On Reprimanding Hachiman Chapter8
This Great Bodhisattva was present in the assembly when the Lotus Sutra was preached and at that time pledged to protect the votary of the Lotus Sutra. Yet for a number of years now he has failed to inflict punishment on the archenemies of the Lotus Sutra, which I find exceedingly strange. Moreover, it happens that a votary of the Lotus Sutra has now appeared on the scene, but Hachiman grants him no protection. Before his very eyes he sees the malice displayed by the ruler of the nation and others as they attack the votary like dogs snapping at a monkey, a snake swallowing a frog, a hawk attacking a pheasant, or a lion slaughtering a hare, yet not once has he made a move to chastise them, or if he has done so, it was in a half-hearted and ineffectual manner. That is no doubt the reason that Great Bodhisattva Hachiman has now been punished by Brahmā, Shakra, the gods of the sun and moon, and the four heavenly kings.
Look, for example, at the case of the emperors Kimmei, Bidatsu, and Yōmei, three rulers of antiquity.13 At the urging of Chief Minister Mononobe no Moriya, they handed down an edict ordering the destruction by fire of the gilded bronze image of Shakyamuni Buddha, the burning of the hall that housed it, and the punishment of Buddhist priests and nuns. And as a result, fire came down from the heavens and burned up the residential quarters of the palace. In addition, the common people of the nation of Japan, though guilty of no fault, were inflicted with malignant sores and over half of them perished. In the end, the three emperors and two of their high ministers, as well as numerous other princes and court officials, either died of malignant sores or were killed in battle. At that time the sanctuaries in which the many different deities of the nation resided were all burned to the ground. This was because of the grave fault they committed by lending protection to the enemies of Shakyamuni Buddha.
Again there is the case of Onjō-ji, a temple that is older than Enryaku-ji temple of Mount Hiei, but that now teaches the True Word doctrines advocated by the Great Teacher Chishō and refers to its leaders as chief officials. Though it is without question a branch temple of Enryaku-ji, Onjō-ji has usurped the right to establish a Mahayana ordination platform, a right that belonged to Enryaku-ji alone, setting up such an ordination platform and disobeying Enryaku-ji. In doing so, it is behaving like a petty official who opposes his sovereign, or a child who disobeys its parents.
Yet the great deity of Silla14 mistakenly lends his protection to this evil and rebellious temple, and as a result he has time and again had his sanctuary burned down by priests from Enryaku-ji.
Now Great Bodhisattva Hachiman, because he lent his protection to the archenemies of the Lotus Sutra, has had his sanctuary burned down by fire from the heavens. It is like the case of the First Emperor of the Ch’in dynasty in China. The distant ancestor of the First Emperor was King Hsiang, who acted as a deity and bestowed his protection upon the First Emperor. But the First Emperor conducted himself with great arrogance, burning the classical texts of the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors of antiquity and destroying The Classic of Filial Piety and other works of the Three Sages. As a result, a man known then as the governor of P’ei took up his sword and cut in two the great snake that was the deity of the Ch’in emperor, and shortly after that the Ch’in dynasty came to an end.15 This is another example of what I have been discussing here.
Again, the great deity of Itsukushima Shrine in the province of Aki acted as the patron god of the Taira clan. But because he permitted the members of the Taira clan to behave in arrogant fashion, he was subjected to divine punishment by the deity of the great Ise Shrine, Hachiman, and others, and not long after that the Taira clan met with its downfall. This serves as yet another example.
Notes
13. Bidatsu was the thirtieth emperor and the second son of Emperor Kimmei, and Yōmei was the thirty-first emperor and the fourth son of Emperor Kimmei. According to traditional accounts, in the reign of Emperor Bidatsu, Soga no Umako built a pagoda to enshrine the Buddha’s relics. When an epidemic broke out, Mononobe no Moriya attributed it to the anger of the native gods at the respect shown to the “foreign deity,” and he destroyed the pagoda.
14. The great deity of Silla is regarded as a guardian god of Onjō-ji temple. Tradition has it that in 858, on his return from T’ang China, Chishō saw an elderly man appear before him, saying that he was a deity of the Korean kingdom of Silla who would descend in Japan in order to protect Buddhism. In 860 Onjō-ji built a sanctuary for the statue of the deity as the guardian of the temple.
15. The governor of P’ei refers to Liu Pang (247–195 b.c.e.), the founder of the Former Han dynasty. He overthrew the Ch’in dynasty whose ancestral deity is said to have been King Hsiang. The story of his taking his sword and cutting in two the great snake is found in Records of the Historian. The snake symbolizes King Hsiang and the Ch’in dynasty, and Liu Pang’s cutting it, the defeat of the Ch’in by the Former Han.