釋氏稽古略 1.2

1.2

In Wuxing there was a great bhikṣu named the venerable Baozhou [Jue]'an. He was broadly learned and versed in past and present. He once investigated the historical facts of the Śākya lineage spanning several thousand years, taking the years as warp and the states as weft, and composed a volume entitled the Hand Mirror of Examining Antiquity (Jigu shoujian). Subsequently, considering it still incomplete, he expanded upon his previous compilation to produce the Brief Historical Survey of Examining Antiquity (Jigu lüe). In the autumn of the fourteenth year of Zhizheng [1354], the ninth month, Liu Yaofu of Taiyuan brought this book on his behalf and requested that I write a preface to head the volume. Thereupon I took it and read it. From the time the Buddha appeared, the deeds and lives of eminent teachers and bhadantas, the rise and decline of stūpas and monasteries, and the numbers of monks are completely recorded without omission. He took the internal scriptures as his root, collated them with the various dynastic histories, drew broadly upon biographies, and occasionally drew upon prominent and manifest events as evidence, intending to magnify the patronage across successive dynasties while lodging admonitions and warnings therein. The chronology of years and months was verified with utmost precision, leaving nothing wanting. It can truly be called comprehensive and detailed! Yet he still titled it a 'Brief Survey' out of his personal modesty. I have often wondered at how the Buddhist teaching travelled tens of thousands of li from Shendu to reach China, where the longer it stayed the more it flourished, its roots becoming so deep and firm that they could not be uprooted. What is the reason for this? Is it not because there have been individuals across successive generations who sustained this teaching? Those recorded in this compilation were often men of heroic and eminent talent who maintained self-respect without yielding and stood remarkably upright, causing princes, dukes, and high ministers to look up to them in devotion and faith, hurrying forward with no leisure to spare. How great, then, was their service in sustaining it! This was precisely the Master's intention in compiling and setting it forth. An ancient transmission says: 'Those whose paths are different cannot lay plans together.' The books of the Buddha are not what I have studied. Yet I particularly praise his extensive knowledge and the diligence and energy of his mind. Though our paths are different, I could not decline to write a preface. Alas! Looking at his book and seeing the flourishing of his teaching, and knowing that there were indeed people who sustained it, one can truly be deeply moved.