宋高僧傳 3.36

3.36

Second, north of the Snow Mountains is Hu; south of the mountains is called the land of Brahmans, which is completely separate from Hu, their scripts and spoken languages being different. From the country of Kesh, the script originally had twenty-odd letters, which shifted and generated [others], their variants spreading widely; its script is read vertically, just like that of Cīnasthāna! Reaching Tokhara, the spoken sounds gradually differ, its script having originally twenty-five letters, read horizontally. Crossing south of the Congling Mountains, the language and script of the country of Kapiśa are identical to Tokhara; the miscellaneous kinds above are Hu. As for the language and script of India, they were created by Brahmā, originally having forty-seven letters, which were then expanded and widely propagated, called the Śabdavidyā. It has twelve chapters to teach beginners and culminated in the five treatises of the five sciences (pañcavidyā), being in general different from Hu. Given the vast extent of the territory of the five Indias, how could there not be slight variations? Furthermore, from the time when translation first began in this land during the Later Han down to the Sui dynasty, people all pointed to the Western Heavens and regarded them as Hu countries, thereby losing the lineage of Brahmā and speaking of them as scriptures of the Hu lands. Dharma Master Yancong alone clarified this principle: he merely examined the catalog and severely reproached Mitian (Daoan). In according with the Buddhabhūmi and matching the Āgamas, the gain was ours; but in using Hu names and confusing the Brahman stock, upon whom should the fault be blamed? In the Tang there was Master Daoxuan, who likewise joined in this chorus. From this point on, if people heard the trilling of a tongue or saw a dark visage, they would firmly designate the person a Sanskrit monk, and uniformly identify [the tongue] as the Sanskrit language. Master Yancong may be described as being so busy wielding the axe to catch the cicada before the white dew that he was blind to the light glancing upon the yellow-coated sparrow behind him. Since it is said that the Western lands have both Sanskrit and Hu, why did he not distinguish between north and south? Through his analysis of right and wrong, three errors arose: first, changing Hu into Sanskrit without analyzing and unpacking Hu, so that Hu reverted to Sanskrit—this is an error; second, not being skilled in the two sounds of Hu and Sanskrit, thereby causing Hu to be taken for Sanskrit—this is an error; third, not knowing that re-translations existed—this is an error. Originally calling everything Hu was just like calling everything Sanskrit since the Sui dynasty: this is what is called going beyond being just as bad as falling short. If speaking on the basis of the fundamental source, one takes Sanskrit as primary; if speaking from the branches, the designation Hu may be preserved. Why is this? From the five Indias to the north of the mountains, texts were translated through multiple stages; thus I suspect Master Yancong left this to await today, and I do not dare decline [to clarify it].