續高僧傳 4.9

4.9

余以闇昧濫霑斯席。與之對晤屢展炎涼。聽言觀行名實相守。精厲晨昏計時分業。虔虔不懈專思法務。言無名利行絕虛浮。曲識機緣善通物性。不倨不諂行藏適時。吐味幽深辯開疑議。寔季代之英賢。乃佛宗之法將矣。且其發蒙入法。特異常倫。聽覽經論用為恒任。既周行東夏挹酌諸師披露肝膽盡其精義。莫不傾倒林藪更新學府。遂能不遠數萬諮求勝法。誓捨形命必會為期。發趾張掖途次龍沙。中途艱險身心僅絕。既達高昌倍光來價。傳國祖送備閱靈儀。路出鐵門石門。躬乘沙嶺雪嶺。歷天險而志逾慷慨。遭凶賊而神彌厲勇。兼以歸稟正教。師承戒賢。理遂言揚義非再授。廣開異論包藏胸臆。致使梵侶傾心不匱其法。又以起信一論文出馬鳴彼土諸僧思承其本。奘乃譯唐為梵通布五天。斯則法化之緣東西互舉。又西華餘論深尚聲明。奘乃卑心請決。隨授隨曉。致有七變其勢動發異蹤。三循廣論恢張懷抱。故得施無厭寺三千學僧皆號智囊護持城塹。及覩其脣吻聽其詞義。皆彈指讚歎。何斯人也。隨其遊歷塞外海東百三十國。道俗邪正。承其名者莫不仰德歸依更崇開信可以家國增榮。光宅惟遠。獻奉歲至。咸奘之功。若非天挺英靈生知聖授何能振斯鴻緒導達遺蹤。前後僧傳往天竺者。首自法顯法勇。終于道邃道生。相繼中途一十七返。取其通言華梵妙達文筌揚導國風開悟邪正。莫高於奘矣。恨其經部不翻猶涉過半。年未遲暮。足得出之。無常奄及。惜哉。

I, being unenlightened and undiscerning, presumptuously partook of this assembly. Conversing with him, I repeatedly shared the changes of seasons. Listening to his speech and watching his conduct, his name and reality matched each other. Exerting himself morning and evening, he allotted time and divided duties. Reverent and untiring, he focused exclusively on religious tasks. His words were devoid of fame and gain, and his actions entirely free of superficiality. He subtly discerned dispositions and capacities, and readily grasped the natures of living beings. Neither haughty nor fawning, his public action and retirement were appropriately timed. He brought forth profound insights, and through argument he resolved doubts and dilemmas. He was truly an eminent sage of the final age, indeed a Dharma general of the Buddhist tradition! Furthermore, when he initially dispersed ignorance and entered the Dharma, he was singularly distinguished from ordinary peers. Listening to and examining sūtras and treatises, he made this his regular task. Having traveled extensively through the eastern realm, drawing upon and consulting the various masters, he exposed his mind and exhausted their refined tenets, leaving none among the groves of scholars who did not yield in admiration, and completely renewing the halls of learning. He was then able, undaunted by tens of thousands [of li], to seek out the supreme Dharma, vowing to sacrifice his bodily life with the certainty of meeting [the truth] as his expectation. Setting out from Zhangye, he traversed the Dragon Sands. Facing perilous difficulties mid-journey, body and mind nearly perished. Upon arriving at Gaochang, his renown shone ever brighter. Sent off as an emissary through the states, he fully encountered auspicious tokens. His path went out through the Iron Gate and the Stone Gate; in person he rode across sand ranges and snow ranges. Passing through celestial perils, his determination grew all the more ardent; encountering fierce bandits, his spirit became ever more valiant. Moreover, he took refuge in and received the true teaching, succeeding the lineage under Śīlabhadra. Principles were immediately made clear in speech; doctrines required no repeated instruction. He widely unfolded differing doctrines, storing them completely within his breast, causing the Indian saṅgha to yield their hearts to him, never failing to supply him with teachings. Furthermore, because the Treatise on the Awakening of Faith originated from Aśvaghoṣa, the monks of that land wished to receive its original text. Xuanzang then translated it from Chinese into Sanskrit, disseminating it throughout the five regions of India. Thus the causes of Dharma conversion were reciprocally advanced between East and West. Moreover, other treatises of the Western regions placed high value on grammar (śabdavidyā); Xuanzang humbled his mind to request determinations, comprehending them as soon as they were imparted, resulting in seven alterations of grammatical form that set in motion unusual methods, and three cycles through the extensive treatise that broadened his mind. Hence, the three thousand student monks of the Mahābodhi Monastery (Śīlāditya's monastery) were all called vessels of wisdom and ramparts guarding the citadel. Yet when they beheld his speech and heard his phrasing and tenets, all snapped their fingers in admiration, exclaiming, "What manner of man is this!" Wherever he traveled through more than one hundred and thirty states beyond the frontier and east of the sea, among both clerics and laypeople, the unorthodox and the orthodox, those who heard his name unfailingly revered his virtue and took refuge, fostering an even deeper faith; he was able to enhance the honor of the nation, extending illumination afar. That tributes arrived year after year was entirely Xuanzang's merit. Were he not endowed with heavenly brilliance and born with sage-bestowed knowledge, how could he have revitalized this great heritage and transmitted the surviving traces? Of the successive biographies of monks who went to India, beginning with Faxian and Fayong and ending with Daosui and Daosheng, there were seventeen return journeys succeeding one another mid-route. In taking someone fluent in both Chinese and Sanskrit, subtly conversant with textual vehicles, capable of raising the nation's prestige, and enlightening both the heterodox and orthodox, none was greater than Xuanzang. It is regrettable that more than half of the scriptural collections remained untranslated by him. Had his years not been cut short, he would have brought them all out. Impermanence overtook him so suddenly—how lamentable!