佛祖統紀 6.14

6.14

Appraisal: Zhāng'ān said: 'Zhiyi's Treatise on the Contemplation of the Mind says: "I take refuge in Master Nāgārjuna." From this it is proven that Nāgārjuna is the first patriarch master.' The Fuxing explains: 'Zhiyi should have called Nāgārjuna his great-grandfather master. If one takes exalted status as "gao" (great/first), it is like the various sovereigns of the Han and Qi dynasties who all referred to the founding ancestor as "gao"; this means that because their merit was unsurpassed, their posthumous title was "Gao". Our school also considers Nāgārjuna the founding ancestor, so Zhiyi designated him as the first patriarch.' Transmitting the Buddha's mind-lineage and continuing the lineage of the Way, later generations revered them and universally called them 'patriarchs'; thus the twenty-four sages of the patriarchal transmission from the golden mouth are all called 'patriarchs'. Down to this land, the succession of the nine patriarchs also bears this meaning. Hence we know that what is now termed 'Gao' is truly as Jīngxī meant—unsurpassed merit—and is not like the secular designations of great-grandfather and great-great-grandfather.