歷代三寶紀 12.34

12.34

右八部二十八卷。北天竺烏場國三藏法師高齊昭玄統那連提耶舍。隋言尊稱譯。舍少出家。五天遊四。大小諸國經六十餘。但是釋迦勝跡處所無不必踐。既窮南海還反北天。復之茹茹。逢彼。國破。因入鄴都。正值文宣。時始四十。舍之骨梗頗異奇倫。緣是文宣偏所待遇籍甚。既著理此統焉。時亦出經。備齊世錄。齊被周滅仍憩漳濱。開皇元年新經至止。勅便追召。二年七月傳送到京。見勞慇懃。即勅安處大興善寺。給以上供為法重人。其年季冬就手翻譯。沙門僧璨明芬給事李道寶學士曇皮等。僧俗四人。更遞度語。京城大德昭玄統沙門曇延昭玄都大興善寺主沙門靈藏等。二十餘德。監掌始末。至五年十月勘校訖了。舍九十餘矣。至九年而卒。有別傳。所譯之經並沙門彥琮製序。

The eight works above, in twenty-eight fascicles, were translated by Narendrayaśas (in Sui: Zunchéng, 'Honoured Fame'), Tripiṭaka Dharma Master from the kingdom of Uḍḍiyāna in Northern India and Controller of the Clergy (Zhaoxuan tong) under the Northern Qi. In his youth, Yaśas left the household life and travelled across four of the Five Indies, passing through more than sixty kingdoms, great and small. Wherever there was a sacred site associated with Śākyamuni, he never failed to visit it. Having travelled to the Southern Sea, he returned to Northern India, and subsequently went to the Rouran. He met with the collapse of that state and consequently entered the capital Ye, precisely during the reign of Emperor Wenxuan, when he was just forty years of age. Yaśas's unyielding rectitude was remarkably distinct from the ordinary; because of this, Emperor Wenxuan accorded him exceptionally high regard, and his fame became prominent, whereupon he was appointed to manage this supervisory bureau. At that time, he also produced translations of sūtras, which are fully recorded in the Qi catalogue. When Qi was destroyed by Zhou, he still resided on the banks of the Zhang River. In the first year of Kaihuang, when new sūtra manuscripts arrived, an imperial decree summoned him. In the seventh month of the second year, he was conducted to the capital. The Emperor showed him deep solicitous care and at once decreed that he be accommodated at Daxingshan Temple, providing him with superior offerings, holding the Dharma to be profound and its bearer worthy of esteem. In the final month of winter of that year, the work of translation began. The śramaṇas Sengcan and Mingfen, along with the Gentleman Attendant Li Daobao, the Translation Scholar Tanpi, and others—four monastics and laymen—took turns interpreting the language. The Great Virtues of the capital, such as the Controller of the Clergy (Zhaoxuan tong) the śramaṇa Tanyan, the Vice-Controller of the Clergy (Zhaoxuan du) and Abbot of Daxingshan Temple the śramaṇa Lingzang, and more than twenty other virtuous monks oversaw the proceedings from start to finish. In the tenth month of the fifth year, collation and verification were completed. By then, Yaśas was over ninety years old. In the ninth year, he passed away. There is a separate biography. For all the sūtras he translated, the śramaṇa Yancong composed the prefaces.