宋高僧傳 5.4

5.4

Shi Fazang, styled Xianshou, was surnamed Kang, and was a person of Kangju. His demeanor was extraordinary and upright, and his sharp intelligence was peerless. While traveling briefly to Chang'an, his brilliance became even more apparent, and he soon answered the call to be chosen among eminent doctrinal monks. When Master Xuanzang was translating scriptures, he initially participated among them; later, due to differing views regarding scribal recording, certifying the meaning, and polishing the text, he withdrew from the translation bureau. By the reign of the Heavenly Empress (Wu Zetian), he was ranked foremost in translation. When Śikṣānanda arrived carrying the Sanskrit palm-leaf manuscripts of the Avataṃsaka-sūtra, Fazang translated the new scripture alongside Yijing and Fuli. Furthermore, at Yijing's translation bureau, he certified the meaning together with Shengzhuang and Dayi. Formerly, Dushun of Dunhuang transmitted the Huayan fajie guan (Contemplation of the Avataṃsaka Dharmadhātu) to his disciple Zhiyan, expounding this Jin-translation edition. Zhiyan passed it to Fazang, and Fazang lectured on the new Avataṃsaka-sūtra for Empress Wu. Coming to the meaning of the Net of Indra, the "Ten Mysteries Gates," the "Gate of the Ocean Seal Samādhi," the "Gate of the Harmonious Meaning of the Six Aspects," and the "Gate of the Universal Eye Realm"—these doctrinal chapters constituted the comprehensive and specific conceptual net of the Avataṃsaka, and the Empress was bewildered and unsettled by them. Fazang thereupon pointed to the golden lion guarding the hall as a metaphor, and consequently composed a guide of principles that was concise and easy to understand, titled the Jin shizi zhang (Treatise on the Golden Lion), enumerating the general and particular characteristics of the ten gates, whereupon the Empress was awakened to its meaning. He also devised a skillful expedient for those students who had not fully understood: taking ten mirrors, he arranged them in the eight directions, with one above and one below, spaced over ten feet apart, facing one another. In the center he placed an image of the Buddha and lit a single torch to illuminate it, so that their reflections cast light across one another. Through this, students came to understand the doctrine of the inexhaustible interpenetration of the ocean of worlds. Fazang's skillful guidance was all of this sort. Yet he could not lay aside the duty of translation, for the monarchs' faith was that upon which the monastic order relied. After the Indian monks ceased translating, the Empress, on the eighth day of the tenth month, the yihai day, in the second year of the Shengli era (699), ordered Fazang to lecture on the Great Scripture at Foshouji Temple. When he reached the "Flower Treasury World Chapter," the lecture hall and the grounds of the temple all shook, and the rector (karmadāna), the monk Hengjing, submitted a detailed memorial reporting this. The imperial decree stated: "Yesterday we requested the expounding of the subtle words and the elucidation of the esoteric depths. On the day translating began, sweet dew appeared in a dream to manifest an auspicious omen; on the dawn the lectures opened, an earthquake was induced to mark the extraordinary event. This is indeed the Tathāgata descending his traces, in accord with the text of the nine assemblies; how could Our ordinary, deficient self dare receive the shaking of the six kinds [of earthquakes]? Having opened and perused your memorial, We feel both joy and reverence in Our breast." Such was the imperial reverence he received, which truly was not an empty claim; therefore, in the transmission of the Huayan school down to Chengguan, Fazang was revered as the Third Patriarch. He authored the Bore xinjing shu (Commentary on the Heart Sūtra), which was prized by contemporaries and circulated throughout the empire. He was also known as National Preceptor Kangzang!