新譯華嚴經七處九會頌釋章 1.10

1.10

釋曰：此謂簡持義，為簡餘經名為此經。又為簡舊經，彼晉朝經卷有六十，今為簡彼，名此經等。此經前後翻譯補闕四本不同，今此第三，證聖元年，于闐國三藏實叉難陀，此云喜學，於東都佛授記寺再譯舊文兼補諸闕，計益九千頌，通舊總翻四萬五千頌，合成漢本卷八十軸。義淨等六大德同譯，復禮法師綴文。更有餘釋，如策林說四萬五千偈者，晉朝譯經三萬六千偈，更益九千頌。故若通論經本，合有六本：一恒本、二大本、三上本、四中本、五下本、六略本。初恒本者，案藏法師疏第一卷云「此通樹形等異類世界各毛端處念念常說，無有休息。此非可結集，不可限其品頌多少，亦非下位所能受持。」廣如〈不思議品〉說。二大本者，如下海雲比丘所受持《普眼經》，以須彌山聚筆、四大海水墨書，一品修多羅不可窮盡，如是等品復過塵數。此是諸大菩薩陀羅尼力之所受持，亦非貝葉所能書記。三上本者，此是結集文中之上本也，故西域相傳龍樹菩薩往龍宮見《大不思議解脫經》有三本，上本有十三千大千世界微塵數頌、四天下微塵數品；四中本者，有四十九萬八千八百偈、一千二百品。此上二本竝祕在龍宮，非閻浮提人力所受持，故此不傳。五下本者，有十萬頌、三十八品。龍樹持此本出現傳天竺，《西域記》說在于闐國南遮俱槃國山中具有此本。六略本者，即此土所傳六十卷本，是彼十萬頌中前分三萬六千頌要略所出也，今此四萬五千偈亦然，六本中略本攝也。廣如彼說。

The explanation says: "This" expresses the meaning of specifying and selecting; to distinguish it from other sūtras, it is called "this sūtra." Furthermore, to distinguish it from the older sūtra—which in the Jin dynasty was in sixty fascicles—it is now called "this sūtra" to differentiate it from that one. This sūtra was translated and supplemented across four different versions at various times. The present one is the third: in the first year of the Zhengsheng era (695 CE), the Tripiṭaka master Śikṣānanda of the kingdom of Khotan—whose name translates as "Delighting in Learning"—re-translated the old text and supplied the various omissions at the Foshouji Monastery in the Eastern Capital, augmenting it by an estimated nine thousand verses, so that together with the old text a total of forty-five thousand verses were translated, compiled into a Chinese text of eighty fascicles. The six great virtues including Yijing translated it together, and Dharma Master Fuli edited the text. There are other explanations: as the Forest of Strategies states regarding the forty-five thousand gāthās, the sūtra translated in the Jin dynasty had thirty-six thousand gāthās, to which nine thousand verses were further added. Thus, if one speaks comprehensively of the sūtra texts, there are altogether six versions: first, the Constant Version; second, the Great Version; third, the Upper Version; fourth, the Middle Version; fifth, the Lower Version; and sixth, the Abridged Version. First, regarding the Constant Version: Master Fazang's Commentary, fascicle one, states: "This is constantly preached without cessation in every tip of a hair across diverse worlds shaped like trees and the like, from moment to moment. This is not something that could be compiled, nor can its chapters and verses be delimited in number; nor can it be received and maintained by those of lower ranks." This is detailed in the "Inconceivable Chapter." Second, regarding the Great Version: it is like the Universal Eye Sūtra received and maintained by the bhikṣu Sāgaramegha below, which, using Mount Sumeru as a pile of pens and the water of the four great oceans as ink to write, could not exhaust a single chapter of sūtra; and such chapters exceed the number of dust motes. This is received and maintained by the dhāraṇī power of great bodhisattvas, and likewise cannot be written upon palm leaves. Third, regarding the Upper Version: this is the Upper Version among the texts compiled. Thus, according to Western Regions tradition, when Bodhisattva Nāgārjuna went to the Dragon Palace, he saw that the Great Inconceivable Liberation Sūtra had three versions: the Upper Version had verses as numerous as the dust motes of thirteen great trichiliocosms and chapters as numerous as the dust motes of the four continents. Fourth, the Middle Version: it had four hundred ninety-eight thousand eight hundred gāthās and one thousand two hundred chapters. These upper two versions were both kept secret in the Dragon Palace and could not be received and maintained by the human strength of Jambudvīpa; therefore, they were not transmitted here. Fifth, the Lower Version: it has one hundred thousand verses and thirty-eight chapters. Nāgārjuna brought this version forth and transmitted it in India; the Record of the Western Regions states that this text is preserved in its entirety in the mountains of the kingdom of Cakkuka south of Khotan. Sixth, the Abridged Version: this is the sixty-fascicle version transmitted in this land, which was extracted as an essential summary from the first thirty-six thousand verses among those one hundred thousand verses. The present forty-five thousand gāthās are likewise subsumed under the Abridged Version among the six versions. It is detailed as stated there.