Kumaroshi Statue
In history, there were many emperors who were willing to worship eminent monks, and there were also many emperors who became monks themselves. However, in order to obtain an eminent monk, he did not hesitate to use the power of the country to send out troops to snatch it. Kumarajiva was the only one. Moreover, more than one emperor went to rob it, and the emperors of the two dynasties before and after sent large armies to rob it. What kind of magic power did Master Kumarajiva have that made the kings of the two dynasties not hesitate to launch a war to rob it? Why did he leave tongue relics after his death? Today we will talk about the story of Kumarajiva.
Kumarajiva was born in the Kingdom of Qiuci. His ancestral home is Tianzhu. His family has been officials for generations. His grandfather was the prime minister of Tianzhu. His father's name is Kumarajiva. Jiumoyan was originally going to inherit the position of Prime Minister, but he gave up his high position and salary and chose to become a monk. After Jiumoyan became a monk, he walked eastward and came all the way to the Kingdom of Kucha. King Bai Chun of the Kingdom of Kucha heard the story of Jiumoyan giving up his life and becoming a monk. He admired him very much and invited Jiumoyan to be the national preceptor of the Kingdom of Kucha.
The king of Kucha Kingdom had a younger sister. Not only was this sister beautiful, but it was said that she had a birthmark on her back. The shape of the birthmark was very special. At that time, a senior monk from 罽 Bin Kingdom was invited to see her. The eminent monk said that based on the shape of the birthmark, the king's sister would definitely give birth to a sophon king in the future. The sister's reputation spread, and princes and nobles from far and near came to propose marriage, but no one was interested in the king's sister. She was already 20 years old this year.
The king's sister is also a devout Buddhist. When she saw Jiumoyan, she was immediately attracted to Jiumoyan. She had to marry Jiumoyan. However, Jiumo Yan was very determined to give up his official position and become a monk. He would definitely refuse to marry a wife. The king of Qiuci had no choice but to do something for his sister, so he forced Jiumo Yan to marry his sister.
Not long after the marriage, the king's sister became pregnant, and the child she bore was Kumarajiva. Kumarajiva grew up in the royal palace of Kucha Kingdom. The royal palace of Kucha Kingdom was similar to a Buddhist temple. The walls of the palace were painted with many colorful murals. Since Buddhism was introduced to the Kingdom of Kucha, all the people in the Kingdom soon began to believe in Buddhism. They dug caves on a large scale to express their devotion to the Buddha.
Kumarajiva grew up in a Buddhist environment since he was a child. He is smart and very curious about Buddhist culture . Their family lives together very happily. Until one day Kumarajiva's mother proposed that she wanted to become a monk. Kumarajiva's father became very angry. He said that I was a monk and became a monk, but you forced me to marry you. Now that I am married and have children, you actually said that I want to become a monk. I don't agree.
Luo Shi’s mother saw that Jiumoyan didn’t agree and had no choice but to stop mentioning it. A few years later, Roche's mother went out to visit the city. She accidentally saw a graveyard with numerous bones on it. She felt that life was too bitter at that time. She must become a monk and help people escape from the sea of suffering.
This time she was very resolute. Rosh's father still disagreed, so she went on a hunger strike. After she went on a hunger strike for six days, Rosh's father saw that if he continued to disagree, he would die, so he had no choice but to agree. In this way, Kumarajiva's mother became a monk. She became a monk with Rosh when Kumarajiva was 7 years old.
Roche followed his mother to the temple. He became a disciple of the eminent monk Fotu Yanmi in the temple and studied Buddhism with him. Kumarajiva is very smart. He can read and recite 1,000 verses every day. When his master explains the meaning of the sutra to him, he can understand it immediately without any obstacles.
At that time, monks had to beg for food, so Kumarajiva followed his mother and carried a begging bowl everywhere to beg for food every day. They were begging for food in the Kingdom of Qiuci. Everyone in the country knew that his mother was the king's sister, so she provided a lot of support to them. In order to truly practice Buddhism, Rosh's mother took him out of the Kingdom of Qiuci. Rosh's mother took Kumarajiva across the Xintou River and came to the Kingdom of Jibin.
The country of Yibin was a Buddhist center in the Western Regions at that time. They found the most famous Master Pantou Dado in the country. Pantou Datta was the younger brother of King Jibin. He had read through all nine Buddhist Tripitakas and was the most famous eminent monk in countries near and far. Kumarajiva worshiped Pantou Dadao as his teacher and studied Buddhism with him. After many days of getting along with him, Pantou Dadao discovered that this child was really amazing. He was so smart that he was a genius.
