高僧傳 13.61

13.61

然天竺方俗，凡是歌詠法言，皆稱為唄。至於此土，詠經則稱為轉讀，歌讚則號為梵唄。昔諸天讚唄，皆以韻入絃管。五眾既與俗違，故宜以聲曲為妙。原夫梵唄之起，亦兆自陳思。始著〈太子頌〉及〈睒頌〉等，因為之製聲。吐納抑揚，並法神授。今之皇皇顧惟，蓋其風烈也。其後居士支謙，亦傳梵唄三契，皆湮沒而不存。世有〈共議〉一章，恐或謙之餘則也。唯康僧會所造《泥洹》梵唄，于今尚傳。即敬謁一契，文出雙卷《泥洹》，故曰泥洹唄也。爰至晉世，有高座法師初傳覓歷。今之行地印文，即其法也。籥公所造六言，即《大慈哀愍》一契，于今時有作者。近有西涼州唄，源出關右，而流于晉陽，今之面如滿月是也。凡此諸曲，並製出名師。後人繼作，多所訛漏。或時沙彌小兒，互相傳授。疇昔成規，殆無遺一，惜哉！此既同是聲例，故備之論末。

Now, according to the customs of India, all singing and chanting of the words of the Dharma are called *bhaiṣajya* (chanting; *bài*). When it comes to this land, chanting sūtras is termed 'revolving and reading' (*zhuǎndú*), while singing eulogies is called 'Brahma-chanting' (*fànbài*). In ancient times, the praise-chanting of the devas was entirely set to strings and pipes. Since the five assemblies [of the Saṃgha] differ from the secular world, they ought rather to take vocal melody as exquisite. Tracing the origin of Brahma-chanting, it also first arose with King Si of Chen. He first composed the 'Eulogy on the Crown Prince' and the 'Eulogy on Śyāma', and accordingly established melodies for them. In breathing, rising, and falling, all modeled divine transmission. The present 'Huanghuang Guwei' is indeed of his glorious style. Thereafter, the upāsaka Zhi Qian also transmitted three sections of Brahma-chants, all of which have disappeared and do not survive. In the world there is the section 'Gongyi' ('Joint Deliberation'), which is perhaps what remains of Qian's model. Only the *Nirvāṇa* Brahma-chant composed by Kang Senghui is still transmitted today. That is, the section 'Jingbai' ('Reverent Salutation'), whose text derives from the two-fascicle *Nirvāṇa*, and so it is called the *Nirvāṇa* chant. When it came to the Jin period, Master Gaozuo (Śrīmitra) first transmitted the *mili*. The present 'Xingdiyinwen' ('Walking the Earth with Stamped Patterns') is indeed his method. The six-syllable piece composed by Venerable Yue, namely the section 'Daci Aiming' ('Great Kindness and Pity'), is still performed at times today. Recently there is the West Liangzhou chant, whose source arose west of the Pass and flowed to Jinyang; this is the present 'Mianru Manyue' ('Face like the Full Moon'). All of these tunes were composed by famous masters. When later generations continued their production, many errors and omissions occurred. At times, novice monks and young boys transmitted them to one another. Of the established patterns of former days, scarcely one survives; how lamentable! As these also share the same vocal principles, they are fully recorded at the end of this treatise.