The City of Kings, and a Hermit's Prophecy
Shandao's commentary turns from doctrine to story. This part opens "the condition of the father's imprisonment" with two origin tales: why Rājagṛha is called "the King's Own Houses," and the strange, dark prophecy — a murdered hermit sage reborn as a prince — that explains Ajātaśatru's own two names, "Enmity Before Birth" and "Broken Finger," before Devadatta's own jealousy ever enters the story at all.
Why the City Is Called "The King's Own Houses"
二、就禁父緣中即有其七：一、從爾時王舍大城以下，總明起化處。此明往古百姓但城中造舍，即為天火所燒。若是王家舍宅，悉無火近。後時百姓共奏於王：「臣等造宅，數為天火所燒。但是王舍，悉無火近。不知有何所以？」王告奏人：「自今以後，卿等造宅之時，但言我今為王造舍。」奏人等各奉王勅，歸還造舍更不被燒。因此相傳故名王舍。言大城者。此城極大，居民九億，故噵王舍大城也。言起化處者。即有其二：一謂闍王起惡，即有禁父母之緣，因禁則厭此娑婆，願託無憂之世界。二則如來赴請，光變為臺影現靈儀，夫人即求生安樂。又傾心請行，佛開三福之因。正觀即是定門，更顯九章之益。為此因緣，故名起化處也。
Second, within the condition of the father's imprisonment, there are seven points. First, from "at that time, in the great city of Rājagṛha" onward, this makes plain, in general, the place where the teaching arose. This makes plain that, in ancient times, whenever the common people built houses within the city, these houses were repeatedly burned by fire from heaven — yet the royal palace and its own residences were never once touched by fire. In time, the common people together petitioned the king: "Whenever we build our own houses, they are repeatedly burned by fire from heaven — yet the royal residence alone is never touched by fire at all. We do not know the reason for this." The king said to those who had petitioned him: "From this day forward, whenever any of you build a house, simply say: I now build this house on the king's own behalf." Those who had petitioned him each followed the king's own decree, and, returning to build their houses, were never again burned. It is on account of this tradition, handed down ever since, that the city came to be called "the King's Own Houses." As for "the great city": this city was extremely vast, its inhabitants numbering nine hundred million — hence it is called "the great city of Rājagṛha."
As for "the place where the teaching arose": there are two reasons for this. First, it was Ajātaśatru's own act of rebellion that brought about the condition of his parents' imprisonment — and it was precisely this imprisonment that led his mother to grow weary of this Sahā world, and to wish to entrust herself to a world free of sorrow instead. Second, it was the Tathāgata's own response to her request, transforming his light into a platform on which the vision of every pure land appeared, that led the queen to seek rebirth in the land of Peace and Bliss — and it was her own wholehearted request for a practice that led the Buddha to open the causal gate of the three blessings; and it is the true contemplation itself that is the gate of the contemplative practice, further revealing the benefit of the nine sections that follow. It is for this very reason that this is called "the place where the teaching arose."
A Hermit's Death, and a Prince Named "Enmity Before Birth"
二、從有一太子下，至惡友之教已來，正明闍王怳忽之間，信受惡人所誤。言太子者，彰其位也。言阿闍世者，顯其名也。又阿闍世者乃是西國正音，此地往翻，名未生怨，亦名折指。
問曰：「何故名未生怨，及名折指也？」
答曰：「此皆舉昔日因緣，故有此名。言因緣者。元本父王，無有子息，處處求神竟不能得。忽有相師而奏王言：『臣知山中有一仙人，不久捨壽，命終已後必當與王作子。』王聞歡喜：『此人何時捨命？』相師答王：『更經三年始可命終。』王言：『我今年老，國無繼祀，更滿三年，何由可待。』王即遣使入山，往請仙人曰：『大王無子，闕無紹繼，處處求神，困不能得。乃有相師瞻見大仙，不久捨命與王作子。請願大仙垂恩早赴。』使人受教入山，到仙人所具說王請因緣。仙人報使者言：『我更經三年始可命終，王勅即赴者是事不可。』使奉仙教，還報大王具述仙意。王曰：『我是一國之主，所有人物皆歸屬我。今故以禮相屈，乃不承我意。』王更勅使者：『卿往重請。請若不得，當即殺之。既命終已，可不與我作子也。』使人受勅至仙人所，具噵王意。仙人雖聞使說，意亦不受。使人奉勅即欲殺之。仙人曰：『卿當語王，我命未盡，王以心口遣人殺我，我若與王作兒者，還以心口遣人殺王。』仙人噵此語已即受死。既死已，即託王宮受生。當其日夜夫人即覺有身，王聞歡喜。天明即喚相師以觀夫人，是男是女？相師觀已而報王言：『是兒非女，此兒於王有損。』王曰：『我之國土皆捨屬之，縱有所損，吾亦無畏。』王聞此語憂喜交懷。王白夫人言：『吾共夫人私自平章，相師噵兒於吾有損。夫人待生之日，在高樓上，當天井中生之，勿令人承接，落在於地，豈容不死也。吾亦無憂，聲亦不露。』夫人即可王之計。及其生時一如前法，生已墮地，命便不斷，唯損手小指。因即外人同唱言折指太子也。
Second, from "there was a crown prince" down through "the teaching of an evil friend," this makes plain how, in a single moment of confusion, Ajātaśatru came to trust and be led astray by an evil man. "Crown prince" marks out his rank; "Ajātaśatru" makes plain his own name. And further, "Ajātaśatru" is the correct sound of the Western Land — translated into this land's own language, it is rendered "Enmity Before Birth," also called "Broken Finger."
