A Drought, and Omens Before a Birth
The girl's hymn turns from general praise to her own particular past-life account, twenty-seven stanzas long. It opens by naming the great king's own parents, then traces a drought that withers their realm in its final years — until, seven days before a birth, the omens begin: the earth shaking six times, dry land transforming into jewels within a single thought-moment.
Four Stanzas: A Former Reign's Final Years
「王父名淨光， 母曰蓮華光，
父於五濁世， 正法治天下。
五百蓮華池， 寶樹悉圍遶，
底布以金沙， 寶華悉敷茂。
於彼池岸上， 有諸妙法堂，
眾寶為欄楯， 種種寶莊嚴。
末世惡法起， 積年不降雨，
池流皆枯涸， 卉木悉焦然。」
"The king's own father was named Pure Light, his mother called Lotus-Flower Light;
the father, amid an age of the five turbidities, governed the world by the true Dharma.
Five hundred lotus ponds, all encircled by jeweled trees,
their beds spread with golden sand, every jeweled flower blossoming in abundance.
Upon the banks of these ponds, there were sublime halls of the Dharma,
their balustrades formed of every jewel, adorned in every manner with every jewel.
In the last age, evil dharmas arose; for years on end no rain fell,
every pond and stream ran dry, and every plant and tree was scorched."
Fazang divides the twenty-seven stanzas of this second half into five, the first of which opens here: 二從王父名淨下二十七頌別顯本生中五：初四頌明前王世末 — "second, beginning with 'the king's own father was named Pure Light,' twenty-seven stanzas particularly reveal the account of her own past life, in five parts: the first four stanzas reveal the final years of the former king's own reign." Two names are given here that will matter a great deal by the time this hymn closes — the father, Pure Light, and the mother, Lotus-Flower Light — introduced now only as names, their full significance withheld until the identification still several parts ahead.
Eight Stanzas: Omens Before a Birth
「七日王當生， 先降靈瑞相，
諸人見歡喜， 救護出世間。
彼時於中夜， 大地六種動，
自然演妙光， 猶如明淨日。
浴池有五百， 功德水充滿，
一切諸寶樹， 如本悉榮茂。
河流諸泉原， 一切皆盈滿，
靈澤普津液， 霑洽閻浮提。
樹木諸叢林， 雜卉眾藥草，
百穀苗稼等， 生長普滋茂。
巖崿諸高山， 幽邃深險谷，
普及一切地， 自然悉平正。
山陵諸卉木， 沙礫雜穢等，
悉於一念中， 變成眾寶玉。
人見此奇特， 歡喜而發言，
快哉大善利， 我得清涼池。」
"Seven days before the king was to be born, auspicious, miraculous signs descended first;
all the people, beholding them, rejoiced, knowing a rescuer had come into the world.
At that time, in the middle of the night, the great earth shook in six ways,
and of itself sent forth a sublime light, like unto a bright, pure sun.
The five hundred bathing pools were filled entirely with the water of merit,
and every jeweled tree flourished again, just as it had before.
Every river, stream, and spring became full to overflowing,
its miraculous moisture universally flowing, soaking and nourishing the whole of Jambudvīpa.
Every tree and forest, every kind of flower and medicinal herb,
and every grain and sprouting crop grew and flourished universally.
Every cliff and lofty mountain, every hidden, deep, and perilous valley,
and every stretch of ground universally, of itself became entirely level and even.
Every hill, every plant and tree, every grain of sand and gravel and every impurity —
all of it, within a single thought-moment, transformed into every kind of jewel and gem.
The people, beholding this extraordinary wonder, rejoiced and spoke, saying:
'How wonderful, this great and excellent benefit — we have gained a cooling pond of our own.'"
Fazang names this second movement plainly: 二有八頌明王興先相 — "second, eight stanzas reveal the omens preceding the king's own arising." The pattern is the mirror image of the drought that opened this teacher's whole episode many parts ago: there, a righteous ruler's realm collapsed into famine under the weight of a corrupt people's own karma; here, a single birth still seven days away is enough to reverse an entire land's decline before the child has even been born — dry riverbeds filling, withered trees flourishing again, and, in the most striking image of the eight, ordinary sand and gravel transforming into jewels "within a single thought-moment." The land itself responds to the coming birth before any person in it does.
Part 100 In Progress
Twelve stanzas have traced a former king's declining reign and the omens that preceded a birth still seven days away. Part 101 turns to the father-king's own visit to the ponds, and to the birth itself — a child emerging from a thousand-petaled lotus flower.
Continue to Part 101 →