Chinese literature : $b Comprising the Analects of Confucius, the Sayings of Mencius, the Shi-King, the Travels of Fâ-Hien, and the Sorrows of HanFaxian
Philosophy
Chinese literature : $b Comprising the Analects of Confucius, the Sayings of Mencius, the Shi-King, the Travels of Fâ-Hien, and the Sorrows of Han
Faxian
China -- Literary collections; Chinese literature; Chinese literature -- Translations into English
To each of the great residences for the monks at the Jetavana vihâra
there were two gates, one facing the east and the other facing the
north. The park containing the whole was the space of ground which the
Vaisaya head, Sudatta, purchased by covering it with gold coins. The
vihâra was exactly in the centre. Here Buddha lived for a longer time
than at any other place, preaching his Law and converting men. At the
places where he walked and sat they also subsequently reared topes, each
having its particular name; and here was the place where Sundari [5]
murdered a person and then falsely charged Buddha with the crime.
Outside the east gate of the Jetavana, at a distance of seventy paces to
the north, on the west of the road, Buddha held a discussion with the
advocates of the ninety-six schemes of erroneous doctrine, when the king
and his great officers, the householders, and people were all assembled
in crowds to hear it. Then a woman belonging to one of the erroneous
systems, by name Chañchamana, prompted by the envious hatred in her
heart, and having put on extra clothes in front of her person, so as to
give her the appearance of being with child, falsely accused Buddha
before all the assembly of having acted unlawfully towards her. On this,
Sakra, Ruler of Devas, changed himself and some devas into white mice,
which bit through the strings about her waist; and when this was done,
the extra clothes which she wore dropped down on the ground. The earth
at the same time was rent, and she went down alive into hell. This also
is the place where Devadatta, trying with empoisoned claws to injure
Buddha, went down alive into hell. Men subsequently set up marks to
distinguish where both these events took place.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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