佛祖統紀 50.5

50.5

Between the Chen and Sui dynasties, Tiantai Zhiyi received [the transmission] from afar from Nāgārjuna and established one great teaching. Transmitted nine times, it reached Jingxi. In Jingxi's era, there were students who came from Silla named Farong, Liying, and Chunying. Thus this teaching spread to various countries beyond the seas and flourished together with the Central Plains. During the chaos and decline of the Tang house, classical texts were utterly destroyed; although this teaching was one that could not perish, it was also difficult for it to survive. However, as the bright sun is about to emerge, the morning rosy clouds first rise; when a true person responds to the turning of destiny, cultural brightness naturally appears. At the beginning of our Song dynasty, this teaching again crossed the sea and entered Wu and Yue; that which is transmitted in the present age, such as the Three Great Works, belongs to this category. Yet there were still those that remained behind and did not arrive, and those that arrived but were not authentic. For the Commentary on the Benevolent King Sūtra, two versions arrived first, and everyone denounced them as spurious. Formerly, after the Dharma Master [Fazhi] accepted the hair of a pratyekabuddha sent by Dhyāna Master Makoto of Japan and answered the twenty points he had questioned, he then sought the so-called Commentary on the Benevolent King Sūtra from him. Makoto thereupon handed it over to a sea vessel. Soon after, amid great winds and startling waves on the open sea, the seafarers thought they had nothing with which to appease the intention of the dragon spirits, and hurriedly cast this commentary into the waters to console them. Fazhi then sought two monks with strong memories to go to Makoto so that they could recite the text and return. Soon afterward, the two monks died in Japan. In the early Yuanfeng era, a maritime merchant arrived carrying two scrolls of the present commentary. In Siming, there was the śramaṇa Ruxun who, through appropriate conditions, obtained it (and so forth). Zhiyi's compassionate rain completely realized the Dharma-nature as calm and contemplation (śamatha-vipaśyanā), tracing its source to the Way of Śākyamuni; now it just flourishes in Yue, and on another day it will surely encompass all under heaven. How could this book alone be concealed? In general, that by which our school is forever different from other houses and cannot be spoken of together in the same breath—is it not solely the three thousand [realms]? Is it not solely contemplation's inherent integration?