花嚴經文義綱目 1.8

1.8

初中教傳之相者，西域相傳，此經結集已後收入龍宮，佛滅度六百年後龍樹菩薩往龍宮，見此大不思議經，上本有十三千大千世界微塵數偈，四天下微塵數品；中本有四十九萬八千八百偈，一千二百品；下本有十萬偈三十八品。龍樹遂將此下本出至天竺國，造不思議論亦十萬偈，以釋此經。今耶舍三藏所翻《十住毘婆沙論》，是彼一品也。爰有東晉沙門名支法領，從于闐國但得此三萬六千偈，并請得大乘三果菩薩禪師，名伏馱跋陀羅，此云覺賢，俗姓釋迦氏，即甘露飯王之苗裔，來至晉朝。以安帝義熙十四年歲次鶉火三月十日，於楊州謝司空寺別造護淨華嚴法堂，於中譯出此經。時堂前有蓮花池，每日有二青衣童子從池而出，掃灑研墨，暮還歸池，經了便止。相傳釋云：以此經久在龍宮，慶此傳通，故令龍王給侍耳。後因改此寺名興嚴寺也。有晉沙門釋法業、惠嚴、惠觀等，親從筆受，法業因此出義記，名花嚴旨歸，二卷。有吳郡內史孟顗、右衛將軍褚叔度等為檀越。至元熙二年六月十日譯出訖，至大宗永初二年十二月二十日與梵本再校勘畢，當時五十卷成。後人亦有融作六十卷者，於〈法界品〉內先有所欠八九紙文。今大唐永隆元年三月內，有中天竺三藏法師地婆呵羅，唐言日照，奉勅與沙門道成等十大德，於西京太原寺譯出補之，沙門複禮筆受。其經感通及覺賢神迹等，竝如《新集花嚴傳》中辨。

First, regarding the manner of the transmission of the teaching: according to the tradition of the Western Regions, after this sūtra was compiled, it was placed in the dragon palace. Six hundred years after the Buddha's parinirvāṇa, Bodhisattva Nāgārjuna went to the dragon palace and saw this great, inconceivable sūtra. The upper version had verses numbering as many as the dust motes in thirteen great chiliocosms, and chapters numbering as many as the dust motes in the four continents; the middle version had 498,800 verses and 1,200 chapters; and the lower version had 100,000 verses and thirty-eight chapters. Nāgārjuna then brought this lower version out to India and composed the Treatise on the Inconceivable, also in 100,000 verses, to explain this sūtra. The Daśabhūmika-vibhāṣā translated by the Tripiṭaka Master Yaśas today is one chapter of that treatise. Then there was the Eastern Jin śramaṇa named Zhi Faling, who obtained only these 36,000 verses from Khotan, and also invited a Dhyāna master who was a bodhisattva of the third fruit of the Mahāyāna, named Buddhabhadra—translated here as Juexian—whose lay surname was Śākya, being a descendant of King Amṛtodana, to come to the Jin dynasty. On the tenth day of the third month in the fourteenth year of Emperor An's Yixi reign era, cyclical year chunhuo, in the Xie Sikong Monastery of Yangzhou, a specially built, pure-protected Huayan Dharma Hall was established, and this sūtra was translated therein. At that time, in front of the hall was a lotus pond; every day two blue-clad youths would emerge from the pond to sweep, sprinkle water, and grind ink, returning to the pond at dusk, and they stopped once the sūtra was completed. The traditional explanation says: because this sūtra had long remained in the dragon palace, [the dragon king] celebrated its transmission and circulation, and thus sent [servants] to attend to it. Later, because of this, the monastery's name was changed to Xingyan Monastery. There were the Jin śramaṇas Shi Faye, Huiyan, Huiguan, and others who directly took down the translation in writing. Faye subsequently produced a commentary on its meaning titled The Purport of the Avataṃsaka in two fascicles. The Governor of Wu Commandery Meng Yi and General of the Right Guard Chu Shudu were the dānapatis. The translation was completed on the tenth day of the sixth month in the second year of Yuanxi. On the twentieth day of the twelfth month in the second year of Dazong's Yongchu reign era, its collation against the Sanskrit text was completed, resulting at the time in fifty fascicles. Later persons also combined it into sixty fascicles, in which eight or nine sheets of text were originally missing from the Gaṇḍavyūha chapter. Recently, in the third month of the first year of the Yonglong reign era of the Great Tang, the Tripiṭaka Master Divākara of Central India—translated into Chinese as Rizhao—under imperial decree together with ten venerables including the śramaṇa Daocheng, translated and supplied the missing text at the Taiyuan Monastery in the Western Capital, with the śramaṇa Fuli taking it down in writing. The spiritual responses to the sūtra and the miraculous deeds of Buddhabhadra are all distinguished as in the Newly Compiled Biographies of the Avataṃsaka.