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Vibhāṣā-śāstra.
At that time Venerable Vasumitra, dressed in a monk’s patched robe, was
outside the door, when the arhats said to him, “You have not gotten rid of
the bondage of the passions and your arguments are absurd and erroneous.
You should go far away and not stay here.” Vasumitra said, “You sagacious
monks have no doubts about the Dharma and you are spreading the Buddha’s
teachings in his place. You are collecting the great doctrines with the intention
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The Great Tang Dynasty Record of the Western Regions
of writing a standard treatise. Although I am unintelligent, I do know some-
thing of the subtle teachings. I have made profound studies of the abstruse
texts of the Tripiṭaka and the sublime principles of the five branches of knowl-
edge and I have mastered their essences.” The arhats said, “You must not
speak in this manner. You should live in seclusion and attain arhatship quickly.
Then it will not be too late for you to come and join us at the meeting.”
Vasumitra said, “I deem the attainment of arhatship to be as insignificant as
spittle. My ambition is to gain buddhahood;d I do not wish to go by the small
path. But I can still attain the holy fruit of arhatship before a ball of thread
falls down to the ground after I have thrown it up into the air.”
The arhats again reproached him, saying, “You are truly an arrogant man.
Arhatship is what all the buddhas have praised and you should quickly realize
it, so as to remove the monks’ doubts.” Vasumitra then tossed a ball of thread
up into the air but the
deva
s took hold of it and made an appeal to him, saying,
“You should now attain buddhahood and become the successor to Maitreya
in the future, to be specially honored by all the three realms and be someone
on which all beings of the four forms of birth can depend. Why should you
wish to realize the small fruit here and now?” Upon witnessing this event
the arhats apologized [to Vasumitra] and elected him to be the elder of the
meeting, and all dubious points were settled by him.
First the five hundred saintly and holy monks composed the
Upadeśa-
śāstra
(formerly transcribed wrongly as
Youpotishe lun
) in a hundred thousand
stanzas for the exposition of the Sutra
piṭaka
(formerly transcribed wrongly
as Xiuduoluozang). Then they wrote the
Vinaya-vibhāṣā-śāstra
in one hundred
thousand stanzas for the exposition of the Vinaya
piṭaka
(formerly transcribed
wrongly as Pinayezang). Last, they compiled the
Abhidharma-vibhāṣā-śāstra
in one hundred thousand stanzas for the exposition of the Abhidharma
piṭaka
(known as Apitanzang in abbreviation). There are altogether three hundred
thousand stanzas with nine million six hundred thousand words for the full
explanation of the Tripiṭaka, to be studied for all ages to come. They probe
into all branches and ramifications, whether shallow or deep. The general
meanings are repeatedly clarified and the subtle sayings made apparent. They
are widely circulated for the guidance of posterity.
King Kaniṣka had these treatises incised on red copper plates and kept
them in stone cases, and a stupa was constructed for their preservation. He
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Fascicle III
ordered the
yakṣa
deities to be on guard all around the country to prevent
heretics from taking the treatises out of the country. Those who wished to
study them might do so inside the country. After having completed the task
the king returned to his own capital with his army. When he came out of the
western gate of the capital city of the country [of Kaśmīra], he knelt down
facing the east to offer the whole country as alms to the monks. But after the
Kaniṣka’s death the Krīta tribe resumed kingship, expelled the monks, and
demolished the buddha-dharma.
The king of Himatala (“Below the Snow Mountains”) in the country of
Tukhāra, a descendant of the Śākya clan, fully occupied his territory and
ascended the throne in the six-hundredth year after the Tathāgata’s nirvana.
He planted his mind in the earth of the Buddha and poured his sentiments
into the sea of the Dharma. When he heard that the Krīta tribesmen were
destroying the buddha-dharma, he mustered three thousand brave warriors
of his country and outfitted them in the guise of merchants. Carrying with
them a large quantity of valuable goods, they hid weapons secretly among
the merchandise and came to this country. The lord of [Kaśmīra] treated them
with special courtesy. From among the [disguised] merchants, five hundred
brave men who possessed tactical skill were selected. Each was equipped
with a sharp dagger hidden in his sleeves and they carried rare valuables to
present to the lord in person. At that moment the king of Himatala took off
the hat of the lord and occupied his throne. The king of the Krīta tribe was
taken aback by the surprise attack and was beheaded right away. [The king
of Himatala] declared to the people, “I am the king of Himatala in the country
of Tukhāra. I was enraged by this low-born tribesman, who openly carried
out cruel policies. I have put him to death because he was guilty. You innocent
people are guiltless.” The chief ministers of the court were banished to a for-
eign land. Once order was restored in the country the monks were invited
back and monasteries were built, as peacefully as before. The king knelt
down outside the western gate of the capital city with his face turned to the
east to again offer the country as alms to the monks.
Because the Krīta tribesmen had lost power on account of Buddhist monks
on several occasions, they bore them a grudge for generations and hated the
buddha-dharma. After a long period of time they resumed the kingship once
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again. Therefore Buddhism is not much believed in by the people of the
country, while
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