歷代三寶紀 15.5

15.5

竊惟三寶所資四生蒙潤而世有興毀。致人自昇沈。興則福業恒感天堂輪王人主。毀則罪報常受地獄餓鬼畜生。論益物深無過於法。何者法是佛母佛從法生。三世如來皆供養法。故勝天王般若經云。若供養法即供養佛。是知法教津流乃傳萬代。佛僧開導止利一時。故賢劫之興千佛同其化。脩短之壽四聖異其年。雖復住世延促有殊。取其宣揚弘法無別。莫不煎熬愛海濟含識以趣涅槃。鏨鑿慢山度蒼生以會般若。然般若玄寂。非因聲難以通。聲必託形。不藉相無由顯。所以境稱忍剎。總百億之須彌。世號娑婆。統三千之國土。區分三界五濁之穢土沙。形別六道二乘之鄙羊鹿。大聖慈愍俯降迦毘。丈六金容應王宮之裏。三十二相炳太子之身。十九出家三十成道。四十九載處在世間。假以言音方便演暢。無染之法金口自宣。一音敷揚萬類各解。機緣匪一教有塵沙。阿難總持渧無遺失。譬別器水瀉之異瓶。雙樹入般涅槃。迦葉王城結集。一千羅漢迭察迭書。著之葉皮布乎天竺。五百中國各共奉持。十六大王皆同擁護。後漢之始方屆脂那。帝世交參十有六代。翻彼域語作此方言。相承迄今五百餘祀。古舊二錄條目殘亡。士行道安創維其缺。爾來間有祖述不同。各紀一方互存所見。三隅致隔故多失疑。又齊周陳並皆翻譯。弗刊錄目靡所遵承。兼值毀焚絕無依據。賴我皇帝維地柱天。澄靜二儀廓清六合。庭來萬國化攝九州。異出遺文莫不皆萃。臣幸有遇屬此休時。忝預譯經稟受佛語。執筆暇隙寢食敢忘。十餘年來。詢訪舊老。搜討方獲。雖粗緝綴猶慮未周。廣究博尋敬俟來俊。今之所撰集。略准三書以為指南。顯茲三寶。佛生年瑞依周夜明。經度時祥承漢宵夢。僧之元始城塹棟梁。毘贊光輝崇於慧晈。其外傍採隱居歷年國志典墳僧祐集記諸史傳等僅數十家。擿彼翠零成斯紀翮。扇之千載風於百王。共秉智炬之光。照時昏暗。同傳法流之潤。洽世燋枯。闡我皇猷導開厥始。昔結集之首。並指在某國城。今宣譯之功。理須各宗時代。故此錄體率舉號。稱為漢魏吳及大隋錄也。失譯疑偽。依舊注之人。以年為先。經隨大而次。有重列者。猶約世分總其華戎。黑白道俗合有一百九十七人。都所出經律戒論傳。二千一百四十六部。六千二百三十五卷。位而分之為十五軸。一卷總目。兩卷入藏。三卷帝年。九卷代錄。代錄編鑒經翻譯之少多。帝年張知佛在世之遐邇。入藏別識教小大之淺深。昔姬潛之鼎出現。彰漢室之將隆。近周毀之法重興。顯大隋之永泰。佛日再照。起自大興之初。經論冥歸。發乎開皇之始。事扶理契。合此會昌。述紀所由。因斯而作。所以外題稱曰開皇三寶錄云。其卷內甄為歷代紀。

