be born in the Trāyastriṃśa heaven, the second heaven; and when that heavenly lifespan is exhausted she will give rise to the bodhisattva mind. And her parents and brothers all rejoiced, and when their lives ended were born in heaven (Source: Ten-Fascicle Parables Sūtra, fascicle 3).
2. A Solitary Woman Sees a Śramaṇa's Supernormal Power and Vows to Bear a Hundred Sons
The story of the hundred sons: a lotus at every step, a hundred eggs sealed by Śakra and floated downriver, and a mother turning her breasts from a tower toward an invading army.
昔有獨母。賃守田園。主人有事餉過食時。食至欲食。沙門從乞。以所食分盡著鉢中。一莖蓮華又以貢奉。道人即現神足。母喜歎曰。真聖人乎。願我後生百子若茲。母終為梵志嗣。其神靈集梵志小便之處。鹿舐小便即感有身。時滿生女。梵志育焉。年至十餘。守居護火。女與鹿戲不覺火滅。父令索火。女至人陬步一蓮華。火主曰。爾繞吾居三匝以火與爾。女即從命。華生陸土圍屋三重。國王聞之。召問相師。師曰。必有聖嗣傳化無窮。王命賢臣。娉迎還宮。懷妊月滿乃生百卵。后妃逮妾靡不嫉焉。以囊盛卵密覆其口。投江流中。天帝釋下以印封口。諸天翼衛從流停止。由柱植地下流之國。其王於臺遙覩水中。有囊流下。輝晃光耀似有乾靈。取而觀焉。覩帝釋印。發百卵懷育溫煖。時滿體成產為百男。生有聖智不啟自明。相好希有力勢兼百。王具白象百頭以供聖嗣。征伐隣國莫不降伏。又伐所生父王之國。王曰。孰有能却斯敵者乎。母曰。大王無懼。為王降之。即登樓觀揚聲謂曰。夫逆之大其有三矣。一不遠群邪招二世苦。二生不識親而逆孝行。三恃勢殺親毒向三尊。懷此三逆者其惡無盡。爾等張口信現乎。今母旋其乳。天命湩射遍百子口。精誠之感飲湩情哀。僉然俱曰。斯吾母矣。叩頭悔過。親嗣如會靡不哀慟。二國和睦靡不稱善。諸子覩世無常。辭親學道遠世穢垢。九十九子皆得緣覺。一子理國父崩為王。大赦眾罪開藏布施。民人無乏。化以十善正善治國。興立塔寺供奉沙門。誦經論道口無四惡。天帝養護由親育子。留為王者即吾身是。父者今白淨王是。母者舍妙是(出度無極集第二卷)。
Long ago there was a solitary woman hired to keep a field and garden. Her master had business and sent her food after the hour for eating; the food came and she was about to eat, and a śramaṇa came begging. She put all the food she had into his bowl, and offered a single lotus stalk besides. The religious then manifested his supernormal power, and the woman exclaimed in delight: truly a holy man. May I in a life to come bear a hundred sons like this.
When the woman died she became the heir of a brahmin: her spirit gathered at the place where the brahmin passed water, and a deer licked the urine and at once conceived. When the months were full she bore a girl, and the brahmin raised her.
At ten and more years she kept the house and tended the fire, and, playing with a deer, did not notice that the fire had gone out. Her father sent her for fire, and where the girl set foot among people a lotus grew at every step. The keeper of the fire said: circle my house three times and I shall give you fire. The girl obeyed, and flowers grew from the dry ground and ringed the house three times over.
The king of the country heard of it and summoned a physiognomist and asked; and the physiognomist said: there will certainly be a holy heir and the transforming influence will have no end. The king ordered a worthy minister to betroth her and bring her back to the palace.
She conceived, and when the months were full she bore a hundred eggs. The consorts and concubines were all jealous, and put the eggs in a bag and sealed its mouth secretly and threw it into a river. Śakra came down and sealed the mouth with his seal, and the gods escorted it, and it drifted with the current and lodged against a pillar planted in the ground in a country downstream.
The king of that country, from a terrace, saw from afar a bag drifting in the water, its brightness shining as though it held something divine. He took it and looked at it and saw Śakra’s seal, and opened it and found a hundred eggs, and kept and warmed them; and when the time was full their bodies were formed and they were born as a hundred boys. From birth they had holy wisdom and knew without being taught; their marks were rare and their strength was that of a hundred men.
The king furnished them with a hundred white elephants to supply these holy heirs, and they campaigned against neighboring countries and there was none that did not submit; and they went to attack the kingdom of the king who had begotten them.
That king said: who can turn back this enemy? His mother said: let the great king not be afraid; I shall subdue them for the king. And she went up onto a tower and raised her voice and said to them: of great rebellions there are three. The first is not to keep far from the crowd of the wrong, and so to invite the suffering of two lives. The second is to be born not knowing one’s kin, and so to go against filial conduct. The third is to rely on power and kill one’s own kin, and so to turn one’s poison against the Three Honored Ones. Whoever harbours these three rebellions, his evil is without end. Open your mouths, all of you, and believe what appears.
And their mother then turned her breasts, and by heaven’s command the milk shot into the mouths of the hundred sons; and moved by that sincerity, drinking the milk their feelings were stirred, and all together they said: this is our mother. And they knocked their heads and repented of their fault, and the kin and heirs met together and there was none who did not weep. The two kingdoms were reconciled and everyone praised it.
The sons, seeing the impermanence of the world, took leave of their kin and studied the path and put worldly filth far from them, and ninety-nine of them attained the state of a solitary buddha; and one governed the kingdom and, when his father died, became king, and granted a general amnesty, opened the storehouses and gave alms, and the people lacked nothing; and he transformed them with the ten wholesome deeds and governed the kingdom rightly and well, raised stūpas and monasteries, provided for śramaṇas, recited sūtras and discussed the path, and his mouth was free of the four evils; and the gods looked after him as parents raise a child.
The one who stayed to be king is myself; the father is King Śuddhodana now; the mother is Shèmiào (Source: Collection on the Perfection of Giving Without Limit, fascicle 2).
A composite of several well-travelled motifs — the deer-born girl, the lotus that springs up at every footstep, the hundred eggs cast into a river, the sealed bag recovered downstream — arranged so that each is caused by the one before it. The vow that starts it is small and specific: a hired field-watcher gives away her whole day's food and one lotus stalk to a begging śramaṇa, sees him fly, and wishes for a hundred sons like him.
