涅槃玄義發源機要 4.13

4.13

二、「仍蒔」下，明資緣勤苦。蒔，種也。種粟充食，拾薪備爨。二、「暨染」下，感傷謙己，二：初、感傷多難。暨，至也。從此絕筆，逆至染筆，凡歷五載，即唐高祖武德元年戊寅歲撰疏絕筆也。煬帝即位，改元大業，在位十三年。十二年幸江東宮，十三年唐公起義師於太原，破宋老生於霍邑，所在克敵，遂入長安，尊煬帝為太上皇，奉煬帝孫文德太子之子侑。篡位，即恭帝也，改元義寧。至二年，遜位于唐公，改云武德。既云凡歷五載，知是武德元年絕筆也。於此五載，凡經六移：初寄天台之南、二移沃洲、三移遂安、四移柵城、五重移遂安、六移安洲。并前八障及中五難，共成十九難緣。於後六中，更取火賊二事，則有二十一也。五難，謂僧使、遭追、值水、被讒、馬陷也。前八中，五是製疏之遠由、尋舊疏是近由，後六是正製疏。問：前八為障，何名遠由？答：由不聞法，故自撰疏。若其聞者，則疏是師說，安得自製？前八為障竟不聞法，後六雖艱終成斯疏。嗚呼！正法難聞、正道難行，其若是乎。干戈者，孔安國曰「干，盾也。戈，戟也。」《論語》曰「而謀動干戈於邦內。」菜食水齋，言其儉也。水床雪被，喻其寒也。其有圓頂方袍暖衣飽食，既逢遺教又偶清時，而口不談出世之言、心不則至真之道，自樹迷暗、反輕學宗，吾知斯人紹三塗種，疏主聖者得無悲乎！夢抽思乙者，「乙」應作「一」，《昭明文選．序》云「耿介之意既復，壹欝之懷靡愬」，注曰「壹欝，憂思也」。今謂軍火所怖、干戈所駭，而夢驚若抽、憂思壹欝。「辭既」下，謙己述懷。野質者，《論語》曰「質勝文則野」。此言辭鄙意豈會文者，謂所立義意淺近，豈能契會斯經圓頓之文也。此言義暗辭鄙，義暗皆謙也。有崖易殆者，《爾雅》曰「重崖岸」，注曰「兩崖累者曰岸。」殆，危也。有身速滅，如土岸易崩。空海難遍者，圓空廣大若滄海難遍，故不可以易殆之身窮難遍之義也。「盲寱」下，如盲觸象、如寱談刀，或可偏知於少義，敢言圓解於大理也。「特是」下，正明述作之意。既是偏知，何故撰疏？故釋云：特是不負本懷也。言本懷者，始為此經遂親智者，即前文云「走雖不敏，願聞旨趣，於是負笈天台，心忻藍染也。」遽茲石火者，《淮南子》曰「人生天地之間，如鑿石見火、電光過隙。」疏主自謂無常忽遽如彼石火，不能久研經義，故且率爾成疏也。「卷舒」下，自慶也。初句明卷舒尋經，次句明讚嘆撰疏。仰謝於心口者，由心思故口讚也。鹿耘毒草，或作「麁芸」，並豕亥之誤，應作「麃𮐀」。上彼苗切，下音袞。《左傳》曰「譬如農夫，是穮是𮐀。」杜注云「穮，耘也。𮐀，壅苗也。」然毒草藥王之語，出在今經。故〈如來性品〉云「譬如雪山多生諸藥，亦有毒草。諸眾生身亦復如是，雖有四大毒蛇之種，其中亦有妙藥，大工所謂佛性。」或執訛字，便求麋鹿耘草之緣者，何異聞三豕渡河，便謂猪行水上乎。故《僧傳》道丕議沙汰云：「僧之清尚必不露於人前，僧或凶頑而偏遊於世上。必恐正施藨𮐀，草和蘭茝而芟；方事淘澄，金逐沙泥而蕩。」彼用藨𮐀之語義與今同。又麃藨穮三體並通，《爾雅》云「緜，穮也。」《經典釋文》作「麃，耘也。」《字林》云「耕，禾間也。」《說文》云「𦔩，耨鋤也。」今疏主斥諸師非義，如麃𮐀毒草；顯佛性正理，如微養藥王。故前文云「將疏勘經，不與文會，怏怏終日恒若病諸」也。螳𧑃螢熠者，螳螂性怒，遇物必舉𧑃而拒之。《莊子》曰「螳螂怒臂以當車，豈免碎於轍間？」《文選》曰「欲以螳螂之斧，禦隆車之隧。」注云「前有兩足，舉之如執斧之象。」崔豹《古今注》曰「螢火，一名暉夜、一名景天、一名熠熠、一名燐、一名丹良、一名丹鳥、一名夜光、一名宵燭。」非能抗曜也者，曜即日也。《廣雅》云「日名曜靈。」謂螳𧑃不能拒抗於車轍，螢熠不能爭輝於曜靈。此疏主自謙識見微劣，不能抗曜於諸師也。吾祖聖師為法之志、艱苦之迹盡在於此文矣。傳斯宗者，得不思齊？《詩》云「伐柯伐柯，其則不遠。」可不懋乎？或卷末有半紙批文者，蓋後人謬錄。

Second, from "I still sowed..." onward, he clarifies his hardship regarding supporting resources. Sowed (shi): to plant. He planted millet for food and gathered firewood for cooking. Second, from "When I dipped..." onward, he expresses grief and humbles himself, in two parts: first, he laments having suffered many hardships. When (ji): to reach. From this final setting down of the brush, tracing back to the first dipping of the brush, a total of five years elapsed; that is, the writing of the commentary was concluded in the first year of the Wude era of Emperor Gaozu of the Tang, the wuyin year (618 CE). When Emperor Yang ascended the throne, he changed the reign title to Daye and reigned for thirteen years. In the twelfth year, he visited the palace in Jiangdong. In the thirteenth year, the Duke of Tang raised a righteous army at Taiyuan, defeated Song Laosheng at Huoyi, conquered enemies wherever he went, and finally entered Chang'an, honouring Emperor Yang as the Retired Emperor and enthroning Emperor Yang's grandson, You, the son of Crown Prince Wende. This succession was Emperor Gong, who changed the reign title to Yining. In the second year, he abdicated the throne to the Duke of Tang, who changed the title to Wude. Since it says, "a total of five years elapsed," we know that the brush was set down in the first year of Wude. During these five years, he underwent six relocations in all: first lodging south of Tiantai, second moving to Wozhou, third moving to Sui'an, fourth moving to Zhacheng, fifth moving back to Sui'an, and sixth moving to Anzhou. Combined with the eight obstacles prior and the five tribulations during the interim, these make nineteen circumstances of hardship in all. If from the latter six we also count the two incidents of fire and bandits, there are twenty-one. The five tribulations refer to the monastic emissary, encountering pursuit, meeting with floods, suffering slander, and the horse getting stuck. Among the former eight, five were the distant causes for composing the commentary, and examining the old commentary was the proximate cause, while the latter six were the actual writing of the commentary. Question: If the former eight were obstacles, why are they called distant causes? Answer: Because he did not hear the Dharma [from his