高僧傳 4.4

4.4

Formerly, during the time of Emperor Ling of the Han, Zhu Foshuo translated the Daoxing jing, which was the older version of the Aṣṭasāhasrikā Prajñāpāramitā-sūtra; its sentences were brief and its meaning incomplete. Shixing once lectured on the Daoxing jing in Luoyang; feeling that the writing was obscure and plain and not entirely satisfactory, he would often sigh and say: 'This sūtra is the pivot of the Mahāyāna, yet its translated principles are incomplete.' Pledging his resolve to forfeit his own body, he sought the great original from afar. Thereupon, in the fifth year of the Ganlu era of the Wei, he set out from Yongzhou and crossed the flowing sands to the west. Having arrived in Khotan, he indeed obtained ninety chapters of the true Sanskrit text. He dispatched his disciple Punyadhana—which here means Farao ('abundance of Dharma')—to escort the Sanskrit original of the sūtra back to Luoyang. Just before he set out, the assembly of Hīnayāna scholars in Khotan spoke to the king, saying: 'The śramaṇa of the Han land wishes to use a brāhmaṇa text to bewilder and confuse the correct scriptures. Your Majesty is lord of the soil; if you do not forbid it, it will sever the great Dharma and blind and deafen the Han land, which will be Your Majesty's fault.' The king immediately forbade the carrying of the sūtra. Deeply grieved at heart, Shixing asked to burn the sūtra as proof, and the king consented. Thereupon firewood was piled before the palace, and it was set ablaze. Shixing stepped toward the fire and vowed: 'If the great Dharma is destined to flow into the Han land, the sūtra should not burn; if it has no protection, what can be done about fate!' Having spoken, he cast the sūtra into the fire; the fire was immediately extinguished, not a single character was harmed, and the birch-bark slips remained as before. The great assembly was awestruck and yielded, all praising its miraculous resonance. Thus he was able to have it sent to Canghengshuinan Temple in Chenliu.