金師子章雲間類解 1.2

1.2

Dharmas are not revealed without metaphors; metaphors are not produced without dharmas. Therefore, the consummate sage, seeing that the nature of the one truth is not different, used the golden lion to illustrate it; seeing that the capacities of sentient beings are not uniform, used chapters on all dharmas to guide them. How abundant! Had not our ancestral master Xianshou bequeathed the text of the ekayāna and expanded the depths of the ten directions, how could he have extended compassion to instruct the world and conferred [teachings] according to capacities? Had not the Saintly Emperor of the Tianci [era] humbled her heart of ten thousand chariots and honored the teachings of the Three Jewels, how could she have understood the Dharma through metaphor and attained the nature through the Dharma? However, among Chan monasteries and lecture assemblies, this text is revered without exception; thus commentaries currently circulating in the world amount to nearly four authors: Dhyāna Master Zhiguan of Qingyuan annotated it previously; Mahāsattva Fodeng of Zhaoxin explained it subsequently; and in recent times, both sharing the name Huazang, Master Zhaoyu of Siqu and the Venerable Chengqian of Wutai both composed works upon it. Examining their words in succession, some are verbose in phrasing yet deficient in meaning, or lengthy in sentences yet erroneous in doctrine, thereby causing both paths of mental cultivation and oral exposition, just as their aspiration to transmit and study arose, to fall conversely into attachments of accepting and rejecting. I, Jingyuan, though untalented, have constantly felt pain in my chest upon recalling these elegant instructions. Thereupon, investigating the two profound commentaries on the Jin translation of the scripture and thoroughly probing the two commentaries on the Tang translation of the scripture, I pruned what was verbose in wording, supplemented what was deficient in meaning, shortened what was lengthy in sentence, and corrected what was erroneous in doctrine; the Dharma phrases and profound expressions therein that brilliantly accord with the ancestral master's intent in this essay have each been explained according to their semantic categories. At that time, I laid down my brush at the Shanzhu Pavilion in Yunjian, hence naming the title "Yunjian's Classified Explanation". Prefaced on the eighth day of the fourth month in the gengshen year, the third year of the Yuanfeng era.