佛祖統紀 41.4

41.4

永泰元年九月。鑄金銅佛像成。於光順門率百僚致拜○十月吐蕃寇逼京師。命內出仁王經二輦送西明諸寺。詔不空三藏置百高座講經。帝臨御行香禮敬。已而寇平。詔曰。仁王寶經義崇護國。前代所譯理未融通。乃勅不空三藏沙門飛錫良賁等。於大明宮南桃園重譯。帝親對讀。謂新舊二經理雖符順。所譯新本文義甚周。乃御製序文。加不空特進鴻臚卿○詔出家沙門尊居三寶。其令天下官司毋得捶辱僧尼○勅大興善寺建方等戒壇。立臨壇大德十人○帝夢六祖請衣鉢還山。乃令劉崇景頂戴送還。勅韶州刺史楊瑊以禮奉安○勅沙門百人於禁中行念誦法。謂之內道場。出入乘馬。度支廩給○章敬沙門崇慧與道士角法告勝。勅賜紫衣○勅於金剛智諸灌頂道場。撰沙門二七員。為國長誦佛頂呪○鎮國純陀三藏亡。年六百歲。

In the ninth month of the first year of Yongtai, a cast bronze-gilt Buddha image was completed. At the Guangshun Gate, [the Emperor] led the hundred officials in making prostrations. In the tenth month, Tibetan invaders pressed close to the capital. [The Emperor] ordered two carriages of the Humane Kings Sūtra to be brought out from the palace and sent to Ximing and other monasteries. An imperial decree instructed Tripiṭaka Master Amoghavajra to set up one hundred high seats to lecture on the sūtra. The Emperor went in person to offer incense and pay reverent homage. Soon after, the invaders were subdued. An imperial decree stated: 'The precious Humane Kings Sūtra honors the protection of the state in its meaning. The translations made in earlier eras were not completely coherent in their principle.' Thereupon he ordered Tripiṭaka Master Amoghavajra and the śramaṇas Feixi, Liangbi, and others to retranslate it in the South Peach Garden of the Daming Palace. The Emperor read it in person, stating: 'Although the principle of the two texts—the new and the old—accords, the literary meaning translated in the new text is exceedingly comprehensive.' He then personally composed a preface and granted Amoghavajra the honorary title of Specially Advanced Chief of the Court of State Ceremonial. An imperial decree [also] stated: 'Renunciant śramaṇas venerably dwell among the Three Jewels. Let all governmental offices throughout the realm be forbidden from beating or humiliating monks and nuns.' An imperial order directed Daxingshan Monastery to construct an Equal Platform of the Precepts and appointed ten Great Virtues to oversee the platform. The Emperor dreamed that the Sixth Patriarch asked to return his robe and bowl to his mountain. He then ordered Liu Chongjing to respectfully bear them on his head and take them back, decreeing that Yang Jian, the prefect of Shaozhou, enshrine them with proper ritual. An imperial decree instructed one hundred śramaṇas to perform recitation practices within the forbidden palace, termed the Palace Bodhimaṇḍa; they rode horses when entering and leaving, and were supplied with grain by the revenue office. Śramaṇa Chonghui of Zhangjing competed in magical arts with a Daoist and claimed victory; he was imperially granted the purple robe. An imperial order directed that in the various abhiṣeka bodhimaṇḍas of Vajrabodhi, fourteen śramaṇas be chosen to recite the Uṣṇīṣa Dhāraṇī continuously for the sake of the state. Tripiṭaka Master Cunda, Defender of the State, died at the age of six hundred.