India's Original Buddhism The earliest method of teaching scriptures was to recite the scriptures. There was no paper at that time, and all scriptures were passed down orally between masters and disciples. After the master finished teaching, the apprentice would recite it secretly every day, memorize the scriptures and pass them on to the next generation, generation after generation. Later, scriptures were written on the leaves, so they were called Bayeux Sutra .
In Kumarajiva's time, there were still many Buddhist scriptures that were not written down, and they still relied on oral transmission between masters and disciples. Kumarajiva was very good at reciting secretly. He recited sutras very quickly and memorized many sutras. His master Pantou Dado was very impressed and often praised his apprentice in front of the king of Jibin. The king of Jibin also wanted to meet Kumarajiva to see what he was capable of, so he invited Kumarajiva to the palace and asked him to participate in the discussion of scriptures in the palace.
At that time, there were many heretical masters who participated in the discussion of scriptures and Taoism. Buddhists generally called heretics who practice methods other than Buddhism. Buddhism is the Dharma of the heart. Even if what you preach is Buddhism, those who preach without the "heart" are called heretics. When these heretical masters saw that Kumarajiva was so young, they despised him. However, after a debate, everyone was impressed by Kumarajiva.
The king of Jibin Kingdom also began to pay special respect to Kumarajiva and support him with the highest standards of Jibin Kingdom. When Kumarajiva was 12 years old, his mother took him back to Kucha. At this time, all the countries along the way heard about Kumarajiva's name and wanted to hire him, but he remained unmoved. At this stage, Kumarajiva not only studied Buddhism, he also learned many heretical methods, such as yin and yang, , astrology, divination and fortune-telling.
Once, he heard that there was a prince named Soma who joined the army. This prince gave up his throne and became a monk. He specialized in teaching Mahayana Buddhism . Many people studied with him. Kumarajiva went to find Soma and became his teacher, and followed him to learn Mahayana Buddhism. After Kumarajiva learned Mahayana Buddhism, one day he was very emotional, saying that when I studied Hinayana teachings in the past, I was like a person who didn't know gold, but thought brass was the best. Kumarajiva was completely convinced by Mahayana Buddhism, and he studied Mahayana in depth.
At that time, various countries in the Western Regions often held sutra debate conferences. In fact, these sutra debate conferences were also seminars for Buddhist exchanges. In such a conference, Kumarajiva performed very well. Although he was young, no one could argue with him. There were many heretics at the meeting. Because these heretics couldn't argue with Kumarajiva, they all converted to Buddhism.
The king of Kucha State even built a golden lion for Kumarajiva and asked him to open a forum to preach. While he was teaching the Dharma, many princes and nobles from the surrounding Western Region countries listened devoutly below, and Kumarajiva's reputation spread throughout the Western Regions. And through the Silk Road , his reputation has also spread to the Central Plains region as far away as the East.
When Kumarajiva was 20 years old, his mother was leaving Kucha to practice in Tianzhu. When she left, his mother said to him, I know that your ambition is to take on the responsibility of spreading Mahayana Buddhism to the East. Then I ask you, what will you do if you encounter a situation that is not conducive to you in the process of preaching? Kumarajiva replied firmly, saying that Mahayana Buddhism requires practicing the Bodhisattva path. The Bodhisattva path is to save all living beings and forget one's own body. If it helps the spread of Buddhism, I will not have any resentment even if I am thrown into a cauldron on the stove.
From this time on, Kumarajiva made a great wish to spread Buddhism to the Eastern Lands. Although Kumarajiva made a great wish to spread the Dharma in the East, he never thought that he would go to the Central Plains Dynasty in the East in a very special way.
Buddhism has spread to the Central Plains since the Eastern Han period. After 300 years of slow spread, the spread of Buddhism in the Central Plains has reached a certain scale during the Eastern Jin period. In the Central Plains at this time, Buddhism was most widely spread in two places, one was Luoyang, and the other was Chang'an.
Chang'an is now the king of the former Qin Dynasty, Fu Jian. Because Fu Jian attached great importance to Buddhist culture, Chang'an at that time became the center of Buddhism in northern China. Fu Jian treated the monks who came to Chang'an from the Western Regions with courtesy and made many offerings.
Fu Jian heard about Kumarajiva's name from the monks in the Western Regions. He wanted to invite Kumarajiva to Chang'an to take charge, so he sent an envoy to the Kingdom of Kucha to invite Kumarajiva. However, the king of the Kingdom of Kucha refused to let him go, so Fu Jian sent General Lu Guang and an army of 70,000 to the Western Regions to attack the Kingdom of Kucha.
