法華經義記 1.2

1.2

I respectfully reflect that our dynasty originated with the prince of eightfold sagacity, and holy rulers and worthy ministers have ever generationally revered and venerated the compassionate and benevolent teachings of the Western regions. Saffron visages and dark-blue graphs shine dazzlingly across the realm; round-pated and furrow-robed [monks] abide in the forest groves; palm leaves in jade-green cases, embroidered brocades, and fine rollers are stored in celebrated mountains and fill rafters and beams. The complete presence of the Three Jewels has indeed long been established. Unworthily counted among the clergy, from my youth I travelled broadly through the monastic groves and dipped my fingers into the ocean of teachings; mostly south and north of Nanjing, I long frequented the lecture platforms of various traditions. Whenever I came across rotting scrolls and scattered fascicles left behind by bookworms, though in summer the heat might melt gold and in winter the cold might snap glue, I tirelessly copied and transcribed them, thereby amassing a flourishing collection that filled chests and packed carts upon my return—in all, merely emulating the diligence shown by Huibu in acquiring texts. Lecturer Ling of Fanwu was rich in learning and surpassing in talent, seldom equalled by his peers. Recently, expounding the *Words and Phrases of the Lotus Sūtra* at the foot of Mount Tiantai, day after day he excavated and disclosed the opening and revealing of the expedient and the real, established the contemplation of delusion in the skandhas, and showed that the nature-evil of dung beetles already contains the wondrous marrow of the three thousand [realms], causing his listeners to savor the taste of sweet dew and ghee. In a moment of leisure between lectures, he happened to turn to me and say: 'In the past, Master [Kumāra]jīva of the Yao Qin personally translated the *Sublime Sūtra* in the land of China. His principal disciple Sengrong first blazed the nine tracks, and the likes of Sengrui and Daosheng, standing thick as trees, sequentially produced treatises. In the Qi period, the lay devotee Liu Qiu together with ten renowned monks undertook to harvest the divergent sayings of the various commentators and compiled the *Annotated Lotus Sūtra*. Down to the early Liang, Dharma Master Guangzhai inherited the teaching to bring about its revival, uniquely standing as a heroic master. He once lectured on the *Lotus Sūtra* and repeatedly elicited the auspicious omen of heavenly flower rain; he also maintained that it was this scripture that the Buddha Candrasūryapradīpa had recited. What is detailed in the histories is surely not false! One can only lament that the *Commentary and Notes* annotated by him suffered adversity at that time and were widely lost to survival. Down through the Tang and Song, men of wide hearing and great learning were never able to lay eyes on them, yet fortunately they survive exclusively in this land. I make bold to request that you print and publish the text you have stored away to give enduring life to its transmission, in the hope of enabling those of hundreds and thousands of generations hence to rely on it to trace back hundreds and thousands of generations prior, as if sharing the same hall and sitting knee to knee in mutual discourse. How could this be a trifling matter?' Rejoicing, I sighed and said: 'How true are your words, O Lecturer! As for the Way of Tiantai, down to the time when Jingxi took up the burden, it shone with even greater brilliance. In secretly perusing his subcommentaries on the *Profound Meaning*, every contraction and expansion of the Tiantai school’s fundamental doctrine is set forth with lofty precision and stirring vigor. Yet when it comes to dissecting Danqiu's drawings upon Guangzhai, or raking over the meaning of the *Profound Treatise*, it brings a sigh and cannot be free from dispute. This is simply because people have not looked into these two works. Jiaxiang's *Profound Treatise* is already in circulation in the world, but this commentary has not yet been recarved in print, which had also left me with deep regret in my heart. Bound by righteousness, I cannot bear to refuse, and I urgently desire to engrave the blocks to share it with those of like mind.'