佛祖歷代通載 12.69

12.69

（三十）　五月戊辰。淨義三藏自西域還。獲梵本經論四百餘部。及金剛座真容舍利三百餘粒則天降蹕上東門迎勞。安置佛授記寺。未幾詔入大遍空寺。同實叉難提等譯經證義。明年十月新華嚴經成。實叉難提等奉表奏上。則天親製序引。御太極殿宣示百官。其護法弘通無出天后之德矣。法師姓張。齊州范陽人。家世珪璋。十五有西行志。三十七歲方遂雅懷。是年乃旋也。

(30) In the fifth month, on the wuchen day, Tripiṭaka Master Jingyi (Yijing) returned from the Western Regions, having acquired more than four hundred Sanskrit scriptures and treatises, as well as more than three hundred true-form relics from the Vajrāsana. Zetian descended from her palanquin at the Shangdong Gate to welcome and comfort him, lodging him at Foshouji Monastery. Before long, she decreed that he enter Dabiankong Monastery to translate scriptures and verify meanings alongside Śikṣānanda and others. In the tenth month of the following year, the new Avataṃsaka Sūtra was completed, and Śikṣānanda and the others submitted a memorial presenting it. Zetian personally composed the preface and, presiding at the Taiji Hall, promulgated it to the civil and military officials. In protecting the Dharma and broadly propagating it, nothing surpassed the virtue of the Empress of Heaven. The Dharma Master's secular surname was Zhang, a native of Fanyang in Qizhou, from an illustrious family of noble character. At fifteen he had the aspiration to travel west; only at the age of thirty-seven did he fulfill his cherished desire, and in this year he finally returned.