The confrontation at the tower is the point of the whole entry, and it is worth reading in the order the text gives it. The mother first sets out three rebellions in the abstract — keeping bad company, not knowing one's own kin, and killing kin in reliance on power — and only then produces the proof, turning her breasts so that the milk reaches all hundred mouths. The argument precedes the miracle; the miracle only settles the question of fact.
The closing identification names the mother Shèmiào, the same otherwise unattested name given to the Buddha's mother in fascicle 32's entry 4, where the parallel entries name her Māyā. We keep the pinyin in both places and note the recurrence.
3. A Pregnant Woman Meets the Buddha and Vows to Give Her Child to the Path
A vow made before birth, a water-jar with nine dragons in it, and a mother's meal that feeds a billion buddha-fields.
有一母人懷妊數月。見佛及僧心自計言。我生子如此。使作沙門為佛弟子。月滿生男姝好異眾。及年七歲。家貧但作二人食及三法衣。手持澡瓶將兒詣佛曰。願哀我子使作沙門。佛即聽之。令以瓶洗兒手。應時九龍從瓶口出。吐水灌兒。殘水散兒頭上。化成華蓋。中有師子座。座上有佛。佛笑出五色光。照千億佛剎。還繞佛身從兒頂入。母以飯具上佛。并食其子。發無上道心。十億佛剎六反震動。諸佛自現。以母飯施爾所諸佛及比丘僧。皆得飽足初不損減。兒髮自墮成為沙門。即得立於不退轉地(出十卷譬喻經第三卷)。
There was a woman several months pregnant who saw the Buddha and the saṅgha and reckoned to herself: if I bear a son like this, I shall make him a śramaṇa and a disciple of the Buddha.
When the months were full she bore a boy, handsome beyond others; and when he was seven, her household being poor, she made only food for two and three Dharma robes, and, carrying a water-jar in her hand, brought her son to the Buddha and said: I ask you in pity for my son to make him a śramaṇa. The Buddha permitted it, and had the boy’s hands washed with the jar; and at that moment nine dragons came out of the jar’s mouth and spat water to wash the boy, and the remaining water was scattered over the boy’s head and turned into a canopy of flowers, and within it a lion throne, and upon the throne a buddha.
The Buddha smiled and light of five colors came out and shone over a thousand million buddha-fields, and came back and circled the Buddha’s body and entered at the boy’s crown.
His mother offered the food to the Buddha and fed her son as well, and gave rise to the resolve for the unsurpassed path; and a billion buddha-fields shook in six ways and the buddhas appeared of themselves. With the mother’s food she gave to all those buddhas and the community of monks, and all were satisfied and it was not diminished at all. The boy’s hair fell away of itself and he became a śramaṇa and stood at once on the ground of non-retrogression (Source: Ten-Fascicle Parables Sūtra, fascicle 3).
This entry and fascicle 38's entry 7 are the same story from different sources — the vow made in pregnancy and forgotten out of love, the seven-year-old brought with two meals and three robes, the water-jar from which nine dragons come, the canopy of flowers with a lion throne and buddhas in it, and the mother's single portion of rice feeding a billion buddha-fields.
There are two differences worth noting. Fascicle 38's version, from the Sūtra of the Buddha of a Past Age Going for Alms, ends by identifying the boy as the Buddha himself; this one, from the Ten-Fascicle Parables Sūtra, ends simply with the boy standing on the ground of non-retrogression and makes no identification. And here the vow is not said to have been forgotten — the entry simply moves from the vow to the child's seventh year. The compendium prints both without cross-reference.
4. A Miserly Old Woman, Ill, Sees Hell; Her Maid, Practicing Good, Sees a Heaven
A miser's near-death tour and what the hell-warders and the palace attendants each say about who the place is reserved for.
昔王舍城東有一老母。慳貪不信。其婢精進常行慈心。念用二事利益群生。一者不持熱湯沃地。二者洗器殘粒常施人。老母得病有氣息。魂神將之入地獄中。見火車鑪炭鑊湯涌沸刀山劍樹苦楚萬端。老母見問訊是何物。獄卒答曰。此是地獄。王舍城東有慳貪老母。應入其中。老母自知悚然愁悸。小復前行。七寶宮舍妓女百千種種珍異。問此何物。答言。天宮。王舍城東慳貪老母有婢精進命盡生中。老母忽活憶了向事。而語婢言。汝應生天。汝是我婢。豈得獨受汝當共我。婢答之言。脫有此理轉當奉命。但恐善惡隨形不得共受耳。母即不慳貪。大作功德(出雜譬喻經)。
Long ago, east of the city of Rājagṛha, there was an old woman, miserly, greedy, and without faith; and her maidservant was diligent and constantly practiced a mind of kindness, and thought to benefit living beings by two things: first, not pouring hot water on the ground; second, always giving away the grains left in the washed vessels.
The old woman fell ill and, while there was still breath in her, her spirit was taken into hell, and she saw fire-carts, braziers and coals, cauldrons of boiling water, mountains of knives and forests of blades, torment in ten thousand forms. The old woman asked what these things were, and the hell-warders answered: this is hell. East of the city of Rājagṛha there is a miserly old woman who is to enter it. The old woman knew of herself and shuddered in fear and grief.
Going on a little she saw a palace of the seven treasures with entertainers in hundreds of thousands and rarities of every kind, and asked what this was. They answered: it is a heavenly palace. East of the city of Rājagṛha the miserly old woman has a diligent maidservant, and when her life ends she is born in it.
The old woman suddenly revived and remembered clearly what she had seen, and said to her maid: you are to be born in heaven. You are my maid — how can you have it alone? You must share it with me. Her maid answered: if it were possible I would obey; but I fear that good and evil follow the form and it cannot be shared. And the woman then gave up her greed and did great works of merit (Source: Miscellaneous Parables Sūtra).
5. A Woman Builds a Hut for a Monk and at Death Is Born in Heaven, and Things Come Out of Her Hand
An old woman who built a monk's hut with her own hands until her fingers wore through, and what her hand can still do ninety-one kalpas later.