Question: "Why is he called 'Enmity Before Birth,' and also 'Broken Finger'?"
Answer: "Both of these names come from an incident of long ago, and it is for this reason that he carries them. As for this incident: the king, his father, had originally had no son at all, and though he sought a child through every kind of spirit and deity, he was never able to obtain one. Suddenly a physiognomist came before the king and reported: 'I know of a hermit sage in the mountains, whose own life will soon come to an end — and once his life ends, he must certainly be reborn as the king's own son.' The king, hearing this, rejoiced, and asked: 'When will this person's life come to an end?' The physiognomist answered the king: 'It will be a further three years before his life comes to an end.' The king said: 'I am already old in years, and my kingdom has no heir to continue its own line — how could I possibly wait a further three years?' The king at once sent a messenger into the mountains, to go and entreat the hermit, saying: 'The great king has no son, and lacks any heir to succeed him. He has sought a child through every kind of spirit and deity, and, in his own distress, has been unable to obtain one. Now a physiognomist has beheld you, great sage, and reports that your own life will soon end, and that you must be reborn as the king's own son. I beg only that you, great sage, extend your own kindness, and come to him soon.' The messenger, having received these instructions, entered the mountains, and, arriving at the hermit's own place, explained in full the king's own request. The hermit replied to the messenger: 'A further three years must pass before my own life comes to an end — for the king to command that I come to him at once is simply not possible.' The messenger, following the hermit's own words, returned and reported this in full to the king. The king said: 'I am the ruler of an entire kingdom, and every person and thing within it belongs to me. Now I have humbled myself to make this request with proper courtesy, and yet he will not accept my own wish.' The king further commanded the messenger: 'Go and entreat him once more. If your entreaty fails, kill him at once — once his life has ended, will he not then be reborn as my own son regardless?' The messenger, having received this command, went to the hermit's own place, and explained the king's own wish in full. Though the hermit heard what the messenger said, his own mind still did not accept it. The messenger, following his own command, thereupon moved to kill him. The hermit said: 'You should tell the king this: my own life is not yet ended — if the king, by his own thought and word, sends someone to kill me, then, should I indeed become his son, I shall, in turn, by my own thought and word, send someone to kill the king.' Having spoken these words, the hermit accepted death. Once he had died, he was at once conceived within the royal palace. On that very day and night, the queen herself became aware that she was with child, and the king, hearing this, rejoiced. At dawn he summoned the physiognomist to examine the queen: would the child be a son, or a daughter? Having examined her, the physiognomist reported to the king: 'This will be a son, not a daughter — but this child will bring harm to the king.' The king said: 'My entire kingdom I have already resolved to leave to him — even should there be some harm in it, I myself have no fear of it.' Yet, hearing these words, the king's own heart was filled with both grief and joy at once. The king said to the queen: 'You and I have privately discussed this together — the physiognomist says this child will bring harm to me. When the time comes for you to give birth, do so upon a high tower, directly above an open well in the courtyard below, letting no one catch the child as it falls, so that it falls to the ground — how, then, could it fail to die? I myself will have no further anxiety, and this matter will never come to light.' The queen agreed to the king's own plan. And when the time for the birth came, everything was carried out exactly according to this earlier plan — the child, once born, fell to the ground, and yet his life was not cut off; only the small finger of his hand was injured. It was on this account that people outside the palace, together, came to call him "the Prince of the Broken Finger."
