梵網經古迹記 1.6

1.6

Regarding the translation: Under the Later Qin, there was the Tripiṭaka Master Kumārajīva of the Western Regions, here translated as "Youthful Longevity" (Tongshou). Upholding the bodhisattva precepts, he specifically chanted this chapter. Together with more than three thousand śramaṇas of doctrinal learning, he subsequently translated over fifty works of sūtras and treatises in the Xiaoyao Garden and the Caotang Monastery in Chang'an. Finally, because the ruler of the Qin wished to receive the prohibitive precepts, he separately recited and translated it out, with Huirong and others transcribing it by brush. Master Fazang said: "In the Western Regions there are one hundred thousand verses in sixty-one chapters; translated in full, it would make over three hundred fascicles." The preface to this sūtra says: "It may comprise one hundred and twenty fascicles." Furthermore, masters of past generations have traditionally transmitted: Tripiṭaka Master Paramārtha intended to bring the Bodhisattva Vinayapiṭaka. At that time, when he boarded a ship on the Southern Sea, the ship was about to sink. Although they disposed of other belongings, it still did not rise; only when they cast off the Vinaya manuscript was the ship able to proceed. Paramārtha sighed, saying: "The land of Han has no affinity with the bodhisattva vinaya; how profoundly lamentable!" Furthermore, when Tripiṭaka Master Dharmakṣema was in Western Liangzhou, there was the śramaṇa Fajin and others who sought to receive the bodhisattva precepts from Kṣema and requested the precept text. Kṣema said: "The people of this country are crude; how could there be vessels capable of the bodhisattva path?" Thus he did not grant it to them. Jin and the others earnestly pleaded but did not attain their wish; they made vows before a Buddha image seeking the precepts. As soon as seven days were fulfilled, he saw Maitreya in a dream personally conferring the precepts and imparting the precept text, all of which he memorised. Upon waking, he went to see Kṣema. Kṣema, observing his extraordinary appearance, sighed deeply and said: "The land of Han indeed has worthy people!" He then translated out the precept text for them. It was identical in text and meaning with what Jin had recited in his dream; this is the separately circulating Bodhisattvabhūmi Prātimokṣa that begins with verses of refuge and homage. Furthermore, it is heard that across the Western Regions, all Hīnayāna monasteries take Piṇḍola as the senior elder, while all Mahāyāna monasteries take Mañjuśrī as the senior elder; the assemblies together uphold the bodhisattva precepts, their karman and recitation of precepts are all performed as bodhisattva ritual proceedings, and the Bodhisattva Vinayapiṭaka is constantly recited without interruption.