teacher], he wrote the commentary himself. If he had heard it, the commentary would have been his master's exposition; how could he have composed it himself? Because of the former eight obstacles, he ultimately did not hear the Dharma, yet despite the hardships of the latter six, he ultimately completed this commentary. Alas! The true dharma is difficult to hear, and the correct path is difficult to practice—how true this is! Shields and halberds (gan ge): Kong Anguo said, "Gan is a shield; ge is a halberd." The Analects says, "Yet they plot to stir up shields and halberds within the state." A vegetable diet and water fasting express his frugality. A water bed and a snow blanket serve as metaphors for his cold. If there are those with shaved heads and square robes who wear warm clothes and eat full meals, who have encountered the bequeathed teachings and met with peaceful times, yet their mouths do not speak words transcending the world, and their minds do not take the supreme and true path as their model, who erect their own delusions and instead disparage the ancestral tradition of learning—I know that such people will continue the seeds of the three destinies; could the holy master, the commentator, not feel grief for them? "In dreams my thoughts were drawn in depression": the character yi (乙) should be yi (壹). The preface to the Zhaoming wenxuan says, "Once the upright intention has returned, the suppressed feelings of grief (yiyu) have nowhere to appeal"; its commentary says, "Yiyu means sorrowful thoughts." Here it means that, terrified by soldiers and fire, and alarmed by shields and halberds, in dreams he was startled as if plucked, with deep thoughts of sorrow and depression. From "The prose being..." onward, he humbles himself and expresses his feelings. Rustic substance: the Analects says, "When substance exceeds refinement, one is rustic." The statement "how could my crude intentions match the refinement?" means that the doctrinal meaning he established was shallow and proximate; how could it match the perfect and sudden text of this sūtra? These words about obscure meaning and crude prose are both expressions of humility. "A fragile cliff is easily endangered": the Erya says, "Layered cliffs form a bank"; the commentary says, "Two cliffs piled up are called a bank." Endanger (dai): precarious. A physical body perishes swiftly, just as an earthen bank easily crumbles. "The ocean of emptiness is difficult to fathom": the perfect emptiness is vast like the ocean and difficult to fathom completely; therefore, one cannot use a fragile and easily endangered body to fathom fully the meaning that is difficult to exhaust. From "Like the blind and the somnambulist..." onward: like the blind touching the elephant, or the somnambulist talking about a sword, one may perhaps have partial knowledge of a small meaning, but how could one dare speak of a perfect understanding of the Great Principle? From "It is solely that..." onward, he directly clarifies the intention of his composition. Since it was merely partial knowledge, why compose a commentary? Therefore, he explains: it was solely not to betray his original wish. As for his original wish: he initially drew close to Zhizhe for the sake of this sūtra, as the preceding text stated: "Though dull-witted, I wished to hear its purport; thereupon I carried my book-satchel to Tiantai, my mind rejoicing in being dyed with indigo." "Sudden as a strike of flint": the Huainanzi says, "Man's life between Heaven and Earth is like striking a flint to see fire, or a flash of lightning passing through a chink." The commentator considered impermanence to be as fleeting as that strike of flint; unable to study the sūtra's meaning for long, he therefore hastily completed the commentary. From "Unrolling and rolling up..." onward, he rejoices in himself. The first line clarifies unrolling and rolling up [the