高僧傳 7.12

7.12

Xie Lingyun of Chen commandery was deeply fond of Buddhist principles and had a broad understanding of the sounds of foreign customs. He then consulted Rui regarding various characters in the scriptures, as well as the diverse pronunciations and differing meanings. Thereupon [Rui] composed the Shisi yin xunxu (Preface to the Fourteen Sounds and Glosses), listing Sanskrit and Chinese in parallel so that they were clearly intelligible, providing a basis for the written characters. Rui died during the Yuanjia era of the Song at the age of eighty-five.