宋高僧傳 3.21

3.21

釋蓮華，本中印度人也。以興元元年杖錫謁德宗，乞鐘一口歸天竺聲擊。勅廣州節度使李復修鼓鑄畢，令送於南天竺金堆寺。華乃將此鐘於寶軍國毘盧遮那塔所安置。後以《華嚴》後分梵夾附舶來，為信者般若三藏於崇福寺翻成四十卷焉。一云，梵夾本是南天竺烏荼國王書獻支那天子，書云：「手自書寫《華嚴經》百千偈中所說善財童子、五十五聖者善知識〈入不思議解脫境界普賢行願品〉，謹奉進上，願於龍華會中奉覲云」，即貞元十一年也。至十二年六月，詔於崇福寺翻譯，罽賓沙門般若宣梵文，洛京天宮寺廣濟譯語，西明寺圓照筆受，智柔、智通綴文，成都府正覺寺道恒、鑒虛潤文，千福寺大通證義，澄觀、靈邃詳定，神策軍護軍中尉霍仙鳴、左街功德使竇文場寫進，十四年二月解座。

Śramaṇa Lianhua (Padma) was originally a native of Central India. In the first year of Xingyuan, leaning on his monk's staff, he had an audience with Emperor Dezong, begging for a bell to return to India to ring. An imperial decree ordered Li Fu, the Military Commissioner of Guangzhou, to repair and cast it, and directed that it be sent to Jindui Temple in South India. Lianhua then installed this bell at the Vairocana Stūpa in the kingdom of Baojun. Later, the Sanskrit bundles of the latter section of the Avataṃsaka were sent by ship; the faithful Tripiṭaka master Prajñā translated them into forty scrolls at Chongfu Temple. Another account says that the Sanskrit bundle was originally presented in a letter by the king of the kingdom of Oḍra in South India to the Son of Heaven of Cina. The letter stated: "Having copied with my own hand the chapter 'Entering the Inconceivable Realm of Liberation: The Conduct and Vows of Samantabhadra', expounded by Sudhana and the fifty-five holy spiritual friends from among the hundred thousand verses of the Avataṃsaka Sūtra, I respectfully present it, wishing to behold you in the assembly of the Dragon Flower Tree"; this was in the eleventh year of Zhenyuan. In the sixth month of the twelfth year, an imperial decree ordered its translation at Chongfu Temple: Prajñā, a śramaṇa of Kapiśa, proclaimed the Sanskrit text; Guangji of Tiangong Temple in the eastern capital translated the language; Yuanchao of Ximing Temple took it down with the brush; Zhirou and Zhitong composed the prose; Daoheng of Zhengjue Temple in Chengdu-fu and Jianxu polished the phrasing; Datong of Qianfu Temple certified the meaning; Chengguan and Lingsui determined the readings; and Huo Xianming, Army-Inspecting Commissioner of the Shence Army, and Dou Wenchang, Commissioner of Meritorious Virtues of the Left Street, copied and submitted it; the translation sessions concluded in the second month of the fourteenth year.