The Boy-King.
Long ages ago there lived a mighty king called Ardschi-Bordschi[1].
In the neighbourhood of his residence was a hill where the boys who were tending the calves were wont to pass away the time by racing up and down. But they had also another custom, and it was, that whichever of them won the race was king for the day—an ordinary game enough, only that when it was played in this place the Boy-king thus constituted was at once endowed with such extraordinary importance and majesty that every one was constrained to treat him as a real king. He had not only ministers and dignitaries among his playfellows, who prostrated themselves before him and fulfilled all his behests, but whoever passed that way could not choose but pay him homage also.
At last the report of the matter filled all the land, and came also to the ears of the King himself.
Ardschi-Bordschi had the whole matter exposed before him, and he inquired into all the manners and ways of the boys; then he said,—
“If this thing happened every day to one and the same boy, then would I acknowledge in him a Bodhisattva[2]; but as every day a different boy may win the race, and it would seem that whichever of them is called king is clothed with equal majesty, it appears manifestly to me that the virtue is not in the boy, but in the hill of which he makes his throne.”
Nevertheless the matter troubled the King, and he desired above all things to obtain some certain knowledge concerning it, not seeing how to search it out.
The False Friend[1]
In the meantime, it had come to pass that one of Ardschi-Bordschi’s subjects had gone out over the sea to search for precious stones. Being detained on his journey beyond the allotted time, he was desirous of making provision for his wife and children whom he had left behind, and, finding that a friend of his company purposed to return home, he trusted to him one of the jewels of which he had become possessed, saying, “When thou comest to the place, deliver this jewel into the hands of my wife, that she may be provided withal until the time of my return. The man, however, sold the jewel and spent the proceeds on his own purposes. When, therefore, the jewel-merchant came home, he inquired of his wife, saying, “By a man named Dsük I sent unto you a jewel so-and-so;” and when he learnt of his wife that the man had brought no jewel, he took the matter before the King. The King commanded the man called Dsük to be brought before him. But the man having got wind that he would have to appear before the King to be judged for the matter, he gave presents to two chief men of the court, and agreed with them, saying, “You will stand witness for me that in presence of you two I delivered the jewel to the man’s wife[2].”
When, therefore, they were all before the King, the King spoke to the man named Dsük, saying, “Did you, or did you not, give the jewel to the man’s wife?” And he boldly made answer, “In presence of these two witnesses I delivered the jewel to her;” while the two great men of the court stood forward and deposed, they also, “Yea, O King! even in our presence he delivered over the jewel.”
As the King could not gainsay the word of the witnesses, he decided the case according to their testimony, and the man named Dsük was released and went away to his home rejoicing at having been so successful in his stratagem to deceive the King, and the two great men of the court and the jewel-merchant went down every one to his home.
It so happened, however, that their way home lay past the hill where the Boy-king sat enthroned. Now as they passed by, the four together, the Boy-king sent and called them into his presence, nor could they fail of compliance with his word.
When they had paid him their obeisance, bowing themselves many times before him, the Boy-king, rising in his majesty, thus spoke,—
“The decision of your King is hasty, and can never stand. I will judge your cause. Do you promise to abide by my decision?”
But the majesty of the Boy-king was upon him, and they could not choose but accept.
The Boy-king therefore set the four men apart in four several places, and to each one of them he gave a lump of clay, saying, “Fashion this lump of clay like to the form of the jewel which was sent.”
When they had all finished the task, it was found that the model of the man who sent the jewel and that of the man who was the bearer of it were alike; but the two great men of the court, who had never seen the jewel, were thrown into great embarrassment by this means, and their models were neither like those of the sender and bearer, nor were they like each other’s.
When the Boy-king saw this he thus pronounced judgment:—
“Because both these men saw and knew the jewel, they could make its image in clay; but it is manifest the two witnesses have never seen the jewel, but have made up their minds to deceive the King by false testimony. Such conduct is most unworthy of all in great men of the King’s court.”
Then he ordered the two false witnesses and the man named Dsük to be secured and taken to the King, all three confessing their crime; and he sent with them this declaration, written in due form of law:—
“According to the principles of earthly might and the sacred maxims of religion hast thou not decided. O Ardschi-Bordschi! thus should not an upright and noble ruler deal. Unless it is given thee to discern good from evil, truth from falsehood, it were better thou shouldst lay aside thy kingly dignity. But if thou desirest to remain king, then judge nothing without duly investigating the matter, even as I.”
With such a letter the Boy-king sent the prisoners to Ardschi-Bordschi.
When the King read the letter, he exclaimed, “What manner of boy is this who writes thus to the King? He must be a being highly endowed with wisdom. If it was the same boy who appeared every day so gifted, I should hold him to be a Bodhisattva, or indeed a very Buddha; but as on different days different boys attain to the same sagacity, the source must remain one and the same for all. Shall it not be that in the foundations of their hill or mound is some stupa[3], where Buddhas or Bodhisattvas have propounded sacred teaching to men? Or shall it be that there lies hidden therein some jewel[4], gifted to impart wisdom to mortals? In some such way, of a certainty, the spot is endowed with singular gifts.”
Thus he spoke, and concluded the affair of the jewel in accordance with the Boy-king’s judgment, delivering the two witnesses over to punishment, and condemning the man named Dsük to pay double the value of the jewel to the merchant whom he had defrauded.