I have a question, especially for those who could read Chinese. According to the passage from the Ekottarāgama below, the people of the Shakyas clan in their past live were starved and had to caught and eat fish. However, such deed lead them to be reborn multiple times in hell and finally were massacred as a clan during the Buddha time? Now, is eating fish out of starvation that serious of a crime one has to suffer numerous lives in hell and finally getting such a tragic death? Then our ancestors who relied on fishing/hunting must have surely gone to hell? Is there something in the passage that I do not understand?
https://suttacentral.net/lzh/ea34.2
Thanks,爾時,世尊告諸比丘:「昔日之時,此羅 閱城中有捕魚村。時世極飢儉,人食草根, 一升金貿一升米。時,彼村中有大池水,又 復饒魚。時,羅閱城中人民之類,往至池中 而捕魚食之。當於爾時,水中有二種魚:一 名拘璅,二名兩舌。是時,二魚各相謂言:『我 等於此眾人,先無過失,我是水性之虫,不 處平地,此人民之類,皆來食噉我等,設前 世時,少多有福德者,其當用報怨。』
「爾時, 村中有小兒年向八歲,亦不捕魚,復非害 命。然復彼魚在岸上者,皆悉命終;小兒見 已,極懷歡喜。
「比丘當知,汝等莫作是觀。爾 時羅閱城中人民之類,豈異人乎?今釋種是 也。爾時拘璅魚者,今流離王是也。爾時兩 舌魚者,今好苦梵志是也。爾時小兒見魚在 堓上而笑者,今我身是也。爾時,釋種坐取 魚食,由此因緣,無數劫中入地獄中,今受 此對。我爾時,坐見而笑之,今患頭痛,如似 石押,猶如以頭戴須彌山。所以然者,如 來更不受形,以捨眾行,度諸厄難,是謂, 比丘!由此因緣今受此報。諸比丘當護身、 口、意行,當念恭敬、承事梵行人。如是,諸比 丘!當作是學。」
YN