昔維衛佛。從諸比丘六萬二千。初從山出還父王國。國王於城外割地立精舍。諸比丘各得地分。有比丘語左右家。欲請作屋。男子不許。其家老母手自為之屋得成。十指皆穿。比丘坐中禪定。一定入火光三昧舍現大火。母遙望見。念我作屋尋便已燒何薄福乎。入屋故在。但於火光中見比丘。甚大歡喜。壽終生天。釋迦成佛天命未盡。來下白佛。明日飯佛及聖眾。佛默然受之。波斯匿王又遣請佛。佛曰。已受天請。王曰。未嘗見天人下施。何緣有此。明日遣人候之不見施辦。乃至禺中亦復寂然。王勅備餚饌。若無人為吾當供之。日中天至了不齎食。但將諸天玉女。鼓諸音樂禮佛而住。白曰時到。即舉手巾眾事皆辦。行水既訖。復更舉手。出厨百味甘露在地。手自斟酌眾會皆足。王見驚欣。澡畢白佛。不審此天。宿有何福手出百味福德乃爾。佛為王說。前世手為比丘作屋。從是生天九十一劫。手出眾物福尚未終(出雜譬喻經第一卷)。
Long ago, when the Buddha Vipaśyin came out of the mountains with sixty-two thousand monks and returned to his father the king’s country, the king allotted ground outside the city and set up a monastery, and each of the monks was given a portion of ground.
One monk spoke to a household nearby, wishing to ask them to build him a hut, and the man of the house would not; and the old woman of that house made it with her own hands, and the hut was finished, and all ten of her fingers were worn through.
The monk sat within in meditation, and once when he entered the fire-light samādhi the hut appeared to be in great flames; and the old woman saw it from afar and thought: the hut I made is already burnt down — how meagre my merit is. But going into the hut it was still there, and in the fire-light she saw only the monk, and was greatly delighted; and when her life ended she was born in heaven.
When Śākyamuni attained buddhahood her heavenly lifespan was not yet exhausted, and she came down and said to the Buddha: tomorrow I shall feed the Buddha and the holy assembly. The Buddha accepted in silence.
King Prasenajit also sent to invite the Buddha, and the Buddha said: I have already accepted a god’s invitation. The king said: I have never seen a god come down to give alms — how can this be? The next day he sent a man to watch and he saw no preparations made; and even by mid-morning it was still quiet, and the king ordered dishes made ready: if there is no one to do it, I shall provide it myself.
At noon the god came, bringing no food at all, but only heavenly jade maidens, and struck up music and bowed to the Buddha and stood there, and said: it is time. And she raised her hand-cloth and everything was prepared; and when the water had been passed she raised her hand again, and a kitchen of a hundred flavors and sweet nectar came out onto the ground, and she ladled it out with her own hands and the whole assembly had enough.
The king was startled and delighted, and when the washing was over said to the Buddha: I do not know — what merit did this god have in a former life, that things of a hundred flavors come out of her hand, and her merit is such as this?
The Buddha explained it for the king: in a former life her hands made a hut for a monk, and from that she was born in heaven, and for ninety-one kalpas things have come out of her hand, and the merit is still not exhausted (Source: Miscellaneous Parables Sūtra, fascicle 1).
6. A Mother's Two Sons Drown, and She Weeps for the One Who Could Swim
Two sentences, and a mother's distinction between a death that was fitting and a death that was a wrong.
母生二子。一不知浮。墮水而終。母都不哭。一知浮亦墮水亡。母悲哭之。人言。前子不哭。後子而哭何耶。母言。前不知浮故其宜也。後者工浮其為枉也(出十卷譬喻經第八卷)。
A mother bore two sons. One could not swim, and fell into the water and died, and the mother did not weep at all. One who could swim also fell in and died, and the mother wept and grieved for him.
Someone said: for the first son you did not weep, and for the second you weep — why? The mother said: the first could not swim and so it was fitting; the second was skilled at swimming, and for him it was a wrong (Source: Ten-Fascicle Parables Sūtra, fascicle 8).
7. A Wife Converts Her Husband by Hanging a Bell on the Door So That the Sound Makes Him Say the Buddha's Name, and He Escapes Hell
A wife who could not make her husband practice, and so hung a bell on the door — and what the hell-warder's fork sounded like.
昔有人不信。婦甚事佛。婦白婿曰。人命無常可修福德。婿無心懶墮。婦恐將來入地獄中。即復白婿。欲懸一鈴安著戶上。君出入時。掁鈴作聲稱南無佛。婿曰甚善。如是經久。其婿命終。獄卒扠之擲鑊湯中。扠掁鑊作音聲。謂是鈴聲。稱南無佛。獄官聞之。此人奉佛。放令出去。得生人中(出雜譬喻經也)。
Long ago there was a man who did not believe, and his wife served the Buddha devoutly. The wife said to her husband: human life is impermanent and one may cultivate merit. Her husband had no mind for it and was idle.
His wife, fearing he would enter hell in a life to come, said to him again: I should like to hang a bell on the door, so that when you go in and out you strike the bell and it sounds, and you say: homage to the Buddha. Her husband said: very good. And so it went for a long time.
Her husband’s life ended, and the hell-warders forked him up and threw him into a cauldron of boiling water; and the fork struck the cauldron and made a sound, and he took it for the sound of the bell and said: homage to the Buddha. The hell officer heard it: this man serves the Buddha — and released him and let him go out, and he obtained birth among humans (Source: Miscellaneous Parables Sūtra).
8. A Woman of Campā Dies, and at the Cremation a Son Is Born in the Fire
The six teachers poison a pregnant woman to falsify the Buddha's prediction, and the child is born alive in the middle of her funeral pyre. Jīvaka walks into the fire to fetch him.
瞻婆國人事六師。初未曾聞佛法僧名。作極惡業。佛於爾時。為眾生故往瞻婆城。時彼城中有大長者。無有繼嗣。共事六師以求子息。於後不久其婦懷妊。長者知已往六師所。歡喜問言。為男為女。六師答言。生必是女。長者愁惱。復有知識來謂長者。先不聞優樓頻螺迦葉兄弟。為誰弟子。六師若是一切智者。迦葉何故捨之從佛。又舍利弗目揵連等。及諸國王頻婆娑羅等諸王夫人。末利夫人。諸國長者須達等。如是諸人皆佛弟子。如來世尊於一切法知見無礙。故名為佛。如來今者近在此住。若欲實知當詣佛所。爾時長者即詣我所。以事問佛。佛言長者。汝婦懷妊是男無疑。福德無比。長者歡喜。六師心嫉以菴羅果和合毒藥持與長者。快哉瞿曇善說其相。汝婦臨月可服此藥。兒則端正產者無患。長者受之與婦令服。服已尋死。六師歡喜。周遍城市唱言。沙門瞿曇記。彼長者婦當生男。今兒未生母已喪命。爾時長者復於我所生不信心。即便殯斂棺蓋焚之。我見此事已顧命阿難。取我衣來吾欲往彼摧滅邪見。爾時六師遙見佛往各相謂言。瞿曇沙門至此塚間欲噉肉耶。未得法眼諸優婆塞各懷愧懼。而白佛言。彼婦已死願不須往。爾時阿難語諸人言。且待須臾。如來不久當廣開闡諸佛境界。佛到。長者難言。所言無二。兒母已終云何生子。我言長者。卿於爾時都不見問母命脩短。但問所懷為是男女。諸佛如來發言無二。是故當知定必得子。是時死屍火燒腹裂子從中出。端坐火中如蓮華臺。六師見已謂為幻術。長者見已心復歡喜。呵責六師。若言幻者汝何不作。我於爾時尋告耆婆。汝往火中抱是兒來。耆婆前入火聚猶入清涼大河。抱持是兒還詣我所。授兒與我。我受兒已告長者言。一切眾生壽命不定。如水上泡。眾生若有重業果報。火及毒螫並不能害。非我所作。時長者言。善哉世尊。是兒若得盡天命。唯願如來為立名字。佛言。長者。是兒生於猛火中。火名樹提。因名樹提(出大涅槃經第二十八卷)。
The people of the kingdom of Campā served the six teachers and had never before heard the names of Buddha, Dharma, and Saṅgha, and did extremely evil deeds; and the Buddha at that time, for the sake of beings, went to the city of Campā.
