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
Less than a yojana to the east from this brought them to the city of
Kapilavastu; but in it there was neither king nor people. All was mound
and desolation. Of inhabitants there were only some monks and a score or
two of families of the common people. At the spot where stood the old
palace of king Suddhodana there have been made images of his eldest son
and his mother; and at the places where that son appeared mounted on a
white elephant when he entered his mother's womb, and where he turned
his carriage round on seeing the sick man after he had gone out of the
city by the eastern gate, topes have been erected. The places were also
pointed out where the rishi Â-e inspected the marks of Buddhaship on the
body of the heir-apparent when an infant; where, when he was in company
with Nanda and others, on the elephant being struck down and drawn on
one side, he tossed it away; [1] where he shot an arrow to the
southeast, and it went a distance of thirty li, then entering the ground
and making a spring to come forth, which men subsequently fashioned into
a well from which travellers might drink; where, after he had attained
to Wisdom, Buddha returned and saw the king, his father; where five
hundred Sâkyas quitted their families and did reverence to Upâli [2]
while the earth shook and moved in six different ways; where Buddha
preached his Law to the devas, and the four deva kings and others kept
the four doors of the hall, so that even the king, his father, could not
enter; where Buddha sat under a nyagrodha tree, which is still standing,
with his face to the east, and his aunt Mahâ-prajâpati presented him
with a Sanghâli; and where king Vaidûrya slew the seed of Sâkya, and
they all in dying became Srotâpannas. [3] A tope was erected at this
last place, which is still existing.
Several li northeast from the city was the king's field, where the
heir-apparent sat under a tree, and looked at the ploughers.
Fifty li east from the city was a garden, named Lumbinî, where the queen
entered the pond and bathed. Having come forth from the pond on the
northern bank, after walking twenty paces, she lifted up her hand, laid
hold of a branch of a tree, and, with her face to the east, gave birth
to the heir-apparent. When he fell to the ground, he immediately walked
seven paces. Two dragon-kings appeared and washed his body. At the place
where they did so, there was immediately formed a well, and from it, as
well as from the above pond, where the queen bathed, the monks even now
constantly take the water, and drink it.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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