Before Lu Guang set out, Fu Jian told Lu Guang that after you conquer the Kingdom of Qiuci, you must immediately escort Kumarajiva back safely. After Lu Guang led his army to the Western Regions, he conquered the Kingdom of Kucha and killed its king Bai Chun.
Lu Guang was a military commander, and he was not so respectful to Kumarajiva. Especially after he met Kumarajiva, he felt even more unhappy when he saw that he was such a young monk. He thought how could the emperor regard such a young monk as so important, and send out a large army for him, and let me go through so many hardships on an expedition. Lu Guang thought, since he is in my hands now, I want to see who he is, and I want to humiliate him.
What is the greatest humiliation for a monk? Just make him break the precept! Lu Guang asked Kumarajiva to marry the princess of Kucha Kingdom, but Kumarajiva refused to comply. Lü Guang said, "Don't you think your ethics are stronger than your father's?" Didn’t your father follow them all back then? How can you say no? Lu Guang forced Kumarajiva to drink wine and made him drunk. Then he made the princess drunk as well and locked them in the same secret room.
Kumarajiva broke the precepts. After breaking the precepts, Kumarajiva felt very uncomfortable. The precepts he had kept for so many years since he was a child were actually broken like this. He was very frustrated. This was not enough, Lu Guang continued to tease Kumarajiva, letting Kumarajiva ride a bull while others were riding horses, making Kumarajiva embarrassed in front of everyone. After riding the bull, he asked Kumarajiva to ride an untamed bad horse. Kumarajiva was thrown to the ground again and again by the bad horse and was humiliated.
After Kumarajiva broke the precepts, he was already depressed. Now that he was humiliated one after another, he felt even more desperate. At this time, he remembered what his mother asked him when she was leaving. His mother asked him what he would do if something went against him in order to promote Buddhism. His answer at that time was that if he could promote Buddhism, he would not have any resentment even if he threw me into a cauldron on the fire. For the sake of his faith and the promotion of Buddhism to the East, he was even willing to sacrifice himself. What a shame!
Kumarajiva began to endure the humiliation. He treated Lu Guang's humiliation with a normal heart. Seeing Kumarajiva's calm look, Lu Guang felt ashamed, so he stopped humiliating Luo Shi.
After Lu Guang stayed in Qiuci for a while, he led the army back to the court. The way back was still very dangerous. Kumarajiva knew how to watch the sky. Once when he was camping, he reminded Lu Guang that camping here is not possible and you need to move to the hillside. Lu Guang refused to listen. It rained heavily at night and the floods drowned thousands of soldiers. Only then did Lu Guang feel that Kumarajiva was indeed a little different, which was why Lu Guang later refused to let Kumarajiva go no matter what.
When Lu Guang's army reached Liangzhou, bad news came from Chang'an. Fu Jian was defeated and Fu Jian was killed by Yao Chang. Lu Guang stayed in Liangzhou and refused to leave. He proclaimed himself king in Liangzhou and established the Houliang Kingdom.
If Lu Guang doesn't leave, he won't let Kumarajiva leave either. In Liangzhou City, wherever Kumarajiva went, he was followed by a bunch of soldiers. These soldiers were not his subordinates but came to monitor him.
Lu Guang set rules for Kumarajiva, telling him not to go out for too long and not to go too far. Lu Guang was like imprisoning Kumarajiva. In Lu Guang's eyes, Kumarajiva was just a special trophy. In order to promote Buddhism, Kumarajiva could only endure the humiliation of such a semi-imprisonment life for 17 years.
During these 17 years, Kumarajiva was supported by his mission of spreading Buddhism to the Eastern Territory. Kumarajiva looked at the passage of time day by day, which was more uncomfortable than humiliating him. He had empty blood but no use for it. Luo Shi could only spread the Dharma from the people around him, and he began to teach the Dharma to Lu Guang's soldiers.
Kumarajiva discovered that the soldiers were Central Plains people from all over the world, and the Chinese pronunciation they spoke was varied and varied. In order to promote Buddhism, he learned many languages of the Central Plains while teaching it. At this time, there was a monk named Seng Zhao from the Central Plains. Seng Zhao heard that Kumarajiva was in Liangzhou, so he came here to find him and wanted to worship him as his teacher and learn Buddhism from him. Kumarajiva was very happy when Seng Zhao arrived. Finally, he had someone to discuss Buddhism with him.