In that city there was a great elder who had no heir, and he served the six teachers together in seeking a son; and not long afterward his wife conceived. The elder, knowing it, went to the six teachers and asked in delight: is it a boy or a girl? The six teachers answered: what is born will certainly be a girl. The elder was distressed.
An acquaintance came and said to the elder: have you not heard before of Uruvilvā-Kāśyapa and his brothers — whose disciples are they? If the six teachers are omniscient, why did Kāśyapa leave them and follow the Buddha? And Śāriputra and Maudgalyāyana, and kings such as Bimbisāra, and royal consorts, and Lady Mallikā, and elders of many countries such as Sudatta — all these people are the Buddha’s disciples. The Tathāgata, the World-Honored One, knows and sees all dharmas without obstruction and is therefore called Buddha, and the Tathāgata is now staying nearby. If you wish to know the truth you should go to the Buddha.
Then the elder came to me and put the matter to the Buddha, and the Buddha said: elder, your wife’s child is a boy beyond doubt, and his merit will be beyond compare. The elder was glad.
The six teachers, jealous at heart, mixed poison with mango fruit and gave it to the elder: how splendidly Gautama has read the signs. When your wife’s month comes she may take this medicine, and the boy will be handsome and the birth without trouble. The elder took it and gave it to his wife to take, and she took it and died at once.
The six teachers were delighted and proclaimed all through the city and market: the śramaṇa Gautama predicted that this elder’s wife would bear a boy — and now the child is not born and the mother has already lost her life.
Then the elder in turn gave rise to unbelief toward me, and coffined her and set fire to the coffin lid. I saw this and called Ānanda: bring my robe; I mean to go there and crush this wrong view.
Then the six teachers, seeing the Buddha coming from afar, said to one another: is the śramaṇa Gautama coming to the burial ground to eat flesh? The lay followers who had not yet obtained the Dharma-eye were each ashamed and afraid, and said to the Buddha: that woman is already dead; we ask you not to go. Then Ānanda said to them: only wait a moment. Before long the Tathāgata will open out the realms of the buddhas at length.
The Buddha arrived, and the elder objected: what you said had no second meaning — the child’s mother has died; how is a son to be born? I said: elder, at that time you did not ask at all about the length of the mother’s life; you asked only whether what she carried was a boy or a girl. The buddhas, the tathāgatas, do not speak with two meanings, and therefore know that a son will certainly be obtained.
At that time the corpse burned and the belly split and the child came out of it, sitting upright in the fire like a lotus calyx. The six teachers, seeing it, called it a conjuring trick; and the elder, seeing it, was glad again and rebuked the six teachers: if you call it a conjuring trick, why do you not do it yourselves?
Then I told Jīvaka: go into the fire and bring that child out. Jīvaka went forward into the mass of fire as into a cool great river, and took up the child and came back to me and handed him to me.
Having received the child, I told the elder: the lifespan of all beings is not fixed and is like a bubble on water; and if a being has the fruit of a weighty deed, fire and poison and sting alike cannot harm him. It is not my doing.
Then the elder said: excellent, World-Honored One. If this child lives out his heavenly span, I ask the Tathāgata to give him a name. The Buddha said: elder, this child was born in a fierce fire, and fire is named jyoti; therefore name him Jyotiṣka (Source: Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra, fascicle 28).
This is the birth of Jyotiṣka, whose adult life fills fascicle 36's entry 2 — the fabulously wealthy layman whose bath-towel is mistaken for a heavenly portent. The compendium gives no cross-reference between them, and the two entries come from different sources.
The mechanism of the entry is a technicality, and the Buddha states it himself. The elder asked whether the child would be a boy or a girl, and did not ask about the length of the mother's life; the prediction concerned only what was asked. The six teachers poison the mother precisely in order to falsify a prediction that was never about her.
Note who is sent into the fire. Jīvaka — the physician of fascicles 31 and 33 — walks into the burning pyre as into a cool river and brings the child out; and the name Jyotiṣka is then given for the fire he was born in. The Buddha's closing line is a disclaimer: the lifespan of beings is not fixed and is like a bubble on water, and where the karmic weight is there, fire and poison and sting cannot harm; it is not my doing.
9. Māṇavikā Straps On a Bowl and Slanders the Buddha, and the Earth Splits and Her Body Sinks into Hell
A woman with a wooden bowl strapped under her clothes, a white rat behind the Buddha's back, and the cord.
佛在舍衛國。無數大眾為說法要。時有外道弟子摩那祇女。宿罪深重身帶木杅以衣覆之。出舍衛城至祇洹寺。遙見世尊與無數眾而為說法。歡喜踊躍不能自勝。今日要當在此眾中毀辱瞿曇。令我師得致供養。乃至眾中而說偈言。此說法人使我此身懷妊有兒。時大眾中多諸外道裸形梵志。信佛者少習邪者眾。聞此女語皆共信用。其信佛者內自思惟。昔佛在宮。捨王重位捐棄婇女。出家學道成最正覺。豈有心與此穢陋之女與從事乎。時釋提桓因在如來後執扇而扇內自思惟。此弊梵女云何乃興此意誹佛。化為白鼠。嚙木杅系斷聲震大。眾無不見者。其中不篤信者皆㗁然。此為何聲乃震四遠。其中信佛之人聞此音聲歡喜踊躍。僉然同悅。尋有一人從坐而起。手執木杅語彼女曰。此是汝兒耶。時地自開全身即入阿鼻地獄。時女宗族追慕啼泣不能捨離。不信佛者即起懺悔。其中信者共相告曰。誹謗之報其罪如是。現驗如茲。豈云後世(出摩那祇全身入地獄經)。
The Buddha was in the kingdom of Śrāvastī, teaching the essentials of the Dharma to a countless assembly. At that time there was a disciple of the heterodox teachers, a woman named Māṇavikā, whose offenses from former lives were deep and heavy, and she strapped a wooden bowl to her body and covered it with her clothes and went out of the city of Śrāvastī to the Jetavana monastery.
