A Voice No God Can Match
Seven stanzas close the first movement of the girl's hymn: the king's own voice surpasses even Brahmā and Śakra, his jeweled canopy expounds the Dharma of its own accord, and its golden bells name the buddha-lands of every direction and every kalpa, past and present, until every being who hears it comes to know their own karma directly. This completes the first twenty-five of fifty-two stanzas.
Seven Stanzas: A Canopy That Teaches Itself
「大王演妙音， 無不愛樂者，
梵釋等音聲， 皆悉不能及。
大王眾寶蓋， 懸處虛空中，
覆以諸寶網， 普出妙香熏。
金鈴自然出， 如來和雅音，
宣揚甚深法， 除滅眾煩惱。
次復廣演說， 十方諸佛剎，
一切諸劫中， 如來及眷屬。
又復次第說， 過去十方剎，
一切諸劫中， 如來及眷屬。
又出微妙音， 充滿於天下，
梵王諸群生， 悉聞業果報。
眾生聞音已， 自知諸業藏，
離惡修眾善， 專求無上道。」
"The great king expounds a sublime voice, and there is no one who does not delight in it;
even the voices of Brahmā and Śakra are, all of them, unable to match it.
The great king's own canopy of every jewel hangs suspended in the midst of space,
covered over with every jeweled net, universally sending forth sublime, perfuming fragrance.
Golden bells spontaneously send forth the Tathāgata's own harmonious, elegant sound,
proclaiming the profound Dharma, extinguishing every affliction.
Next it broadly expounds the buddha-lands of the ten directions,
and, throughout every kalpa, every tathāgata and his retinue.
And it further, in sequence, tells of the lands of the ten directions in ages past,
and, throughout every kalpa, every tathāgata and his retinue.
And it further sends forth a sublime, subtle voice, filling the whole world,
so that Brahmā-kings and every kind of being all hear the fruit of their own karma.
Having heard this voice, sentient beings know their own treasury of karma for themselves,
departing from evil and cultivating every good deed, single-mindedly seeking the unsurpassed path."
Fazang names this final movement of the hymn's first half: 四有七頌明大王聲教利益 — "fourth, seven stanzas reveal the benefit of the great king's own voice and teaching." With this, the count Fazang gave for the whole first half is complete: 五十二頌分二：初二十五頌總顯大王興世利益...初六頌明王未興時損、二次二偈明王興益、三有十頌顯王興世翻捐成德、四有七頌明大王聲教利益 — six plus two plus ten plus seven, twenty-five stanzas exactly, matching this translation across Parts 97 through 99.
What stands out in this closing run is that the king himself recedes from the verse almost entirely — it is his canopy, and the bells hanging from it, that do the actual teaching, naming buddha-lands of every direction and both future and past kalpas without the king speaking a single word himself. The most consequential of these stanzas is the sixth: a voice that "fills the whole world," through which "every kind of being" — human, deva, even Brahmā-kings — comes to hear "the fruit of their own karma." The girl's hymn locates the deepest benefit of this king's reign not in food, safety, or wealth, restored though these all are, but in beings finally being shown, directly, the shape of their own past actions.
Part 99 In Progress
Twenty-five stanzas have now traced the general benefit of the king's own arising in the world — from drought and cannibalism through direct reversal to a canopy that teaches the Dharma on its own. The hymn's second half, twenty-seven stanzas long, turns next to the girl's own particular account: her past-life birth, and this same king's own origin as a miraculous child born from a lotus.
Continue to Part 100 →