高僧傳 6.85

6.85

After completing the treatise, he submitted a memorial to Yao Xing, saying: "Zhao has heard that Heaven attains the One to become clear, Earth attains the One to become tranquil, and rulers attain the One to govern all under heaven. I humbly consider that Your Majesty possesses sagacious insight and illustrious brilliance; your Way accords with the divine, and you subtly tally with the center of the circle, with no principle left uncomprehended. Thus you move your blade with ease through the myriad affairs of state, promote the Way throughout the day, shelter and protect the multitude of living beings, and bequeath writings to serve as models. This is why within the realm there are four greats, and the king is one of them. The way of nirvāṇa is indeed that to which the three vehicles return, the deep storehouse of the Vaipulya teachings. Vast and indistinct, subtle and ethereal, it transcends the realm of sight and hearing; obscure and empty-mysterious, it is beyond what the minds of the multitude can measure. With my humble frame, Zhao was fortunate to receive state favor and found quiet dwelling in the academies of learning, attending under Master Kumārajīva's gate for more than ten years. Although the myriad sūtras have diverse purports and their supreme reaches are more than one, the single doctrine of nirvāṇa was always the first among what we heard and practiced. However, Zhao's talent and knowledge are dull and shallow; though I repeatedly received instruction and illustrations, I still felt bewildered. Yet by ceaselessly exhausting my folly, it also seemed as though I gained some understanding; nevertheless, not having been proclaimed first by eminent superiors, I dared not decide it myself. Unfortunately Master Kumārajīva passed away, leaving me nowhere to consult and inquire, which I consider an eternal sorrow. Yet Your Majesty's sagely virtue is not solitary: you alone had a spiritual tally with Master Kumārajīva, perceiving the Way upon a single glance and deciding it in your heart; thus you can arouse that mysterious wind to enlighten the vulgar world. One day, I happened to receive Your Majesty's response to the Marquis of Ancheng, [Yao] Song, inquiring about the ultimate principle of the unconditioned, which touched extensively on the meaning of nirvāṇa's namelessness. I have now ventured to compose the Treatise on the Namelessness of Nirvāṇa, consisting of 'Ten Expositions and Nine Refutations,' drawing widely from the various sūtras and relying on proofs to establish analogies, in order to reverently expound Your Majesty's purport of 'namelessness.' How could I claim to penetrate the divine mind or exhaustively fathom the distant truth? It is merely to deliberate upon the mysterious gate and distribute it to instruct fellow students. If it slightly accords with the sagely intent, I pray that an imperial order will preserve and record it; if there are errors, I humbly await your instructions." Yao Xing replied with earnest solicitude, offering abundant praise. He immediately ordered copies to be made and distributed among his sons and nephews. Such was the esteem in which he was held by his contemporaries. In the tenth year of the Yixi era of the Jin (414 CE), he died in Chang'an at the age of thirty-one.