Seng Zhao has profound attainments in Confucianism Taoism. He first studied Confucianism and Taoism, and then became a monk and studied Buddhism. When he was very young, he became famous in Chang'an. What makes Luo Shi even more happy is that Seng Zhao has a very profound literary quality, which is of great help to him in learning the language of the Central Plains. From then on, Roche not only understood the superficial meaning of Chinese words, but also understood the hidden meaning.
It was during his 17 years in Liangzhou that Kumarajiva gained a deep understanding of the culture of the Central Plains and his literary ability was also very profound. After a long wait, Kumarajiva had no hope of leaving Liangzhou.
On the contrary, the situation took a turn for the better at this time. Yao Chang established the Later Qin Dynasty after occupying Guanzhong . Yao Chang also wanted to invite Kumarajiva to Chang'an to promote Buddhism, so he sent an envoy to Liangzhou to negotiate. At this time, Lu Guang was dead, and his son Lu Long succeeded to the throne. Lu Long still refused to let him go. Lu Guang and his son neither promoted Taoism nor let him go, so they trapped Kumarajiva in Liangzhou.
When Yao Chang died, his son Yao Xing succeeded to the throne, and Yao Xing was a devout Buddhist. He was eager to see Kumarajiva, so he sent an envoy to Liangzhou again to negotiate. However, Lu Long still refused to let him go, so Yao Xing sent 100,000 troops to attack Liangzhou. Lu Long was defeated and surrendered to Yao Xing. Kumarajiva, who had been waiting for 17 years, was finally welcomed to Chang'an by Yao Xing.
At this time, Kumarajiva was no longer young, he was already 58 years old. After Kumarajiva arrived in Chang'an, Yao Xing respected him as a national preceptor and invited him to stay in Xiaoyaoyuan . He was very respectful to him. Kumarajiva was finally able to fulfill his mission. He began to preach and translate Buddhist scriptures. Kumarajiva organized a very large translation group, with more than 800 disciples following him to translate Buddhist scriptures.
His translation of scriptures was very strict and involved many processes. Kumarajiva organized it himself. He recited the scriptures. He read one sentence in the original text, and then those disciples who knew Sanskrit translated it into a Chinese sentence. Then hundreds of people discussed it together until the Sanskrit and Chinese meanings were completely consistent. Many of his disciples came from Tianzhu and the Western Regions, and they all participated in the work of translating scriptures. Sometimes hundreds of people discussed the accuracy of a word and couldn't decide for several days. It was because of Kumarajiva's spirit of striving for perfection that he was able to translate so many classic Buddhist scriptures.
At that time, Chang'an was an era of Buddhism, and only top-notch talents could become monks and learn Buddhism. It's different now. Now we advocate science. Buddhism at that time was a universal value just like science now.
Kumarajiva not only translated many Buddhist scriptures, he also brought Mahayana Buddhism to China. Kumarajiva himself practiced Hinayana first and then Mahayana, so he could better spread Mahayana Buddhism to China.Because of Kumarajiva's arrival, Chang'an City came to many admiring seekers. He also trained many Buddhist disciples and many Buddhist talents. His disciples reached more than 3,000, and the Buddhist atmosphere in Chang'an City reached its peak for a time.
The emperor of the Later Qin Dynasty, Yao Xing, was extremely respectful to Kumarajiva. He regarded Kumarajiva as a saint. At this time, Yao Xing suddenly had an idea. He told Kumarajiva, Master, you have such good genes, you must leave excellent Dharma seeds to this world. Yao Xing selected 10 outstanding women to serve Kumarajiva, and he begged Kumarajiva to promise to leave excellent Dharma seeds no matter what.
According to the records in "The Biography of Eminent Monks", Kumarajiva will not live in the monk's room from now on, but will live in a separate house outside. From then on, Kumarajiva often compared himself to mud when giving lectures to others. He told everyone that my body is like mud, but lotus flowers can grow out of the mud. If you just pick lotus flowers, don't imitate me and make mud.
It can be seen from this passage that Kumarajiva accepted 10 women, but we don’t know what considerations he had for accepting them. But according to what he said, he compared his body to mud, and we can see some of his helplessness.
We can also use our imagination to speculate on the reasons why he accepted it. The reason why Kumarajiva did this may be some compromises made for the cause of promoting Buddhism. In his time, why could Buddhism spread so quickly and on such a large scale? Having eminent monks like Kumarajiva is definitely a factor, but another more important factor is the support of the royal family.
Yao Xing used the entire country's financial resources to support thousands of Buddhist disciples. He also provided Kumarajiva with all the materials needed for preaching and translating scriptures. Basically, he provided whatever was needed. It was because of this that Kumarajiva could safely translate so many classic scriptures and train so many outstanding Buddhist disciples.
