歷代三寶紀 6.197

6.197

右一部二十卷。此經元是頴川朱士行。覩其別本。行在洛陽嘗講道行。披覽竊覺文句隱質諸未盡善者。每嗟嘆曰。此經實是大乘之要。而文未周譯理不盡。誓志捐身發心尋取。行以魏末甘露五年發迹雍州。遂遊西域。於于闐國得前梵本九十章。減六十萬言。遣弟子弗如檀。晉云法饒。從于闐送還歸洛陽。未發之頃于闐諸僧小乘學眾。遂以白王云。漢沙門欲以梵書惑亂正典。王為地主。若不禁之將斷大法聾盲漢地。王之咎也。王即不聽齎經出境。士行懊惱深懷痛心。乃請乞求燒經為證。王即許焉。於是積薪聚置殿前欲以焚之。士行至誠臨火誓曰。若當大法應流漢地。經當不然。如其不護命也如何。言已投經。火即為滅。皮牒如本。更覺光鮮。大眾駭服咸稱神感。遂得送來達到陳留。還遇于闐僧無羅叉竺叔蘭等。當惠帝世元康元年五月十日。於倉恒水南寺譯之。而竺道祖僧祐王宗寶唱李廓法上靈裕等諸錄。述著眾經並云。朱士行翻此。蓋據其元尋之人推功歸之耳。房審校勘支敏度錄及高僧傳出經後記諸雜別目等乃是無羅叉竺叔蘭等三人詳譯。朱士行身留停于闐。仍於彼化。唯遣弟子奉齎經來到乎晉地。斯豈得稱士行出也。

The above one text in twenty fascicles was originally [obtained by] Zhu Shixing of Yingchuan, who observed a separate recension of it. When Shixing was in Luoyang, he had once lectured on the Daoxing [banruo jing]. Scanning through it, he privately perceived that its phrasing was obscure and crude, not fully refined, and he frequently sighed, saying: 'This scripture is truly the essential teaching of the Mahāyāna, yet the phrasing was not comprehensively translated and its principles are not fully conveyed. I vow to cast aside my life and resolve to seek it out.' In the fifth year of the Ganlu era at the end of the Wei dynasty, Shixing set out from Yongzhou and subsequently traveled to the Western Regions. In the Kingdom of Khotan, he obtained this Sanskrit manuscript of ninety chapters, totaling just under six hundred thousand words. He dispatched his disciple Punyadhana (in Jin: Farao) to carry it back from Khotan to Luoyang. Before his departure, the various Hīnayāna monastic assemblies of Khotan reported to their king, saying: 'A Han śramaṇa wishes to confuse and corrupt the true scriptures using Sanskrit texts. Your Majesty is the lord of the land; if you do not forbid him, you will cut off the great Dharma and cause blindness and deafness in the land of the Han. This will be the King's fault.' The king then refused to permit him to take the scriptures beyond the border. Distressed and deeply grieved at heart, Shixing requested to burn the scriptures as proof [of their truth]. The king granted his request. Thereupon, firewood was piled before the palace to burn them. With utmost sincerity, facing the fire, Shixing made a vow, saying: 'If the great Dharma is destined to circulate in the land of the Han, the scriptures should not burn! If it is not protected, what can I do about my fate?' Having spoken, he cast the scriptures into the flames, and the fire immediately went out. The birch-bark manuscript remained intact, appearing even more lustrous. The great assembly was astonished into submission and unanimously proclaimed it a divine miracle. He was thus able to send it off, and it arrived in Chenliu. There it met the Khotanese monks Mokṣala, Zhu Shulan, and others. On the tenth day of the fifth month in the first year of the Yuankang era during the reign of Emperor Hui, it was translated at the South Temple of the Cangheng River. However, various catalogues such as those by Zhu Daozu, Sengyou, Wang Zong, Baochang, Li Kuo, Fashang, and Lingyu all record this when presenting the various scriptures, saying that Zhu Shixing translated it. This is presumably just attributing the merit to him based on the fact that he was the person who originally sought it. I, Zhangfang, having carefully collated Zhi Mindu's catalogue, the Gaoseng zhuan, the colophons of translated scriptures, and various separate catalogues, find that it was in fact Mokṣala, Zhu Shulan, and one other—three people—who carefully translated it. Zhu Shixing himself remained behind in Khotan, where he eventually passed away; he merely dispatched his disciple to respectfully carry the scripture to the land of Jin. How then could it be said that Shixing produced it?