佛祖統紀 29.38

29.38

國師不空。西域人。幼隨叔父觀光上國。值金剛智從之傳瑜伽義。智授梵本聲明論。旬日成誦。奇之引入金剛道場。驗以擲華。謂為勝己。師初求法。夢京師像皆東行。窹以問智。智曰。汝有受道之資。吾何靳哉。即授五部及蘇悉地儀軌。智沒奉遺教。西遊天竺。至師子國。遇龍智受十八會金剛灌頂及大悲胎藏建壇之法。傳經論至五百餘部。二十九年自師子國歸至廣州。採訪使劉巨濟。請建灌頂壇法。感文殊見身。度人千萬。天寶元年西城大石康居五國。入寇安西。召師入內。上親秉香鑪。師誦仁王護國密語。方二七遍。上忽見神兵可五百人。帶甲荷戈立於殿庭。師曰。此毘沙門天王第二子獨健。副陛下意往救安西。請設食以遣之。至四月安西奏。二月十一日。城東北黑雲中見金甲人丈餘。空中鼓角大鳴聲震天地。寇人帳幕間有金鼠齧斷弓弦。五國即時奔潰。須臾城樓上見天王形。謹圖其像以進驗之。即誦呪日也。乃勅諸道。於城西北隅置天王像（今城樓軍塋立天王堂者即其故事）師每禱必張繡座手持木神。誦呪擲之。神自立於座。四眾環視。兩目瞬動。感格踵至。肅代兩朝。尊為灌頂國師。每以至理開發君上。加贈鴻臚卿晚年示疾就加開府儀同三司肅國公。食邑三千戶。辭不受。賜號大廣智三藏。大歷九年六月。示寂於大興善寺上廢朝三日。賜祭贈司空。諡大辯正廣智。塔舍利於舊居。師譯經七十七部。諸弟子得誦呪之法者。慧朗為最。故東夏以金剛智為始祖。不空為二祖。慧朗為三祖云。不空弟子有慧果者。元和中日本空海入中國從果學。歸國盛行其道（慧朗法師傳本紀失）。

National Preceptor Amoghavajra was a man of the Western Regions. As a youth, he accompanied his uncle on a tour to the imperial capital, where he met Vajrabodhi and received the meaning of Yoga from him. Bodhi handed him a Sanskrit text of the *Śabdavidyā-śāstra*; he memorised it within ten days. Bodhi marvelled at him, led him into the Vajra-maṇḍala, and tested him with the casting of the flower, declaring that [Amoghavajra] surpassed himself. When the Master first sought the Dharma, he dreamed that the statues of the capital were all walking eastward. Upon waking, he asked Bodhi about it. Bodhi said: 'You have the natural capacity to receive the Way; why should I be begrudging?' He then transmitted to him the five divisions and the ritual manuals of the *Susiddhikara*. After Bodhi's demise, [Amoghavajra] upheld his bequeathed instructions and journeyed west to India. Reaching Siṃhala, he met Nāgabodhi and received the eighteen assemblies of vajra-abhiṣeka as well as the method of constructing the maṇḍala of the Mahākāruṇikā-garbhadhātu. He transmitted over five hundred sections of scriptures and treatises. In the twenty-ninth year [of Kaiyuan], he returned from Siṃhala to Guangzhou. The Surveillance Commissioner Liu Juji invited him to establish the altar-ritual of abhiṣeka. He moved Mañjuśrī to manifest his form, and delivered tens of millions of people. In the first year of Tianbao, five states—the western city, the Dashi, and Kangju—invaded Anxi. The Master was summoned into the imperial palace. The Emperor personally held the incense burner, while the Master recited the secret syllables of the *Humane Kings Protecting the Country*. After merely fourteen repetitions, the Emperor suddenly saw about five hundred divine soldiers, wearing armour and carrying spears, standing in the palace courtyard. The Master said: 'This is Dujian, the second son of Heavenly King Vaiśravaṇa; in accordance with Your Majesty's intent, he goes to relieve Anxi. Please set out offerings of food to dispatch him.' In the fourth month, Anxi memorialised: On the eleventh day of the second month, a gold-armoured man more than a zhang tall appeared amid dark clouds to the northeast of the city. Drums and horns sounded loudly in the sky, their noise shaking heaven and earth. Among the enemy tents, golden mice gnawed through the bowstrings, and the five states immediately routed and fled. A moment later, the form of the Heavenly King was seen atop the city gate-tower. They respectfully painted his likeness to present for verification, and it coincided with the exact day the mantra was chanted. An edict was therefore issued to all the circuits to erect images of the Heavenly King in the northwest corner of city walls (the present establishment of Heavenly King Halls on city towers and in military camps originates from this event). Whenever the Master prayed, he would unfurl an embroidered seat, hold a wooden spirit in his hand, recite mantras, and cast it down: the spirit would stand upright on the seat by itself, with the fourfold assembly watching around it as its two eyes blinked. Spiritual responses followed in succession. Across the two reigns of Suzong and Daizong, he was honoured as the Abhiṣeka National Preceptor, consistently opening the minds of the sovereigns with the ultimate principle. He was additionally granted the title of Chamberlain for Ceremonials; in his later years, when he manifested illness, he was appointed Opening the Office with Equal Threefold Dignities and Duke of Su State, with a fief of three thousand households, but he declined and did not accept them. He was bestowed the title of Tripiṭaka Master of Great Broad Wisdom. In the sixth month of the ninth year of Dali, he manifested nirvana at Da Xingshan Temple; the Emperor suspended court for three days, bestowed sacrificial offerings, granted the posthumous title of Minister of Works, and gave the posthumous name Great Eloquent, Correct, and Broad Wisdom. A stupa was built for his relics at his former residence. The Master translated seventy-seven sections of scriptures. Among his various disciples who obtained the method of reciting mantras, Huilang was foremost. Therefore, the eastern land regards Vajrabodhi as the first patriarch, Amoghavajra as the second patriarch, and Huilang as the third patriarch. Among Amoghavajra's disciples was Huiguo; during the Yuanhe era, Kūkai of Japan entered China and studied under Guo, returning to his home country where he propagated this way extensively (the biography of Dharma Master Huilang is lost from the Basic Annals).