新譯華嚴經七處九會頌釋章 1.2

1.2

昔者圭峯禪師有《華嚴綸貫》之作，其書亡逸而不傳。復菴《綸貫》本為禪者作，故雖痛快直捷，而不便於學教之士。甞欲倣《法華綸貫》別作一書，愧無旭師之筆而止。客冬於華頂入信精舍得《七處九會頌釋》，乃清涼觀大師之所著也。其書僅一萬三千餘言，較之疏鈔不及百之一，而全經要義揭示殆盡，且其文平易明白，雖初學可解，實為入華嚴教海之津梁矣！此固非復菴之所能辦，假使旭師見之，未必不歎其不可及也。於是再四校訂，亟付之梓以廣其傳。大抵喜簡厭繁人之恒情也，則斯書流通宜先疏鈔而待今乃行。嗚呼！物之顯晦信有時哉！原本寶永甲申昇堂所寫。其人好古，甞校《梵網石壁疏》等行之世云。

In the past, Chan Master Guifeng wrote the Threading the Avataṃsaka, but that text was lost and not transmitted. Fu'an's Threading was originally composed for practitioners of Chan; thus, although incisive and direct, it is inconvenient for students of the doctrinal teachings. I once wished to model a separate work on the Threading the Lotus Sūtra, but feeling ashamed of lacking the brush of Master Ouyi [Zhixu], I stopped. Last winter, at the Ruxin Hermitage on Huading Peak, I obtained the Explanation of the Verses on the Seven Places and Nine Assemblies; it was indeed authored by the Great Master Chengguan of Qingliang. That work contains only slightly more than thirteen thousand characters—not even one-hundredth compared to his Commentary and Subcommentary—yet it reveals virtually all the essential meanings of the entire sūtra. Moreover, its prose is plain and clear, comprehensible even to beginners, serving truly as a bridge into the doctrinal ocean of the Avataṃsaka! This was certainly not something Fu'an could achieve; and had Master Zhixu seen it, he would surely have sighed at being unable to equal it. Thereupon, after repeated proofreading and collation, I promptly committed it to the printing blocks to widen its circulation. In general, delighting in brevity and disliking prolixity is constant human nature; hence this book's circulation ought to have preceded the Commentary and Subcommentary, yet it awaited the present to be published. Alas! That things have their times of concealment and manifestation is truly so! The base text was transcribed by Shōdō in the kōshin year of the Hōei era (1704). That man loved antiquity and once collated such works as the Stone Wall Commentary on the Brahmajāla Sūtra for publication in the world.