Seeing the World-Honored One from afar teaching the Dharma to a countless assembly, she leapt with a joy she could not contain: today I shall disgrace Gautama in front of this assembly and make my own teacher receive the offerings. And going into the assembly she spoke this verse: this teacher of the Dharma has made this body of mine conceive and carry a child.
In that great assembly there were many naked brahmins of the heterodox schools; few had faith in the Buddha and many practiced the wrong; and hearing this woman’s words they all believed her together. Those who had faith in the Buddha reflected inwardly: formerly the Buddha was in the palace, and gave up a king’s high position and cast off his attendant women and went forth to study the path and attained the most perfect awakening — how should he have a mind to consort with this foul and mean woman?
At that time Śakra was behind the Tathāgata holding a fan and fanning him, and reflected: how has this wretched brahmin woman conceived this notion of slandering the Buddha? And he transformed himself into a white rat and gnawed through the cord of the wooden bowl, and it fell with a great noise; and there was none in the assembly who did not see it.
Those in it who were not firm in faith were all struck dumb: what is this sound that shakes the four quarters? Those in it who had faith in the Buddha, hearing this sound, leapt for joy, and all together were glad. Then a man rose from his seat and took up the wooden bowl and said to the woman: is this your child?
And the earth opened of itself and her whole body entered the Avīci hell. Her kin followed after her and wept and could not bear to leave her. Those who had not believed in the Buddha rose at once and repented; and those in it who believed said to one another: the recompense of slander is an offense such as this. The proof is manifest here and now — how much more so in a life to come (Source: Sūtra of Māṇavikā Entering Hell Bodily).
This is the Ciñcā-māṇavikā slander, the companion piece to the Sundarī affair translated in fascicle 40's entry 12. Where that one turned on a murder staged to produce a corpse in the Jeta Grove, this one turns on a wooden bowl strapped under a robe and an accusation made to the Buddha's face in front of a mixed assembly.
The detail the compendium keeps is the reaction of the crowd, and it is not flattering to anyone. The many heterodox brahmins present believe her at once. The Buddha's own followers do not repudiate the charge either; they reason their way out of it — he gave up a throne and his attendant women, so how should he consort with this woman — which is an argument from probability, not from trust.
The Buddha says nothing at all in this entry. It is Śakra, standing behind him with a fan, who takes the form of a white rat and gnaws the cord.
10. A Lustful Woman Torments a Śramaṇa, and by His Sincerity the Fire Turns to Water
A śramaṇa held over a fire pit by four maidservants, who asks for a moment to do the arithmetic.
有大迦羅越。財富無數。其子端正黠慧大好經道。出家從師奉行經法。師先令分衛七日。國中有婬蕩家婦。呼令其入。入便閉門前牽沙門。沙門不從。婦大恚。呼婢來鑿作火坑深一丈。使四婢急捉身不得動。臨火坑上。沙門言。且止。我當計校。沙門自念。我入火中為一死耳。此持戒死可得生天。若犯戒死當入泥犁無有出時便入坑中。火化作水至沙門腰。安徐而出(出十卷譬喻經第五卷)。
There was a great householder of measureless wealth whose son was handsome and clever and greatly loved the way of the sūtras; and he went forth and followed a teacher and practiced the Dharma of the sūtras. His teacher first sent him to beg alms for seven days.
In the kingdom there was a household with a lustful wife, who called him to come in; and when he came in she shut the door and came forward and pulled at the śramaṇa. The śramaṇa would not consent, and the woman was greatly angered, and called her maids to come and dig a fire pit a fathom deep, and had four maids seize him fast so that his body could not move, and brought him to the edge of the fire pit.
The śramaṇa said: wait a moment; I must reckon it up. And the śramaṇa thought to himself: to go into the fire is one death, and this death keeping the precepts may bring birth in heaven; and if I break the precepts and die, I shall enter niraya with no time of coming out.
So he went into the pit, and the fire turned into water and came up to the śramaṇa’s waist, and he came out at his ease (Source: Ten-Fascicle Parables Sūtra, fascicle 5).
11. A Young Girl Conceives from the Warmth of a Fire and Bears a Handsome Son
A girl who conceives sitting by the fire, is beaten and then condemned to death, and answers the king by demanding to be examined.
昔有長者名曰善施。家有未出門女。在家向火。暖氣入身遂便有軀。父母驚怪詰其由狀。其女實對不知所以。父母重問。加諸杖楚其辭不改。遂上聞王。王復詰責辭亦不異。許之以死。女即稱怨曰。天下乃當有無道之君枉殺無辜。我若不良自可保試。見枉如是。王即檢保。如女所言無他增減。語其父母。我欲取之。母對曰。隨意取之。用此死女為。王即內之宮裏。隨時瞻養日月遂滿。產得一男端正姝妙。年遂長大。出家學道聰明博達。精進不久得羅漢道。還度父母(出分別功德經第五卷)。
Long ago there was an elder named Good-Giving, whose household had a daughter not yet married. She was at home facing the fire, and the warm air entered her body and she conceived. Her parents were startled and questioned her about the reason, and the girl answered truthfully that she did not know how it was.
Her parents questioned her again and added beatings with the rod, and her words did not change. It was reported to the king, and the king in turn questioned and reproached her, and her words were no different, and he sentenced her to death.
The girl then cried out her grievance: is there then under heaven a ruler without principle, who wrongly kills the innocent? If I am not honest, I may well be examined; but I am wronged like this. The king then examined and guaranteed the matter and it was as the girl had said, with nothing added or taken away.
He said to her parents: I wish to take her. Her mother answered: take her as you please; what use is this condemned girl? So the king took her into the palace and had her looked after in season; and when the months were full she bore a boy, handsome and exquisite.
When he had grown he went forth and studied the path, and, intelligent and broadly learned and diligent, before long attained the path of an arhat, and came back and delivered his parents (Source: Sūtra Discriminating Merit, fascicle 5).
