by wishing » Fri Sep 16, 2011 10:20 am
Shotoku supposedly lived around the year 600, so a long time ago indeed. The first records we have of buddhist texts and artefacts being brought to Japan from Korea are from around 550, and it was during Shotoku's time that the first big temples and such were built. He is credited with building the Horyuji, for example, which is the oldest wooden building in Japan or somesuch.
For those interested, I wrote a few short translations of excerpts from the Shotoku biography found in a text called the Nihon Ojo Zenden from 1882, included below. The first two excerpts are from the beginning and the last one is from the end.
聖徳太子者豊日天王弟二子也。母妃皇女夢有金色僧謂曰吾有救世之願。願宿后腹妃問為誰。僧曰吾救世菩薩家在西方。妃答妾腹垢穢何宿矣。僧曰吾不厭垢穢唯望感人間。躍入口中妃卽覺後喉中搆呑物。自此以後始知有娠漸及八月胎中而言聲聞于外。出胎之時怱有赤黄光至自西方照耀殿内。
Shōtoku Taishi was the second child of the Emperor Toyohi. In a dream of his mother the Empress, there was a golden coloured monk who said, “I have made a vow to save the world, [therefore] I wish to reside in your womb." The Empress asked, “Who are you?” The monk said, "I am the bodhisattva who saves the world, my home is in the west." The Empress answered, "My belly is not pure, what could reside there?" The monk said, "I have no issue with impurity, I simply feel hope for mankind." He jumped into her mouth, and immediately after it felt as though she had swallowed something.
After this she realised that she was finally pregnant, and she went to eight months. From within her womb, those outside could hear a voice. At the birth, suddenly a yellow and red light arrived which shone from the west and into the palace.
生而能言知。人擧動百濟國獻經論。太子奏曰欲披閲之。天皇恠而問之奏曰昔在漢住南嶽歴数十身修行佛道。時年六歳太子身體尤香抱懐之人竒香染衣 數月不滅。
百濟日羅來朝身光明。太子徹服從諸童子。入館而見之日羅指太子曰是神人矣。
From birth the child had the ability to speak. [During this period] all the people from the Kingdom of Paekche (in Korea) brought sutras and śastras. The Prince said to the Emperor, "I wish to open and inspect them". The Emperor was puzzled and said "Long ago [he must have] lived in China at the Southern Peak and for long periods studied the way of the Buddha".
At the time the Prince was six years old, his body smelled fragrantly, and a person who embraced him would smell fragrant also, a smell which would not go away for many months. [From] Paekche, Nichira came to visit Kōmyō. The Prince was wearing clothes like most children. On a day he went into the palace to look around, Nichira pointed at the Prince and said, "this is a divine being".
天下老少如哭愛子如喪慈父哀泣之聲滿於道路。[…] 太子并妃其容如生其身太香舉。
其兩屍輕如衣服。高麗僧慧慈聞太子薨哀哭發誓願。曰日本太子誠是大聖也。我雖異境心有斷金。縱獨憖生有何益。我以太子薨日必死遇太子於浄土。明年二月廿一日太子薨日慧慈卽死果如其言。
In the whole country, old as well as young felt sorrow [as though they had lost] a beloved child. The roads were filled with the wailing voices of mourning. […] The bodies of the Prince and the Empress smelled fragrantly as they had done in life. Both the bodies [became] light like fabric. When the Korean monk Eji heard of the Prince's death, he was grief-stricken and made a vow. He said, "The Japanese Prince was truly a great sage. I, although I am from a different country, feel as the people here do. What benefit can there be from being left alone in this aimless life? On the day of the Prince's death, I will surely die and be with the Prince in the Pure Land." On the twenty-first day of the second month of the following year, on the day of the Prince's death, Eji achieved his death just like he had said.
