佛祖歷代通載 8.102

8.102

外國有所謂天竺沙門僧伽跋陀羅者。師資相傳云。佛涅槃後優波離結集律藏訖。即於其年七月十五日。受自恣竟。以香花供養律藏。便下一點置律藏前。年年如是。優波欲涅槃時。付弟子陀寫俱。陀寫俱付弟子須俱。須俱付弟子悉伽婆。悉伽婆付弟子目犍連子帝須。帝須付弟子旃陀跋闍。如是師師相付。至今三藏法師。法師將律藏至廣州。臨上舶還本國。時以律藏付弟子僧伽跋陀羅。羅以永明六年共沙門僧猗於廣州竹林寺譯出善見毘婆沙一部十八卷。即共安居。以七年庚午歲七月望。受自恣竟。如前師法以香花供養律藏。即下一點。當其年凡得九百七十五點。點是一年也。至梁大同元年。有隱士趙伯休。於廬山遇苦行律師弘度。得此點記年月。伯休因問度曰。自永明七年後云何。不復見點。度云。自彼已前皆得道聖賢手自下點。度乃凡夫止可奉持頂戴而已。故不復點也。伯休因舊點推至大同元年。凡一千二十年。今以此究參諸家傳記。佛世尊誕生入滅之年並不相類。大抵西域山川之廣。國土之多佛化之盛。各承一宗。此亦一家之說不可廢。故附著于此。

From foreign lands came a monk from Tianzhu named Saṅghabhadra. According to a master-disciple lineage tradition, after the Buddha's nirvāṇa, Upāli concluded the compilation of the Vinayapiṭaka. That same year, on the fifteenth day of the seventh month, having completed the pavāraṇā (self-correction ceremony), he made offerings of incense and flowers to the Vinayapiṭaka and then placed a single dot before the Vinayapiṭaka. It was done in this way year after year. When Upāli was about to enter nirvāṇa, he entrusted it to his disciple Dāsaka. Dāsaka entrusted it to his disciple Soṇaka. Soṇaka entrusted it to his disciple Siggava. Siggava entrusted it to his disciple Moggaliputtatissa. Moggaliputtatissa entrusted it to his disciple Caṇḍavajji. In this manner, master entrusted it to master down to the Tripiṭaka Master of the present age. This Tripiṭaka Master brought the Vinayapiṭaka to Guangzhou. Just before boarding a ship to return to his native country, he entrusted the Vinayapiṭaka to his disciple Saṅghabhadra. In the sixth year of Yongming, [Saṅghabhadra], together with the monk Sengyi, translated the Samantapāsādikā in one work of eighteen fascicles at Zhulin Temple in Guangzhou. They observed the retreat together, and on the full moon of the seventh month in the seventh year, a gengwu year, having completed the pavāraṇā, he made offerings of incense and flowers to the Vinayapiṭaka according to the method of the previous masters, and then added a dot. In that year, there were nine hundred and seventy-five dots in total; one dot represents one year. Down to the first year of Datong under the Liang dynasty, there was a recluse named Zhao Boxiu who met the vinaya master of ascetic practices, Hongdu, at Mount Lu, and obtained this record of dots marking the years and months. Boxiu accordingly asked Hongdu, "Why, after the seventh year of Yongming, are no more dots to be seen?" Hongdu replied, "Prior to that, holy sages who had attained the Way personally set down the dots with their own hands. I am merely an ordinary person; I can do no more than reverently uphold and honor it. Therefore I make no more dots." From the previous dots, Boxiu calculated down to the first year of Datong, making a total of one thousand and twenty years. Now, when examining and comparing this with the biographies of various masters, the years of the Bhagavān Buddha's birth and parinirvāṇa do not match at all. Broadly speaking, the mountains and rivers of the Western Regions are vast, its countries numerous, and the flourishing of Buddhist conversion great; each transmits its own lineage. This, too, is the account of one tradition and cannot be discarded; therefore it is appended here.