歷代三寶紀 14.2

14.2

The Hīnayāna catalogue is the canon of the śrāvakas. As for the teachings that distinguish the Buddha, he was born in the royal palace, carried in swaddling clothes, nursed and raised. He rode a goat cart to go to study; he demonstrated his prowess in martial arts and married. At nineteen he went forth from home; at thirty he realized the Way. For forty-nine years he dwelt in the world preaching the Dharma. At the age of seventy-nine, he lay down on his right side between the twin trees and entered parinirvāṇa. To discuss its teachings strictly, they are the sūtras, either limited to nine divisions or eleven divisions, the four Āgamas, the miscellaneous canon, and the Abhidharma. When speaking of persons, they are called śrāvakas, pratyekabuddhas, the four fruits and four directions, and the five faculties and seven expedients. They shave hair and beard, renounce the worldly life and go forth from home, restricted only to gods and humans, not extending to the other destinies. As for their defilements, they are the five hindrances, ten entanglements, and ninety-eight dormant afflictions. As for what they practice, they are the four noble truths and the twelve links of dependent origination. They restrain the seven limbs [of bodily and vocal karma] and guard the three types of karma. As for the prohibitions they receive, they are the three refuges, the ten precepts, and the two hundred fifty and five hundred precepts. These only endure for a single lifetime and do not extend to future existences. They tame their own body and speech, not involving the benefiting of others. The depth to which they enter the water of principle is likened to the swimming across of the hare and the horse. Their roaming out into the thoroughfares is riding the humble carriages of sheep and deer. The amount of moisture they receive from the dew is like that of small and middling roots and leaves. Their resting from exhaustion is taking a respite in an unreal illusory city. All such texts are Hīnayāna. Depending on the four Āgamas, the Jātaka-sūtras, the Avadāna-sūtras, the Wise and Foolish, parables, and various miscellaneous sūtras, there are texts of ten lines, five lines, a single sheet, or half a sheet, beginning with 'Thus' and concluding with 'undertook and practiced.' These branches and divisions readily amount to tens of thousands of fascicles. The worldly mind pursues trivialities and mostly competes in making scattered excerpts. This not only wastes effort, but deeply deviates from the source. However, as for those excerpted and separately produced works noted in various catalogues—such as the Guanyin [Sūtra] extracted from the Lotus Sūtra, or the Good-Time Goose King extracted from the Saddharmasmṛtyupasthāna Sūtra—they are now entirely excluded. Only the vinayas of the four schools, the essentials of the monk and nun prātimokṣas, minor rules of conduct, karmavācanā, and miscellaneous regulations are fully listed because people in the world all practice them. Those that are detached from within sūtras need not be duplicated since their source texts are already complete. The benefit would be slight while the clutter would be extensive. By a rough estimate of what is saved, it exceeds ten thousand sheets of paper and approaches two thousand sūtras. Now, compiling and collecting the separate fascicles of major works and verifying those that are not secondary excerpts, there are 525 works in total, amounting to 1,712 fascicles altogether, gathered as the definitive entries of the Hīnayāna into the canon. I, Zhangfang, have shallow understanding and narrow learning, and my searches and readings have left many omissions. I hope that the wise and virtuous who pass on the torch of the Dharma will kindly join together in clearing away the ashes and adding oil.