佛祖統紀 39.73

39.73

二十二年。上幸坊州玉華宮。召奘法師。既至。上曰。朕在京苦熱。故就此山泉石之涼。憶見法師故遣相屈。此日所翻何經。奘曰。近譯彌勒瑜伽師地論。帝宣論親覽。謂侍臣曰。曰佛教廣大猶瞻天瞰海莫極高深。九流典籍猶汀瀅方溟渤耳（瀅音瑩汀瀅小水也）世言三教齊致者。此妄談也。因勅有司寫新譯經論頒賜九道總管（時分天下為九道）御製大唐三藏聖教序。以冠其首（今時石本行。其文首云。蓋聞二儀有像顯覆載以含生。即此序也）詔皇太子撰菩薩藏經後序（二序具在藏經之前）上自是平章法義不輟於口。敬待法師親於家人。嘗問師曰。法門之益何所宜先。對曰。弘法須人度僧為最。帝說○九月詔京城諸郡。各度僧。每寺五人。凡度一萬七千人○十月車駕還京師。勅於北闕大內紫微殿西建弘法院。命奘法師居之。選名德七人以從。晝則陪御談玄。暮則歸院翻譯。上令翻道德經為梵文以遺西竺。師曰。佛老二教其致大殊。安用佛言用通老義。且老子立義膚淺。五竺觀之適足見薄。遂止○四祖信禪師居破頭山。有老僧號栽松道者。請曰。法道可得聞乎。祖曰。汝老矣。使有所聞何能廣化。能再來吾尚可待。乃去行水邊。見周氏女浣衣。揖求寄宿歸而孕。父母逐之。日庸紡里中。夕宿眾館。及生一子棄水中。明日見泝流而上。氣盛體潔。遂舉之。常隨母乞食。見四祖於黃梅道中。祖語其母令出家。是為弘忍禪師。嗣居東山大行其道。眾館後為佛母寺。東禪有佛母冢（林間錄）四祖登廬山絕頂。望破頭山紫氣如蓋。下有白氣橫分六道。以問大眾。弘忍曰。莫是和上他後橫出一枝佛法否。祖曰。如是（傳燈）○十二月。皇太子為文德皇后建慈恩寺。擇京城大德五十人以居之。各度侍者六人。勅太常九部樂奉迎梵本諸經瑞像舍利五十大德入寺。帝御安福門樓。執鑪致敬。

In the twenty-second year, the Emperor visited Yuhua Palace in Fangzhou and summoned Dharma Master Xuanzang. After he arrived, the Emperor said, "Suffering from the heat in the capital, We took recourse to the coolness of the springs and rocks of this mountain. Remembering Our desire to see the Dharma Master, We sent for you to make the journey. What scripture are you translating these days?" Xuanzang said, "Recently, I have been translating Maitreya's Yogācārabhūmi Śāstra." The Emperor had the treatise brought and personally examined it. He said to his attendant ministers, "The Buddhist teachings are vast and great, like gazing up at heaven or looking down upon the sea, whose height and depth cannot be measured. The texts of the Nine Schools are merely like puddles compared to the vast ocean! (Ying is pronounced ying; tingying means small water.) The worldly claim that the three teachings reach the same end is reckless talk!" He thereupon ordered the authorities to copy the newly translated scriptures and treatises and distribute them to the Area Commanders of the Nine Circuits (at that time the realm was divided into nine circuits). He personally composed the Great Tang Preface to the Holy Teachings of the Tripiṭaka to place at their head. (Today the stone inscription is in circulation; its opening text says: "We have heard that the Two Modes have form, manifesting coverage and containment to embrace living beings"—this is that preface.) He decreed that the Crown Prince compose the afterword to the Bodhisattvapiṭaka Sūtra. (Both prefaces are present before the canon.) From then on, the Emperor's discussion of Dharma principles was unceasing on his lips; he treated the Dharma Master with the intimacy of a family member. He once asked the master, "Among the benefits of the Dharma-gate, what should come first?" He replied, "To propagate the Dharma requires people; ordaining monks is foremost." The Emperor was pleased. ○ In the ninth month, an edict ordered the capital and various commanderies each to ordain monks, five for each temple, totaling seventeen thousand people ordained. ○ In the tenth month, the imperial entourage returned to the capital. An edict ordered the construction of the Hongfayuan to the west of Ziwei Hall within the Northern Palace precincts, commanding Dharma Master Xuanzang to reside there and selecting seven men of renowned virtue to accompany him. By day, he accompanied the Emperor in discussing the profound; at dusk, he returned to the cloister to translate. The Emperor ordered him to translate the Daodejing into Sanskrit to send to the Western Indias. The master said, "The ends of the two teachings of the Buddha and Lao[zi] are vastly different. Why use the Buddha's words to convey Laozi's meaning? Moreover, the doctrines established by Laozi are superficial; when viewed by the Five Indias, they will suffice only to invite contempt." It was then abandoned. ○ When the Fourth Patriarch, Chan Master Daoxin, resided at Mount Potou, there was an old monk called the Pine-Planting Practitioner, who requested, "May I hear the Dharma-path?" The Patriarch said, "You are already old. Even if you hear something, how can you broadly transform [others]? If you can come again, I can still wait for you." He then left and was walking along the water, where he saw a maiden of the Zhou family washing clothes. He bowed and asked to lodge there; upon returning, she became pregnant. Her parents drove her out; by day, she hired herself out for spinning in the village, and at night, she slept in public lodges. When she gave birth to a son, she abandoned him in the water. The next day, she saw him floating up against the current, vigorous in spirit and pure in body; she then took him up. He constantly followed his mother begging for food. Meeting the Fourth Patriarch on the road in Huangmei, the Patriarch spoke to his mother and had him go forth from the household; this was Chan Master Hongren. Succeeding him, he resided at East Mountain and broadly practiced his Way. The public lodge later became the Fomu ('Buddha's Mother') Temple, and at Dongchan there is the Buddha's Mother Tomb. (Linjian lu) When the Fourth Patriarch ascended to the summit of Mount Lu, he looked toward Mount Potou and saw purple vapors like a canopy, beneath which white vapors horizontally divided into six paths. He asked the assembly about it, and Hongren said, "Could it be that the Preceptor will later produce a branch of the Buddha-Dharma extending laterally?" The Patriarch said, "It is so." (Transmission of the Lamp) ○ In the twelfth month, the Crown Prince founded Ci'en Temple for Empress Wende, selecting fifty men of great virtue from the capital to reside there, each ordaining six attendants. An imperial decree ordered the nine sections of music from the Court of Imperial Sacrifices to escort the Sanskrit original scriptures, auspicious images, relics, and the fifty men of great virtue into the temple. The Emperor sat in the gate tower of Anfu Gate, holding an incense burner to pay homage.