Seven Treasures, Eighty Thousand Cities
On the very day his father attains the path, the prince receives the seven treasures of a wheel-turning king — wheel, elephant, horse, pearl, minister, army-commander, and the jeweled maiden herself, now named Pure, Sublime Virtue. He rules over eighty thousand prosperous cities, each raising monasteries and stūpas, and each, in turn, inviting the buddha to receive its own offerings.
Seven Treasures, and a Jeweled Maiden Named Anew
「爾時,太子月十五日,王得道時,於其正殿,采女圍遶,七寶自至。一金輪寶,名勝自在;二象寶,名曰青山;三紺馬寶,名勇疾風;四神珠寶,名光藏雲;五主藏臣寶,名曰大財;六玉女寶,名淨妙德;七主兵臣寶,名離垢眼。得是七寶,於閻浮提作轉輪王時,有千子,端正勇猛,能伏怨敵。時,彼人民熾盛,豐樂自在,八萬王城,城各建立五百樓閣,大僧伽藍,眾寶莊嚴,一一僧伽藍起廣大塔,一切眾寶以為莊嚴,香華繒蓋而供養之;一一王城次第請佛,以不思議眾妙供具供養如來。」
"At that time, on the fifteenth day of the month, at the very hour the former king attained the path, the prince, within his own main hall, surrounded by attendant women, had the seven treasures come to him of their own accord. The first, the golden wheel-treasure, named Sovereign, Supreme Mastery; the second, the elephant-treasure, named Blue Mountain; the third, the dark-blue horse-treasure, named Valiant, Swift Wind; the fourth, the divine pearl-treasure, named Cloud of the Treasury of Light; the fifth, the treasury-minister treasure, named Great Wealth; the sixth, the jeweled-maiden treasure, named Pure, Sublime Virtue; the seventh, the army-commander treasure, named Stainless Eye. Having attained these seven treasures, he became a wheel-turning king throughout Jambudvīpa; he had a thousand sons, upright and valiant, able to subdue every hostile enemy. At that time, his own people flourished, prosperous, joyful, and at ease; there were eighty thousand royal cities, and each city raised up five hundred pavilions and great monasteries, adorned with every kind of jewel; at each and every monastery, they raised a vast, great stūpa, adorned with every kind of jewel, and made offerings to it with fragrance, flowers, and silken canopies. Each and every royal city, one after another, invited the buddha, and made offerings to that tathāgata with inconceivable, sublime offerings of every kind."
The seven treasures of a wheel-turning king are a fixed traditional set — wheel, elephant, horse, pearl, treasury-minister, army-commander, and jeweled maiden — and this account names each one individually. The sixth, the jeweled-maiden treasure, is named Pure, Sublime Virtue (淨妙德), a name that echoes, without exactly repeating, the girl's own given name, Stainless, Sublime Virtue (離垢妙德): the same "Sublime Virtue" at its core, now carrying the honorific title of the wheel-king's own consort rather than a personal name given by her mother. The timing is precise and deliberate — these treasures arrive "at the very hour the former king attained the path," binding the father's own renunciation and the son's own coronation into a single, simultaneous moment.
Part 175 In Progress
The new king's own reign is now described in full. Part 176 turns to the buddha's own entry into the city — an event that, by itself, brings boundless sentient beings to nurture roots of goodness and raise the mind of awakening.
Continue to Part 176 →