I humbly consider that the three jewels are that by which the four kinds of living beings receive moisture, yet in the world there is flourishing and destruction, causing people themselves to rise or sink. When [the Dharma] flourishes, deeds of merit constantly bring retribution as heavenly realms, wheel-turning kings, or human sovereigns; when it is destroyed, karmic retribution constantly brings suffering in hells, hungry ghosts, or animals. In discussing what deeply benefits beings, nothing surpasses the Dharma. Why? The Dharma is the mother of the Buddhas; the Buddhas are born from the Dharma. The Tathāgatas of the three periods of time all make offerings to the Dharma. Therefore the *Jaya-rājñī Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra* says: 'If one makes offerings to the Dharma, one makes offerings to the Buddha.' From this we know that the overflowing stream of the Dharma teaching is transmitted across ten thousand generations, whereas the guidance of Buddhas and the Saṅgha only benefits a single time. Therefore, in the arising of the Wise Kalpa, the thousand Buddhas share in the same transformation; yet in the long and short spans of life, the four sages differ in their years. Although their remaining in the world differs in length, as regards their propagation and glorification of the Dharma there is no distinction: there is none that does not boil away the sea of craving to ferry sentient beings toward nirvāṇa, and chisel down the mountain of pride to deliver all living beings to meet wisdom. Yet wisdom is profound and silent; without the aid of sound, it is difficult to penetrate; sound must rely on form; without recourse to marks, there is no way for it to be manifested. Therefore the realm is called the Sahā world, encompassing ten billion Sumerus; the world is named Enduring, governing three thousand lands; divided into the sand and filth of the three realms and five turbidities, taking distinct form as the lowly sheep and deer of the six paths and two vehicles. The Great Sage, out of loving-kindness, descended to Kapilavastu; the sixteen-foot golden countenance responded within the royal palace; the thirty-two marks shone brightly on the body of the crown prince. At nineteen he left the household; at thirty he achieved awakening; for forty-nine years he dwelt in the world. Employing spoken sound, he expounded through skillful means; the unstained Dharma was personally proclaimed from his golden mouth; expounded in a single sound, the myriad kinds understood each according to their capacity. The faculties and conditions being manifold, the teachings were numerous as dust and sand. Ānanda maintained them all, without a drop lost, like water poured from one vessel into another flask. When [the Buddha] entered parinirvāṇa between the twin trees, Kāśyapa held the council in the royal city; a thousand arhats scrutinized and recorded in turn, inscribing them on leaves and bark and disseminating them throughout Tianzhu. The five hundred kingdoms of Central India all upheld them together, and the sixteen great kings all protected them in unison. Only at the beginning of the Later Han did they reach Cīnasthāna; the imperial generations intermingled across sixteen dynasties, translating the languages of those regions into the speech of this land, transmitted continuously down to the present for over five hundred years. The ancient and old catalogues have had their entries broken and lost; Zhu Shixing and Dao'an first bound together the deficiencies. Since then, various successive accounts have differed; each recorded one quarter and each preserved what it had seen; being cut off on three sides, many errors and doubts were incurred. Furthermore, the Qi, Zhou, and Chen all produced translations, yet their catalogues were not finalized, leaving nothing to rely upon. In addition, when destructions and burnings were encountered, there was utterly no basis left. Relying upon our Emperor, who has sustained the earth and pillared the heavens, calmed the two forces of yin and yang, and cleared the six directions; ten thousand states arrive at his court and his transformation encompasses the nine regions; all disparate works and surviving writings have gathered here. Your subject, having the good fortune to meet with this splendid era and privileged to participate in translating scriptures, has received the Buddha's words; in intervals of holding the brush, how could he dare forget food and sleep? For over ten years, he has inquired among the elderly and gathered widely before obtaining them; though roughly woven together, he still worries it is not complete, respectfully awaiting future talents to investigate and search broadly. What is compiled today relies roughly upon three books as a guide to manifest these three jewels: the auspicious omen of the year of the Buddha's birth relies on the nighttime brightness of the Zhou; the auspicious portent of the time the scriptures crossed over adheres to the night dream of the Han; the origins of the Saṅgha, serving as fortifications, ridgepoles, and beams, assisting the radiance, follow Huijiao. Beyond these, it draws laterally from Hermit [Tao Hongjing's] *Linian*, dynastic histories, ancient records, Sengyou’s *Collected Records*, and various historical biographies, numbering merely a few dozen authors; plucking their kingfisher feathers, he has crafted these chronicle wings, to fan across a thousand years and blow upon a hundred kings, jointly upholding the light of the torch of wisdom to illumine the darkness of the times, and equally transmitting the moisture of the Dharma stream to irrigate the parched world, expounding our imperial plan and opening its inception. Formerly, the beginnings of the councils were all indicated by specific countries and cities; now, for the merit of proclamation and translation, reason dictates that each must follow its era. Therefore, this catalogue style generally raises dynastic titles, calling them the Han, Wei, Wu, and Great Sui catalogues. Anonymous translations, doubtful, and apocryphal texts are noted according to earlier records. The persons are arranged chronologically; the scriptures follow by size. Those with duplicate entries are nonetheless distinguished by era, taking into account Chinese and foreigners alike. Clerics, laity, monks, and householders together amount to one hundred and ninety-seven persons; in total, the scriptures, vinayas, precepts, treatises, and chronicles they produced comprise two thousand one hundred and forty-six works in six thousand two hundred and thirty-five fascicles. These are arranged and divided into fifteen scrolls: one fascicle of general table of contents, two fascicles of works entering the canon, three fascicles of imperial chronologies, and nine fascicles of dynastic catalogues. The dynastic catalogues arrange and scrutinize the quantity of scriptures translated; the imperial chronologies display and inform the temporal distance of the Buddha’s presence in the world; the canon inclusions distinguish and discern the depth and shallowness of the lesser and greater teachings. Formerly, the appearance of the submerged tripods of Ji manifested the coming rise of the Han house; recently, the re-emergence of the Dharma destroyed by the Zhou shows the everlasting peace of the Great Sui. The sun of the Buddha shone again, beginning from the start of Daxing; the scriptures and treatises subtly converged, starting from the inception of Kaihuang. Events assist and principles tally, harmonizing with this glorious era. Relating the reasons for the chronicle, it was composed on this account. Therefore, the external title is called *Record of the Three Jewels of the Kaihuang Era*, while inside the scrolls it is distinguished as the *Chronicle of the Successive Dynasties*.