釋氏稽古略 3.32

3.32

Tripiṭaka Dharma Master Xuanzang went to the Western Regions in the winter of the third year of Zhenguan to retrieve Buddhist scriptures that had not yet arrived. He went to the palace and presented a memorial, but the Emperor did not grant permission. The Master secretly slipped away, departing from Yuanzhou through Yumen Pass, and proceeded via Gaochang, the Yabghu, and other kingdoms. In the seventh year of Zhenguan, he reached Central India, met a Great Vehicle lay practitioner, and received the Yogācārabhūmi. Entering Rājagṛha, he stayed at Nālandā Monastery and received the doctrines of Yogācāra and Vijñaptimātra from Master Śīlabhadra on the terrace. He remained for ten years and returned from Rājagṛha. In the nineteenth year of Zhenguan, on the bingzi day of the first month, he arrived at the capital. Fang Xuanling, Regent of Chang'an, reported this in a memorial. On the renchen day, the Dharma Master went to Luoyang (the Eastern Capital). In the third month, on the jihai day, he was granted an audience at the Yiluan Hall. The Emperor asked: "When the Master departed, why did you not report it?" He replied: "When I was about to depart, I submitted memorials three times, but not receiving your gracious permission, I took it upon myself to travel secretly." The Emperor said: "That the Master was able to risk your life to seek the Dharma and bring benefit and advantage to the multitude of living beings—we commend you exceedingly!" The Dharma Master then reported the six hundred and fifty-seven Sanskrit texts of sutras and treatises he had brought from the Western Regions, begging to declare and translate them for the realm at the Shaolin Monastery on Mount Song in Luoyang. The Emperor said: "We have recently founded Hongfu Monastery for the Empress Dowager Mu; you may translate them there." An edict ordered Fang Xuanling, Chancellor of the Realm, to take exclusive charge of supervision, and all supplies and necessities were to come from the imperial treasury. In the twenty-second year of Zhenguan, in the sixth month, the Emperor composed the "Preface to the Sagely Teaching of the Tang Tripiṭaka" for the Dharma Master's newly translated scriptures. At that time, Crown Prince Zhi, seeing the sagely preface, accordingly composed the sagely record. An edict ordered the Crown Prince to compose the postface to the Bodhisattvapiṭaka Sūtra. In the eighth month, the Emperor bestowed on the Dharma Master a precious robe worth a hundred pieces of gold and a jeweled razor. The Dharma Master presented a memorial of thanks, which said in brief: "The robes of forbearance match their colors with floating rosiness; the knife of wisdom is sharper than one that carves jade. I shall reverently wear it to subdue the Māra of afflictions, and gird it to sever the web of worldly defilements." In the third year of Yonghui under Gaozong, the Dharma Master was about to build a great stupa at Ci'en Monastery to enshrine the Sanskrit texts of sutras and treatises retrieved from the west; he presented a memorial. An imperial edict bestowed clothing and goods from the deceased of the seven palaces, including the Great Interior and the Eastern Palace inner courts, to aid the Master in the endeavor. The Dharma Master directed the design according to the system of the Western Regions. When completed, the stupa was two hundred feet high. In the fourth month of the tenth year of Xianqing, an imperial edict designated the Yuhua Palace as a monastery; to venerate the late Emperor, an edict summoned the Dharma Master to reside there. In the following year, the Master translated the Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra at Yuhua. In the second month of the first year of Linde, the Dharma Master ordered his disciple Mahāyānaprabha to copy a record of the translated sutras and treatises, in all seventy-five works and one thousand three hundred and thirty-five fascicles. He also summoned his disciples to create images, hold a vegetarian feast, and take leave of the assembly. He had his attendants recite the name of Maitreya Tathāgata. In the middle of the night on the fifth day, lying peacefully on his right side, he passed away at the age of sixty-five. The Emperor suspended court for three days and ordered that he be encoffined in a gold inner coffin and silver outer coffin. In the fourth month, he was entombed in a stupa on the eastern plain of Chan. His disciples Shentai, Qiyuan, Huiyin, Huili, Mingjun, Yibao, and Mahāyānaprabha were all dragons and elephants of the Dharma gate. The doctrines of Yogācārabhūmi and Vijñaptimātra which the Dharma Master had received from Master Śīlabhadra in the Western Regions were transmitted to Kuiji (Ben zhuan).