Imprisonment, and a Queen's Secret Feeding
The plot succeeds: Ajātaśatru seizes his father and confines him within seven guarded chambers. Only Vaidehī, trusted where every minister is suspected, is allowed through the gate — carrying, hidden beneath her own clothes and sealed inside her own jewelry, exactly enough to keep a starving man alive.
Seven Layers of Chambers
三、從收執父王下，至一不得往已來，正明父王為子幽禁。此明闍世取提婆之惡計，頓捨父子之情，非直失於罔極之恩，逆響因茲滿路。忽掩王身曰收，既得不捨曰執，故名收執也。言父者，別顯親之極也。王者，彰其位也。頻婆者，彰其名也。言幽閉七重室內者。所為既重，事亦非輕。不可淺禁人間，全無守護。但以王之宮閤，理絕外人，唯有群臣則久來承奉。若不嚴制，恐有情通。故使內外絕交，閉在七重之內也。
Third, from "they seized and confined the king, his father" down through "not a single person allowed to go to him," this makes plain the father's own imprisonment by his son. This makes plain that Ajātaśatru, having adopted Devadatta's own evil scheme, at once abandoned every bond of father and son — not merely losing the boundless kindness owed to a parent, but filling the very roads with the sound of this rebellion. To seize a person's body suddenly is called "to take"; to have taken hold and not release is called "to hold fast" — hence it is called "seized and confined." "His father" specifically marks out the closest possible bond of kinship. "The king" marks out his rank. "Bimbisāra" marks out his own name. As for "confined within seven layers of chambers": the matter at hand was grave, and the affair itself was no small one — one could not simply confine him lightly, out among ordinary people, with no guard at all. Yet, by the very nature of a king's own palace quarters, no outsider could ever be admitted there in the first place — only the assembled ministers, who had long served and attended him. Were strict measures not taken, there was a real fear that some sympathetic connection might still pass between them. This is why all contact, inner and outer alike, was cut off entirely, and he was confined within seven layers of chambers.
Ghee, Flour, and Grape Juice Sealed in Jewelry
四、從國大夫人下，至密以上王已來，正明夫人密奉王食。言國大夫人者，此明最大也。言夫人者，標其位也。言韋提者，彰其名也。言恭敬大王者。此明夫人既見王身被禁，門戶極難，音信不通，恐絕王身命。遂即香湯滲浴，令身清淨，即取酥蜜先塗其身，後取乾麨始安酥蜜之上。即著淨衣覆之在外衣上始著瓔珞，如常服法，令外人不怪。又取瓔珞孔一頭以蠟塞之，一頭孔中盛蒲桃漿，滿已還塞。但是瓔珞，悉皆如此。莊嚴既竟，徐步入宮與王相見。
問曰：「諸臣奉勅不許見王。未審夫人門家不制，放令得入者，有何意也？」
答曰：「諸臣身異，復是外人，恐有情通，致使嚴加重制。又夫人者，身是女人，心無異計。與王宿緣業重久近夫妻，別體同心，致使人無外慮。是以得入與王相見。」
Fourth, from "the great lady of the realm" down through "secretly presented it to the king," this makes plain the queen's own secret feeding of the king. "The great lady of the realm" makes plain that she was foremost of all. "Lady" marks out her rank; "Vaidehī" marks out her own name. As for "reverently attending the great king": this makes plain that the queen, having seen the king's own body confined, the gates barred so tightly that no word could pass between them at all, feared that his very life would be cut off. She therefore bathed herself in scented water, purifying her own body, and took ghee and honey, first smearing them over her own body, and then taking dried barley flour and pressing it over the ghee and honey. She then put on clean garments to cover this, and, over these outer garments, put on her own jeweled ornaments, exactly as her usual manner of dress required, so that no outsider would find anything strange. She further took the hollow beads of her own jeweled ornaments, sealing one end of each with wax, and filling the hollow within with grape juice, and, once full, sealing the other end as well. Every one of her jeweled ornaments was prepared in exactly this way. Having completed this preparation, she walked slowly into the palace to see the king.
Question: "The ministers, under royal decree, were not permitted to see the king at all. It is not yet clear why the guards at the gate placed no such restriction on the queen, and let her enter freely — what is the reason for this?"
Answer: "The ministers were of a different body altogether, outsiders in every sense, and there was a real fear that some sympathetic connection might pass between them and the king — and so strict measures were taken against them. But the queen, being a woman, was thought to hold no ulterior scheme in her own mind at all. Bound to the king by a deep and long-standing karmic connection as husband and wife, two separate bodies sharing a single mind, no one entertained any outside suspicion of her at all — and it was for this reason that she alone was allowed to enter and see the king."
