宋高僧傳 2.54

2.54

長安四年，叉以母氏衰老，思歸慰覲，表書再上，方俞，勅御史霍嗣光送至于闐。暨和帝龍興，有勅再徵。景龍二年，達于京輦。帝屈萬乘之尊，親迎於開遠門外。傾都緇侶，備幡幢導引。仍飾青象令乘之入城，勅於大薦福寺安置。未遑翻譯，遘疾彌留，以景雲元年十月十二日，右脅累足而終，春秋五十九歲。有詔聽依外國法葬。十一月十二日於開遠門外古然燈臺焚之，薪盡火滅，其舌猶存。十二月二十三日，門人悲智、勅使哥舒道元送其餘骸及斯靈舌還歸于闐，起塔供養。後人復於茶毘之所，起七層塔，土俗號為華嚴三藏塔焉。

In the fourth year of the Chang'an era [704 CE], because his mother was frail with age, Śikṣānanda longed to return home to comfort and attend to her. He submitted petitions twice before it was granted, and an edict ordered Censor Huo Siguang to escort him to Khotan. When Emperor Zhongzong arose like a dragon, an edict was issued to summon him again. In the second year of the Jinglong era [708 CE], he reached the capital. The Emperor set aside the majesty of the lord of ten thousand chariots and personally welcomed him outside the Kaiyuan Gate. The monks and nuns of the entire capital prepared banners and pennants to lead the way. An azure elephant was decorated for him to ride into the city, and an edict ordered that he be housed at Da Jianfu Temple. Before he had leisure to translate, he fell ill and lingered. On the twelfth day of the tenth month of the first year of the Jingyun era [710 CE], lying on his right side with feet folded, he passed away at the age of fifty-nine. An edict permitted him to be buried according to the customs of foreign lands. On the twelfth day of the eleventh month, he was cremated at the ancient Dīpaṅkara Platform outside the Kaiyuan Gate; when the firewood was consumed and the fire extinguished, his tongue remained intact. On the twenty-third day of the twelfth month, his disciple Beizhi and imperial commissioner Geshu Daoyuan escorted his remaining relics and this miraculous tongue back to Khotan, where a stūpa was erected to make offerings. Later people also built a seven-tiered stūpa at the site of his cremation, which local custom called the Stūpa of the Avataṃsaka Tripiṭaka Master.