佛祖統紀 1.33

1.33

法運通塞。事變紜紜。繫于編年。莫明始末。為通練古今欲求類知者。作歷代會要志四卷。

In the prosperity and decline of the Dharma's fortune, events and changes are tangled and profuse; attached to an annalistic chronicle, their beginnings and ends cannot be made clear. For those who wish to master past and present and seek to understand by category, I have composed the Treatise on Essential Compendia of Successive Dynasties in four fascicles.