歷代三寶紀 5.6

5.6

The above prātimokṣa in one fascicle: translated by Śramaṇa Dharmakāla of Central India (rendered in Wei as Fashi [Time of Dharma]). In his youth he was talented and perceptive, with an extraordinary and dignified demeanor; he mastered texts and meanings upon a single reading. He was adept in the four Vedas, wind and cloud divination, the stars and moon, prognostication charts, and cosmic cycles, leaving nothing uncovered; he thought to himself that he had thoroughly understood the world. At the age of twenty-five he entered a monastery, where he happened to see Dharmaśreṣṭhin's *Abhidharmahṛdaya*. He picked it up casually to examine it, but was completely baffled and could not understand it. Reflecting on it earnestly again, he grew even more bewildered. He then sighed and said, "The Buddhadharma delves into the profound, exhaustively explaining the three times." He thereupon abandoned [secular life] to go forth, chanting Mahāyāna and Hīnayāna sūtras and various vinaya piṭakas. In his travels to convert others he arrived in Luoyang. At that time, although the Buddhadharma existed within the Wei realm, the religious discipline had degenerated, and there were monks who had not received the refuges and precepts, merely shaving their hair to distinguish themselves from common folk. Even when holding vegetarian fasts and repentances, their practices resembled ancestral sacrifices. Once Dharmakāla arrived, he widely promoted the Buddhadharma. The monks requested that he translate the Vinaya. Dharmakāla considered that the detailed regulations of the Vinaya piṭaka were vast and intricate in phrasing, and since the Buddhist teachings were not yet flourishing, they would surely not be accepted and observed. In the Jiaping era at Baima Monastery, he translated this prātimokṣa in one fascicle to provide for morning and evening practice. The precept transmission in China began from this.