12. A Pregnant Woman Constantly Recites the Sūtra with Her Mouth and Bears a Son of Great Wisdom Whom All Honor
A cowherd boy of seven who out-argues a monk on emptiness, is killed by a tiger, and goes on reciting the perfection of wisdom from inside his next mother's womb.
昔有比丘精進守法。少持禁戒初不毀犯。所可諷誦是般若波羅蜜。其有聞此比丘音聲莫不歡喜。有一小兒厥年七歲城外牧牛遙聞比丘諷誦經聲。即詣精舍禮拜比丘。聽其經言。時說色空。卒聞即解。兒大歡喜。便問比丘。比丘應答不可兒意。是時小兒反為比丘解說其義。昔所希聞比丘歡喜。怪此小兒智慧非凡。時兒即去還至牛所。所牧牛犢散走入山。兒尋其迹追逐求索。時值一虎害此小兒。小兒命終生長者家。夫人懷妊。口便能說般若波羅蜜。從朝至暮初不懈息。其長者家怪。此夫人口為妄語謂呼鬼病。卜問譴祟無能知者。是時比丘入城分衛詣長者門。遙聞其聲心甚喜悅。即問長者。內中誰有說此深經。長者報言。我婦鬼病晝夜妄語口初不息。比丘報言。此非鬼病。但說尊經佛之大道。願得入內與共相見。長者言善。即至婦所。比丘難問反覆披解。即留比丘與作飲食。展轉相謂。夫人懷妊口誦尊經。其音妙好。後日長者復請比丘。悉令詣舍辦飯食具。時夫人出禮眾比丘復為說法。諸有疑難不能及者盡為解說。眾僧歡喜。日月滿足產得男兒。適生叉手長跪說波羅蜜。夫人產已還復如本。長者問言。此為何等。比丘答曰。真佛弟子好養護之。此兒後大當為一切眾人作師。吾等悉當從其啟受。時兒七歲道法悉備。舉眾超絕智度無極。經中誤脫。有所短少。皆為刪定足其所乏。兒母所至輒開化人。長者室家內外大小五百人眾皆從兒學。所開發者八萬四千人。皆發無上正真道。五百比丘聞兒所說盡漏意解志求大乘得法眼淨。是時兒者則吾身是。比丘者迦葉佛是(出度無極集第六卷)。
Long ago there was a monk who was diligent and kept the Dharma, and from a young age upheld the precepts and never once broke them; and what he recited was the perfection of wisdom, and there was none who heard this monk’s voice who was not glad.
There was a small boy of seven years pasturing cattle outside the city who heard from afar the sound of the monk reciting the sūtra, and came to the monastery and bowed to the monk and listened to the words of his sūtra. At that moment he was expounding that form is empty, and hearing it suddenly the boy understood at once, and was greatly delighted.
He then questioned the monk, and the monk’s answer did not satisfy him; and the small boy then explained the meaning to the monk instead. Never having heard the like, the monk was delighted and marvelled that this small boy’s wisdom was out of the ordinary.
Then the boy left and went back to his cattle, and the calves he was pasturing had scattered into the hills; and following their tracks he pursued and searched for them, and he met with a tiger which killed the small boy.
When the boy’s life ended he was born into an elder’s household. The lady of the house conceived, and her mouth then could speak the perfection of wisdom, from morning to night without slackening. That elder’s household wondered at it: this lady’s mouth speaks nonsense — they took it for a possession by ghosts, and consulted diviners about the cause and no one could know it.
At that time the monk went into the city for alms and came to the elder’s gate, and, hearing that voice from afar, was greatly pleased at heart, and asked the elder: who within is speaking this profound sūtra? The elder answered: my wife has a ghost-sickness and talks nonsense day and night and her mouth never stops. The monk answered: this is no ghost-sickness; she is speaking the honoured sūtra, the Buddha’s great path. I should like to go in and see her. The elder said: very good.
He came to the wife, and the monk put questions and difficulties to her back and forth and she opened them out; and they kept the monk and made food for him. As they discussed it among themselves: the lady, being pregnant, recites the honoured sūtra with her mouth and the sound of it is exquisite.
On a later day the elder invited the monk again and had all of them come to the house and prepared the food; and then the lady came out and bowed to the monks and taught them the Dharma besides, and whatever doubts and difficulties they could not reach she explained for them all, and the community was delighted.
When the months were full she bore a boy, and as soon as he was born he joined his hands and knelt at length and spoke the perfection of wisdom; and the lady, having given birth, was as she had been before. The elder asked: what is this? The monk answered: he is a true disciple of the Buddha; take good care of him. When this boy grows he will be a teacher for all beings, and we shall all receive instruction from him.
When the boy was seven the Dharma of the path was complete in him, and he surpassed the whole assembly and his wisdom was beyond limit; and where the sūtras had errors and omissions or fell short, he corrected them all and supplied what was lacking. Wherever the boy’s mother went she opened people’s understanding, and the elder’s household within and without, five hundred people, all studied under the boy; and those whose understanding he opened were eighty-four thousand, and all gave rise to the unsurpassed, true and real path. Five hundred monks heard what the boy said, and their outflows were exhausted and their minds released, and they set their aim on the great vehicle and obtained the pure Dharma-eye.
The boy of that time is myself; the monk is the Buddha Kāśyapa (Source: Collection on the Perfection of Giving Without Limit, fascicle 6).
The best-built of the short entries in this fascicle, and it turns on one reversal: a seven-year-old cowherd, hearing form is empty for the first time, understands it on the spot, asks the monk a question, is given an unsatisfactory answer, and then explains the meaning to the monk instead.
What follows is the compendium's most striking use of the pregnancy motif. The boy is killed by a tiger while looking for stray calves and is reborn at once; and the recitation continues from inside the womb, day and night, so that the household takes the mother for possessed and consults diviners. It is the same monk, passing the gate on alms round, who recognizes the voice.
The identification at the close reverses the ordinary direction of these stories. The boy who corrected the monk is the Buddha; the monk he corrected is the Buddha Kāśyapa, his own predecessor.
13. A Woman with Child Gives Birth to Four Strange Things
A childless couple pray for an heir and get an inexhaustible measure of rice, a jar of nectar, a bag of treasure, and a staff that fights.