In order for Kumarajiva to maintain such a relationship with the royal family, he may have to make some compromises with the secular world on some things. But after this incident spread, many people wanted to learn how to make mud, and many Buddhist disciples wanted to learn from him, and they also wanted to marry and move outside to live in monks' houses.
At that time, there was a person who specialized in managing the discipline of monks, and he was also a disciple of Kumarajiva. This disciple told Kumarajiva, "Master, please think about what to do. These people are using you as an excuse, and I can't help it." Kumarajiva told him, find all the monks who want to move outside and tell them that I will treat them to a meal. When the monks arrived, they saw that each of them had a bowl in front of them. There was a handful of silver needles in the bowl. Kumarajiva's bowl was also filled with silver needles.
Everyone looked at Kumarajiva, not knowing what it meant. Kumarajiva said that today I am here to treat everyone to eat noodles. After saying that, he grabbed a handful of silver needles and put it in his mouth and ate it. After eating, he grabbed a handful of silver needles and ate it again. He ate all the bowl of silver needles. Then he looked at the disciples below and said, "When will you be able to eat silver needles like noodles like me? Come and imitate me and move out to live outside." After that, he left. Those disciples who wanted to marry no longer dared to do so. This is the famous Buddhist Lashtun Needle.
Kumarajiva translated Buddhist scriptures. He not only translated new classics, he also took out and re-translated some classics that had been translated by previous generations. There were many inaccuracies in previous translations that were not conducive to spiritual practice, so Kumarajiva found some important scriptures and translated them again.
When he translated, he translated it strictly according to the original meaning. Because of his high level of Chinese, he was able to express the meaning of Buddhist scriptures in very accurate words. The works he translated required not only clear meaning but also high literary level, and the text was both smooth and beautiful. In order to achieve the effect of smooth and beautiful text, he studied Chinese poetry in depth.
There are many verses in the Buddhist scriptures, and he translated them into verses. After he translated them into verses, the Buddhist scriptures became particularly beautiful. It was not enough that the text of his translations of Buddhist scriptures was beautiful, he also added rhythm.The original Buddhist scriptures all have rhythm. He saw that the previously translated Buddhist scriptures were good enough to express the basic meaning of the scriptures correctly, but there was no rhythm at all.
He not only requires accurate meanings and beautiful words, he also requires that the translation be rhythmic, that the translation can be catchy, and can even be sung. Therefore, the Buddhist scriptures we can hear now can not only be read but also sung. Many Buddhist scriptures are very pleasant to sing. This is all due to Master Kumarajiva.
After Kumarajiva arrived in Chang'an, he opened a forum to lecture on the Dharma and translated scriptures day and night, without stopping for a moment. He may have wanted to make up for all the time he wasted in those years. In order to spread the Dharma, he really worked hard, and the scale of Kumarajiva's translation of scriptures reached the highest peak in history. Among later people, only Master Xuanzang could reach his scale. Master Kumarajiva also trained more than 3,000 Buddhist disciples. Many of his disciples have achieved very high achievements, which are incomparable to all subsequent masters.
When Kumarajiva was very old, he could still recite the scriptures he had recited secretly. Those scriptures had no original text and were passed down orally from generation to generation of masters. After his death, an eminent monk from the Western Regions said that the scriptures translated by Kumarajiva were only one-tenth of the scriptures he had memorized. Perhaps the reason why Kumarajiva worked so hard day and night to translate the sutras was that he wanted to leave more Buddhist classics to the world.
Before Master Kumarajiva died, when he said goodbye to his disciples, he said that I have translated more than 300 volumes of scriptures, and I hope these scriptures can be passed down to future generations. Today I make an oath in front of everyone. If the scriptures I translate are not false, my tongue will not burn to death after my body is cremated.
After the death of Master Kumarajiva, his disciples conducted Davi cremation of his body. After the death, Master Kumarajiva's tongue was indeed not burnt to death, and Master Kumarajiva left tongue relics to the world. His tongue relics are still preserved in the Kumarajiva Temple in Wuwei, Gansu Province. This is why no one dared to add or subtract a word in the Buddhist scriptures translated by Master Kumarajiva for 1,600 years.
The Buddhist scriptures he translated are also the most widely circulated versions over the years. The "Diamond Sutra" translated by Master Kumarajiva is the first paper book printed in China after the advent of printing technology, and it is also the first paper printed book in the world. Many of the scriptures he translated became the legal texts of many local sects in China.
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