Shandao offers no moral commentary on this prophecy story at all — no aside about karma, no explicit judgment of the king's own attempted infanticide. He lets the story's own logic do the work: a hermit killed against his will, dying with a vow of retribution on his lips, reborn into the very family that killed him, marked from birth by an attempt on his own life before he had done anything at all to deserve it. The name "Enmity Before Birth" is, on this reading, not a metaphor but close to a literal description — hostility that predates the person carrying it, seeded before he ever drew breath. Everything that follows in this fascicle — Devadatta's manipulation, the imprisonment of both parents, the attempted matricide — unfolds from a wound the sūtra's own narrative locates before Ajātaśatru's birth, not in any choice he made afterward. Whether this excuses what he goes on to do is a question Shandao leaves entirely open; what he does insist on, through the sheer fact of retelling this story in full, is that the reader understand exactly where the story places its own beginning.
Devadatta's Jealousy
「言未生怨者。此因提婆達多起惡妬之心故，對彼太子顯發昔日惡緣。云何妬心而起惡緣？提婆惡性為人匈猛，雖復出家，恒常妬佛名聞利養。然父王是佛檀越，於一時中多將供養奉上如來，謂金銀七寶，名衣上服，百味果食等。一一色色，皆五百車。香華伎樂，百千萬眾，讚歎圍遶，送向佛會，施佛及僧。時調達見已妬心更盛，即向舍利弗所求學身通。尊者語言：『仁者且學四念處，不須學身通也。』既請不遂心，更向餘尊者邊求，乃至五百弟子等悉無人教，皆遣學四念處。請不得已，遂向阿難邊學。語阿難言：『汝是我弟，我欲學通，一一次第教我。』」
"As for the name 'Enmity Before Birth': this arose because Devadatta, giving rise to a mind of evil jealousy, revealed this same earlier evil karma to the prince himself. How did this jealous mind give rise to such evil karma? Devadatta was fierce and violent in nature — though he too had gone forth into monastic life, he constantly envied the Buddha's own renown and the offerings he received. Now the king, the prince's own father, was one of the Buddha's own patrons, and on one occasion brought a great abundance of offerings before the Tathāgata — gold, silver, and the seven treasures, fine and excellent robes, food of every hundred flavors, and the rest — each and every kind of item filling five hundred carts. Incense, flowers, music, and hundreds of thousands upon thousands of people, praising and surrounding this offering, escorted it to the Buddha's own assembly, and presented it to the Buddha and the Sangha. Seeing this, Devadatta's own jealousy grew all the more intense, and he went to Śāriputra to seek instruction in bodily supernormal powers. The Venerable One said to him: 'You, sir, should study the four foundations of mindfulness instead — there is no need to study bodily supernormal powers.' Having failed to have his own wish granted, he went further to seek instruction from other venerable elders, and even the five hundred disciples, without exception, refused to teach him, sending him instead to study the four foundations of mindfulness. Unable to have his request granted, he finally went to seek instruction from Ānanda, saying to him: 'You are my own younger brother — I wish to study these supernormal powers; teach me each of them, one by one, in their proper sequence.'"
Every senior disciple Devadatta approaches — Śāriputra first, then "the five hundred disciples, without exception" — redirects him toward the four foundations of mindfulness, a foundational contemplative practice aimed at exactly the kind of craving and resentment driving his own request. Their refusal reads less like gatekeeping than like a collective, correct diagnosis: Devadatta does not need supernormal powers, he needs the practice that would address why he wants them in the first place. Ānanda alone agrees to teach him — not because he is any less discerning, Shandao is careful to note, but because "though Ānanda had attained the first fruit, he had not yet realized the minds of others," and so could not see what every other senior disciple somehow already had: that his own older cousin was asking for supernormal power in order to destroy the very teacher who had given it to him.
Part 10 Complete
This closes Part 10: the naming of Rājagṛha, and the dark prophecy behind Ajātaśatru's own two names — a hermit killed for another man's convenience, reborn as the very son who will, in time, imprison and nearly kill his own parents in turn. Part 11 continues directly into the consequence of Ānanda's agreement: the actual meditation instructions that grant supernormal power, Devadatta's own seven days of solitary practice, and the moment he uses his newly-won abilities to win the young prince's own trust and admiration.
Continue to Part 11 — Devadatta's Powers, and the Corruption of a Prince →