Condolences on a Deceased Husband Chapter13

In the reign of Emperor Tai-tsung of the T’ang dynasty in China there was a military leader named Li Ju-hsien, the son of a man known as the Tumbleweed General.³⁰ Li Ju-hsien was commanded by the emperor to attack the barbarian region of the north, but his force of several hundred thousand mounted soldiers was overwhelmed by the barbarians. Li Ju-hsien was taken prisoner and spent the following forty years in the barbarian land. During that time he took a wife and she bore him children. According to the custom of the barbarian land, a captive who was taken alive was obliged to wear garments of hide and a sash of felt. Only on the first day of the first month was Li Ju-hsien permitted to put on Chinese robes and hat. Thus, once every year he recalled his homeland and wept in his bitterness and longing.

Later, when the T’ang armies marched forth and T’ang troops attacked the barbarian region, Li seized an opportunity to steal away, abandoning his wife and children among the barbarians and fleeing. But the T’ang troops took him captive as though he had been one of the barbarians and were about to behead him.

Eventually he was brought before the ruler, Emperor Te-tsung, but no matter how he pleaded, the emperor refused to listen, and he was condemned to exile in the southern region of Wu and Yüeh.

Li Ju-hsien lamented his fate, saying, “I am not permitted to go forward and journey to my native region of Liang-yüan, nor am I allowed to retire and join my wife and children in the barbarian land.” He had abandoned his wife and children among the barbarians, he was unable to see his homeland in China again, and then he was exiled to a quite different region. He had shown the utmost loyalty, yet ended by lamenting in this way.

I, Nichiren, have done likewise. I spoke out because I thought I could help my native country of Japan. But now I am forced to live apart from the province where I was born and the province where I was exiled. For some time now I have secluded myself deep in this mountain, my fate much like that of Li Ju-hsien. I have no wife and family, either in my native region or in the land where I was exiled, and on that score I need not lament as he did. But I cannot help thinking about the grave of my father and mother and wondering how the people I used to know are faring.

There is one thing, however, that makes me happy. The warriors, true to their training, took the lead in crossing the Uji and Seta rivers³¹ in the cause of their lord, and, though many of them may have perished, their names will be known in ages to come.

In the cause of the Lotus Sutra, I have repeatedly been driven from my dwelling and faced armed attack, and I have suffered wounds on my hand. My disciples have been killed, I have twice been exiled to distant regions, and once I was almost beheaded. All this I bore solely for the sake of the Lotus Sutra.

In the Lotus Sutra the Buddha states that some two thousand, two hundred and more years after his passing, in the last five-hundred-year period, when efforts are made to propagate this sutra throughout the land of Jambudvīpa, the heavenly devil will take possession of people and attempt to prevent the dissemination of the sutra. It will happen then that those who have faith in the sutra will be cursed and attacked, driven from one place to another, and perhaps even killed. At that time, those who stand in the vanguard will win benefit as great as though they had given offerings to the Buddhas of the three existences and the ten directions. And the Buddha has also promised that he will transfer to such persons the benefits resulting from his own trials and ascetic practices. (I have summarized the meaning of the sutra passages.)