高僧傳 2.20

2.20

Before Kumārajīva passed away, he felt a slight ailment in the four great elements. Thereupon, he recited divine dhāraṇīs three times, ordering his foreign disciples to chant them in order to save himself. Before their efforts could take effect, he felt his condition turning increasingly critical. Thereupon, exerting himself despite his illness, he bid farewell to the monastic assembly, saying: 'Having met through the Dharma, we have not yet fully realized our intentions; now that I am turning to the next life, what words can express my sorrow? Lacking insight myself, I errantly served as a translator. Of the more than three hundred fascicles of scriptures and treatises I have produced, only the single work of the Daśabhāṇavāra-vinaya had not yet had its superfluities pruned; keeping its original intent, there is surely no error. I vow that all that I have declared and translated may be transmitted to future generations, and together all will propagate them. Now before the assembly I make this solemn oath of truth: if my translations contain no error, then after my body is cremated, my tongue shall not be charred or destroyed.' On the twentieth day of the eighth month in the eleventh year of the Hongshi era of the illegitimate Qin (the fifth year of the Yixi era of the Jin), he passed away in Chang'an. Right in the Xiaoyao Garden, in accordance with the foreign custom, they cremated his corpse with fire. The firewood was consumed and his form shattered, but his tongue alone did not turn to ash. Later, a foreign śramaṇa came and said: 'What Kumārajīva had committed to memory did not amount to even one-tenth of what he translated.'