有夫妻二人無子。祠祀天神以求係胤。神即許之。遂便懷妊。生四種物。一者旃檀斗盛米。二者甘露瓶。三者寶囊。四者七節神杖。其人歎曰。吾求兒子更生餘物。便到神所重求所願。神即語言。汝欲得子何物稱益。答曰。子當使令給養吾等。神云。今此米斗用之無盡。甘露蜜瓶食之無減。而消百疾珍寶之囊見無損減。七節神杖以備凶暴。兒子豈能辦此。其人大喜。還家試驗如言不虛。遂成大富不可訾計。國王聞之。即遣眾兵欲往攻奪。其人擎杖飛遊擊敵摧破。強眾皆悉退散。其人歡喜無復憂患(出譬喻經第十卷)。
There were a husband and wife with no children who sacrificed to the gods seeking an heir, and a god granted it; and she conceived, and bore four things: first, a sandalwood peck-measure full of rice; second, a jar of sweet nectar; third, a treasure bag; fourth, a divine staff of seven joints.
The man sighed: I sought a son and other things have been born instead. And he went to the god again and asked for what he wished, and the god said to him: what is it about a son that would profit you? He answered: a son should serve us and provide for us.
The god said: this peck of rice, however much you use, will not be exhausted; the jar of sweet nectar, however much you eat, will not diminish, and it dissolves a hundred illnesses; the bag of treasure, however much you see, will not be lessened; and the divine staff of seven joints will guard you against violence. Could a son manage all this?
The man was greatly delighted and went home and tested it, and it was as had been said and not false, and he became so rich it could not be reckoned. The king of the country heard of it and sent troops to attack and seize it, and the man raised the staff and flew about and struck the enemy and broke them, and the strong host all scattered and withdrew; and the man rejoiced and had no more trouble (Source: Parables Sūtra, fascicle 10).
14. A Woman Whose Mind Is on a Man Mistakenly Lowers Her Child into a Well
A woman who lowered her child into a well to keep him quiet, and the Buddha's second, worse example.
明婬荒之士。寧喪其親族。無息心於婬事。舍衛城邊有一婦人。抱兒持瓶詣井汲水。有一男子顏貌端正。坐井右邊彈瑟自娛。婦女人多欲耽著男子。男子亦樂女人女人迷荒。索繫兒頸懸於井中。尋還挽出。兒時已死。愁憂傷結呼天墮淚。而自說頌。佛集大眾告諸比丘。婬火熾盛能燒善本。婬荒之士不識善惡不別清白不知縛解。斯輩之人遂無慚愧。寧喪親族分受刑辱。或因姦婬殺害父母兄弟六親。王者所戮死受惡報。生生無極。昔有一人。篤好姦婬。父母所生唯此一子。夜非人時。天陰雷電帶刀持箭欲往婬女村。時母覺知。即捉曉喻。夜既陰闇為人所害。吾宿尠德唯有一子。會遇惡者吾無所恃。子報母曰。去不得復住。母知意正。便向兒處至。即拔刀刺殺其母。即打婬女門。女人應曰。汝是何人以誦答曰。婬恚諸根羸 為想所謬誤不慮眾事業 為愚闇覆蓋今我取母害 折伏猶奴婢翹立在門外 如客待使役女人以頌報曰。咄嗟背恩養 害母種罪災何忍見汝顏 宜速遠吾家父母抱育養 為子歷眾苦害母行地上 地不陷汝殺男子復報女曰。為汝害母造無邊罪。小見寬恕。為開門暫得言談。便復還家。女人報曰。寧入投炭爐 從山投幽谷生犯七步蛇 不與愚從事男子還家。道逢惡寇為寇所害。入阿鼻獄受罪(出出曜經)。
This shows that a man wild with lust will sooner lose his own kin than still his mind in matters of lust.
Beside the city of Śrāvastī there was a woman who, carrying her child and holding a jar, went to a well to draw water. There was a man of handsome face and appearance sitting at the right of the well, playing a zither to amuse himself. The woman, being full of desire, was infatuated with the man, and the man too took pleasure in the woman; and the woman, lost and distracted, took a cord and tied it round her child’s neck and hung him down into the well. Presently she pulled him out again, and the child was already dead; and in grief and knotted anguish she cried out to heaven and shed tears, and spoke a verse of herself.
The Buddha gathered the great assembly and told the monks: the fire of lust, burning fiercely, can burn up the roots of good. A man wild with lust does not know good from evil, does not distinguish the pure from the plain, and does not know bondage from release. Such people have no shame at all: they will sooner lose their kin and suffer punishment and disgrace, and some, through fornication, kill father, mother, brothers, and the six kinds of kin, and are executed by the ruler and receive an evil recompense at death, life after life without end.
Long ago there was a man who was deeply given to fornication, and his parents had borne only this one son. At night, at an hour when nobody stirs, the sky being overcast with thunder and lightning, he took a knife and arrows and meant to go to a village of loose women. His mother knew it and took hold of him and reasoned with him: the night is dark and you will be harmed by someone. My virtue in past lives is slight and I have only one son; if you meet with an evil man I shall have nothing to rely on.
Her son answered his mother: I am going and cannot stay. His mother, knowing his mind was fixed, went to where he stood; and he drew his knife and stabbed and killed his mother at once, and went and knocked at the loose woman’s door. The woman answered: who are you? And he answered in verse:
“Lust and anger, the faculties worn thin, / I am misled by my own imaginings; / heedless of the whole train of my acts, / I am covered over by folly and darkness. / Today I have killed my mother, / broken and beaten her like a slave; / I stand on tiptoe outside your door / like a guest waiting on an errand.”
The woman answered in verse:
“Shame on you, turning your back on what nourished you, / killing your mother and sowing this calamity of guilt. / How could I bear to see your face? / You had better go far from my house. / Father and mother embrace and raise and nourish, / and for a child pass through every hardship. / You walk the ground having killed your mother, / and the ground does not swallow you for the killing.”
The man answered the woman again: for your sake I have killed my mother and made a boundless offense. Have a little forbearance; open the door and let me speak with you a while, and then I shall go home again. The woman answered:
“Better to throw myself into a charcoal furnace, / or leap from a mountain into a dark valley, / or live in the way of the seven-pace snake, / than have dealings with a fool.”
The man went home, and on the road met with violent bandits and was killed by them, and entered the Avīci hell and received the punishment (Source: Chūyào jīng).
The harshest entry in the fascicle and one of the harshest in the compendium. It opens with its thesis stated flatly — a man wild with lust will sooner lose his own kin than still his mind — and then gives two illustrations, the second much worse than the first.
The first is a woman at a well who lowers her own child into it on a cord, presumably to keep him quiet while she is occupied with a stranger, and pulls him out dead. The text gives her grief in a single clause and moves on.