scrolls] to examine the sūtra; the second line clarifies praising it and composing the commentary. Giving thanks from the mind and mouth: because he contemplated it in his mind, he praised it with his mouth. "Weeding poisonous grass like a deer"—some texts write "crude weeding"; both are corruptions like mistaking shi (pig) for hai (the cyclic sign); it should be biao-gun (麃𮐀). The first character is pronounced bi + miao; the second is pronounced gun. The Zuo zhuan says, "Like a farmer, who weeds (biao) and banks up soil (gun)." Du's commentary says, "Biao means to weed; gun means to bank up earth around sprouts." Furthermore, the words "poisonous grass" and "medicinal king" appear in the present sūtra. Thus the "Chapter on the Tathāgata-nature" says, "For example, the Snowy Mountains produce many medicines, but there are also poisonous grasses. The bodies of all sentient beings are also like this: although they have the seeds of the poisonous snakes of the four great elements, within them there is also a wondrous medicine, which the great physician calls the Buddha-nature." If someone clings to the erroneous character and searches for a circumstance of deer weeding grass, how is that different from hearing that "three pigs crossed the river" and assuming that swine walked upon the water? Thus, Daozhen's discussion on monastic purges in the Biographies of Eminent Monks says: "The pure and noble among monks do not display themselves before others; yet if a monk is vicious and stubborn, he wanders exclusively in the world. I fear that when one undertakes weeding and banking up, the weeds along with the thoroughwort and angelica are all cut down; or when one engages in panning and sifting, the gold along with the sand and mud is swept away." His use of the term "weeding and banking up" (biao-gun) has the same meaning as here. Furthermore, the three character forms 麃, 藨, and 穮 are interchangeable; the Erya says, "Mian means to weed (biao)." The Jingdian shiwen writes, "Biao means to weed." The Zilin says, "To plough between the grain." The Shuowen says, "Biao means to weed with a hoe." Here the commentator refutes the incorrect meanings of the various masters, like weeding and banking up poisonous grass, and reveals the correct principle of the Buddha-nature, like gently nurturing the king of medicines. Thus the earlier text says, "Collating the commentary with the sūtra, it did not accord with the text; distressed all day long, I was constantly as if ill." Praying mantises and fireflies: praying mantises are aggressive by nature; encountering any object, they invariably raise their forelegs to resist it. Zhuangzi says, "A mantis angers its arms to confront a carriage; how can it avoid being crushed in the ruts?" The Wenxuan says, "Wishing to use the axes of a mantis to resist the descent of a heavy carriage." The commentary says, "It has two forelegs, which it raises like holding axes." Cui Bao's Gujin zhu says, "The firefly is also called huiye, jingtian, yiyi, lin, danliang, danniao, yeguang, and xiaozhu." Unable to resist the bright radiance: the bright radiance (yao) is the sun. The Guangya says, "The sun is named the Radiancy (Yaoling)." This means that a mantis cannot resist carriage ruts, and a firefly cannot compete in brightness with the Radiancy. By this, the commentator humbly expresses that his understanding was slight and inferior, unable to rival the radiance of the various masters. Our ancestral holy master's determination for the Dharma and the traces of his trials and tribulations are completely contained in this text. How could those who transmit this school not resolve to equal him? The Book of Songs says, "Hewing an axe-handle, hewing an axe-handle—the model is not far off." Can one not strive diligently? If at the end of the fascicle there is half a page of marginal notes, it was mistakenly recorded by later people.