南宗頓教最上大乘摩訶般若波羅蜜經六祖惠能大師於韶州大梵寺施法壇經 1.2

1.2

Master Huineng ascended the high seat in the lecture hall of Dafan Monastery, expounded the teaching of the mahāprajñāpāramitā, and conferred the formless precepts. At that time, more than ten thousand monks, nuns, Taoists, and laypeople were seated below, and Wei Ju, Prefect of Shaozhou, together with over thirty officials and more than thirty Confucian scholars, jointly requested the Master to expound the teaching of the mahāprajñāpāramitā. The Prefect then instructed his disciple, the monk Fahai, to compile and record it so that it might circulate in later generations, enabling students of the Way to uphold this essential doctrine, transmit it from one to another, have something upon which to rely, and take it as their inheritance. Thus was this Platform Sūtra spoken.