The second is the matricide, and the exchange in verse at the door is what the entry exists for. The murderer's own verse is a confession he seems not to understand he is making — heedless of the whole train of my acts, covered over by folly and darkness — and it ends with the image of himself standing on tiptoe outside her door like a servant waiting for an errand. The woman's answer is the moral judgment the narrator does not supply: you walk the ground having killed your mother, and the ground does not swallow you for it. She refuses him, and it is she, not the Buddha, who says the decisive thing.
This closes fascicle 45 and the section on ordinary people. The fascicle's seventeen entries are almost all about women in ordinary households — a maid who does not pour hot water on the ground, a wife who hangs a bell on a door, a sister who packs the flour down when borrowing it — and about consequences of exactly that scale.
15. One Who Took More and Returned Less in a Loan Ended Her Life as a Calf
A sister who pressed the flour down when she borrowed it, and what she says from the body of the calf being fattened for sacrifice.
昔有長者居富無限。唯有一妹嫁得貧婿。兄數數餉遺。轉欲厭妹來。從兄貸麵。兄言。自往取之。妹便案捺而取。持灑如還。兄亦不覺數數非一。妹命終為兄家作犢子。兄甚愛之養食令肥。當殺祠神。時五百賈客欲從主人舉錢頓息。在外展轉自相問言。卿取幾錢各各說其多少。最後一人言。但益取之。後同不還多少何在。時犢子在邊。便作人語。諸人何以乃生此意。我是主人妹。坐貸麵欺兄。今作牛身來償兄債。時五百賈人。聞其言莫不戰慄。皆不復舉錢而去(出諸經中要事)。
Long ago there was an elder of boundless wealth who had only one younger sister, married to a poor husband. Her brother sent her gifts again and again and then began to weary of it; and his sister came and borrowed flour from her brother. Her brother said: go and take it yourself. And his sister then pressed and packed it down as she took it, and carried it away scattering; and her brother did not notice, and this happened more than once.
When his sister’s life ended she became a calf in her brother’s household, and her brother loved it much and fed it fat, and was going to kill it as a sacrifice to the gods.
At that time five hundred merchants wished to borrow money from the master at interest, and outside they discussed it among themselves and asked one another: how much are you taking? And each said how much or how little. The last of them said: take as much as you can. Later, if none of us repays, what does the amount matter?
The calf was standing beside them and then spoke in human speech: how do you people come to have such an idea? I am the master’s sister, and because I borrowed flour and cheated my brother I have now taken an ox’s body to repay my brother’s debt. When the five hundred merchants heard this there was none who did not tremble; and they all went away without borrowing money (Source: Essential Matters from the Sūtras).
16. A Maidservant Shares Her Food with a Pratyekabuddha, Her Ugly Face Is Changed at Once, and She Becomes the Lady of the House
A pratyekabuddha refuses a lady's proposition and is sent away; her maid gives him her own dinner instead.
辟支佛至長者舍乞食。夫人見其形相端正。語辟支佛。若隨我情當設供養。辟支佛言。不得。如夫人所請既不從心。即懷慚忿發遣令去。長者青衣嫌夫人言。何故告人不當之事。取己食分與辟支佛。食竟還房寢息乃覺。垢黑之皮自然脫落。顏容端正殊絕人中。如天玉女。長者驚怪問其本末。即拜為第一夫人(出雜譬喻經第一卷)。
A pratyekabuddha came to an elder’s house to beg for food, and the lady of the house, seeing his form and features upright, said to the pratyekabuddha: if you will follow my inclination I shall set out an offering. The pratyekabuddha said: I may not. What the lady asked not being agreed to, she was filled with shame and anger and sent him away.
The elder’s maidservant found fault with the lady’s words: why speak to a man of what is not fitting? And she took her own portion of food and gave it to the pratyekabuddha.
When he had eaten she went back to her room and lay down to rest, and on waking the dirty black skin fell away of itself, and her face and form were upright and surpassing among people, like a heavenly jade maiden. The elder was startled and wondered and asked her the whole story, and appointed her his first lady (Source: Miscellaneous Parables Sūtra, fascicle 1).
17. An Ugly Maidservant, Looking into Water, Sees Another's Reflection and Takes Herself for Beautiful
A maidservant who sees a hanged woman's reflection in a spring and takes it for her own face.
舍衛國內。有富長者。名晨居。家有一婢。字弗尼持。大頭禿髮眼目正青。口鼻了戾略不類人。常給外役收刈樵草。去家數里有一泉源。既香且甘。婢持瓶取水。時左右舍有一婦。自絞樹上影臨泉中。婢見面像謂是己形。即大瞋罵。我端正乃爾。驅役田園困苦如是。即撲瓶破歸家昇堂。坐於夫人七寶座上流蘇帳中。家大驚怪謂婢狂疾。問之何為。答曰。我於水中自見端正。大家不別獨見賤遇。即與鏡照之。乃見醜形猶生不信。送臨水上見死人影。婢意方解慚愧自分(出十卷譬喻經第七卷)。
In the kingdom of Śrāvastī there was a rich elder named Chénjū, whose household had a maidservant named Fúnízhí, with a big head and bald hair and eyes quite blue, her mouth and nose so twisted that she was hardly like a human being; and she was constantly set to the outside work of cutting and gathering firewood and grass.
A few li from the house there was a spring, fragrant and sweet, and the maid took a jar to draw water. At that time a woman of a neighbouring house had hanged herself in a tree, and her reflection lay upon the spring; and the maid, seeing that face, took it for her own form, and reviled them in great anger: I am as beautiful as this, and am driven to labor in field and garden and hard pressed like this.
And she smashed the jar and went home and went up into the hall, and sat on the lady’s seat of the seven treasures within the tasselled curtains. The household was greatly startled and thought the maid had gone mad, and asked her what she was doing. She answered: I saw in the water that I am beautiful. The master does not distinguish and treats me alone as base.
They gave her a mirror to look in, and she saw her ugly form and still did not believe it; and they took her to the water and she saw the dead woman’s reflection, and only then did the maid’s mind open and she was ashamed and knew her own place (Source: Ten-Fascicle Parables Sūtra, fascicle 7).
The mechanism is a simple mistake with an unusually cruel resolution, and the text does not spare her. She sees a reflection in a spring — in fact the reflection of a woman who has hanged herself in a tree above it — takes it for her own face, smashes her water jar, goes home, and sits on the lady's jewelled seat.
The household's correction comes in two stages: first a mirror, which she does not believe; and then they take her back to the water and show her the dead woman's reflection. The entry ends with her shame, and with a phrase that says as much about the household as about her: she knew her own place.