佛祖統紀 5.4

5.4

The treatise of the *Zhiguan* says: 'If practitioners hear of the transmission of the Dharma treasury, they will know the source of the lineage. Those who transmitted the Dharma treasury began with Kāśyapa and ended with Āryasiṃha, numbering twenty-three people. Madhyāntika was contemporary with Śāṇakavāsa; including him, there are twenty-four people. All masters were prophesied by the golden mouth (the matter appears in the *Fuxing*), and all were sages capable of bringing great benefit.' (Examining the *Sūtra on the Dharma Treasury*, it says: 'After my extinction, there will be twenty-four venerables who appear in the world and disseminate my Dharma.') The *Fuxing* says: 'In the semblance and final [Dharma ages], the four reliances broadly propagate the Buddha's transformation.' Since the *Account* says they were all sages, most of them were of the fourth reliance, though it may also extend to the third or second, because the first reliance pertains to ordinary mortals and cannot be called sages. (The *Miaoxuan* says: 'The five grades and six sense organs are the first reliance; the ten stages of abiding are the second reliance; the ten practices and ten dedications are the third reliance; the ten stages and equal awakening are the fourth reliance.' This discusses the four reliances in terms of the Mahāyāna. If according to the *Nirvāṇa Sūtra*, it says: 'There are four kinds of persons who can protect the True Dharma and serve as reliances for the world: the first reliance is the internal and external ordinary mortals of the Hīnayāna; the second reliance is the first fruit; the third reliance is the second and third fruits; the fourth reliance is the fourth fruit.' This discusses the four reliances in terms of the Hīnayāna. Now speaking of transmitting the Dharma, it is Mahāyāna; hence what the *Fuxing* states refers to the Mahāyāna four reliances. What is referred to as 'in the Account' is the *Account of the Transmission of the Dharma Treasury*, an alternate title of which is the *Sūtra on the Causes and Conditions of the Transmission of the Dharma Treasury*.) Now, in discussing the ancestral succession transmitting the Great Dharma, while patriarchs like Upagupta are said to have verified the lesser fruits, according to Jīngxī's meaning, the four fruits are true fields of merit, and the way of transformation is easily practiced through them; thus it was fitting to assume this image. That is, those of the four reliances assumed the image of the four fruits. From this we know that all the masters of the golden mouth destroyed ignorance and occupied the rank of the four reliances, inwardly propagating the Great Dharma while outwardly manifesting the image of the lesser [vehicle]. In order to clarify the transmission of the Dharma, the Record of the Twenty-Four Patriarchs has been compiled.