Shandao lets the sheer, itemized practicality of Vaidehī's preparation speak for itself — bathing, ghee, honey, dried flour pressed over both, clean robes to cover the mixture, jewelry engineered as a second, independent supply of liquid nourishment. Nothing here is symbolic; every step exists because it will actually keep a starving man alive a little longer, hidden from guards who, by the logic of the answer that follows, would never think to search a wife for exactly this. Shandao's own explanation of why she alone is permitted through — "two separate bodies sharing a single mind" — is offered as court logic, the guards' own reasonable assumption about marital loyalty, not as the narrator's own judgment on what Vaidehī is actually risking by trusting that assumption against her own son's explicit decree.
A King's Request for the Eight Precepts
五、從爾時大王食麨下，至授我八戒已來，正明父王因禁請法。此明夫人既見王已，即刮取身上酥麨，團授與王。王得即食。食麨既竟。即於宮內夫人求得淨水，與王漱口。淨口已竟。不可虛引時朝，心無所寄。是以虔恭合掌，迴面向於耆闍，致敬如來，請求加護。此明身業敬，亦通有意業也。而作是言已下，正明口業請，亦通有意業也。言大目連是吾親友者，有其二意。但目連在俗是王別親，既得出家即是門師，往來宮閤，都無障礙。然在俗為親，出家名友，故名親友也。言願興慈悲授我八戒者，此明父王敬法情深，重人過己。若未逢幽難，奉請佛僧，不足為難。今既被囚，無由致屈。是以但請目連受於八戒也。
Fifth, from "at that time the great king ate the flour" down through "grant me the eight precepts," this makes plain the king's own request for the teaching, brought about by his imprisonment. This makes plain that the queen, having seen the king, at once scraped the ghee and flour from her own body, rolled it into a ball, and gave it to the king. The king received it and ate it at once. Once he had finished eating the flour, the queen, within the palace, obtained pure water, and gave it to the king to rinse his mouth. Once his mouth was rinsed clean, he could not simply let the occasion pass idly by, with his own mind fixed on nothing at all — and so, with reverent and respectful hands joined together, he turned his face toward Vulture Peak, paying homage to the Tathāgata, and begged for his protection. This makes plain the reverence of his bodily action, which likewise carries within it the reverence of his mental action. From "and he spoke these words" onward, this makes plain the request made through his speech, which likewise carries within it his mental action as well. As for the words "the great Maudgalyāyana is my own close friend," this carries two meanings: Maudgalyāyana, while still a layman, had been the king's own particular relative, and, once he had gone forth into monastic life, became his own family's own teacher, coming and going through the palace quarters without any obstruction at all. While a layman, he was kin; having gone forth, he is called a friend — hence he is called "close friend." As for the words "I beg only that you rouse your own compassion, and grant me the eight precepts": this makes plain how deeply the king revered the Dharma, valuing others more than himself. Had he not encountered this imprisonment, it would have been no difficulty at all for him to invite the Buddha and the Sangha directly. But now, imprisoned as he was, there was no way for him to bring himself to trouble them so — and this is why he requested only that Maudgalyāyana come to grant him the eight precepts.
Shandao reads even the king's own table manners as reverence — rinsing his mouth clean before turning to face Vulture Peak, "unable to simply let the occasion pass idly by, with his own mind fixed on nothing at all." What might otherwise read as an odd narrative detail, a starving man's basic hygiene, becomes, on this reading, the hinge between two separate registers of devotion: bodily reverence (facing the right direction, joined palms) and mental reverence (a mind that will not let even a meal pass without turning toward the Buddha). The king's own calculation — homage to the Buddha directed from afar, but the actual precepts requested from Maudgalyāyana instead — is presented as neither humility nor presumption, but simple proportion: some requests are worth troubling a buddha for, and some are not, and a man imprisoned and stripped of nearly everything still retains, in Shandao's reading, the judgment to tell the difference.
Part 12 Complete
This closes Part 12: the imprisonment itself, Vaidehī's own elaborate scheme to keep her husband alive, and his request, through Maudgalyāyana, for the eight precepts. Part 13 completes the condition of the father's imprisonment with Shandao's own explanation of why these particular eight precepts, of all the Buddha's teachings, and closes with the king's daily renewal of them, and Maudgalyāyana's own supernatural visits that sustain him through his captivity.
Continue to Part 13 — Why the Eight Precepts, and a King Who Would Not Die →