高僧傳 5.7

5.7

Once he reached Xiangyang, he again proclaimed the Buddhadharma. Initially, scriptures had been produced long before, but earlier translations were occasionally erroneous, causing the deep store of meaning to remain concealed and not fully understood; whenever lectures were given, they merely narrated the general gist and read the text aloud. An thoroughly examined the canonical texts, drawing out the deep and reaching the far; as for the various scriptures he commented upon, including the Prajñā Daoxing, the Miji, and the Anban, he pursued the text and compared sentences to determine where meanings began and ended, analyzing doubts and distinguishing interpretations in a total of twenty-two fascicles. His prefaces were profound and rich, marvelously exhausting the deep purports; once the orderly threads were set out, the textual principles converged and were fully understood. That the meanings of the scriptures were clearly elucidated truly began with An. From the Han and Wei dynasties down to the Jin, scriptures arrived in increasing numbers, but the names of those who transmitted them were often unrecorded, so later people tracing them could not determine their dates. An therefore gathered all the titles, indicated their times and translators, and evaluated the old and the new, compiling them into the Scripture Catalogue (Jinglu). That the various scriptures have reliable provenance is truly due to his merit. Scholars from the four quarters competed to go and take him as their teacher. At that time Huan Langzi, General Who Subdues the West, was garrisoned at Jiangling and invited An for a short visit; Zhu Xu, commanding the western garrison, again requested his return to Xiangyang and forged deep ties with him. Xu often sighed, saying: “Master An is the ferry and bridge of the study of the Way, the furnace and workshop of purification.” Because Baima Temple was cramped, An established another temple named Tanxi, which was the residence of Zhang Yin of Qinghe. Wealthy elders all offered support, erecting a five-storey stūpa and four hundred rooms. Yang Hongzhong, Inspector of Liangzhou, sent ten thousand catties of copper intended for a dew-receiving basin. An said: “The dew-receiving basin has already been completed through Master Tai's construction; would it be permissible to redirect this copper to cast a Buddha image?” Hongzhong joyfully and respectfully agreed. Thereupon the assembly pooled their donations to help complete the Buddha image; its luminous marks were sixteen feet tall, and its spiritual splendour was bright and distinct; every night it emitted light that illuminated the halls and chambers. Later, the image moved on its own to Mount Wan; the entire town went to gaze upon and worship it, and then brought it back to the temple. Having fulfilled his great vow, An said: “If I die this evening, it would be well.”