神僧傳 1.2

1.2

神僧者。神化萬變。而超乎其類者也。然皆有傳。散見經典。觀者猝欲考求。三藏之文。宏博浩汗。未能周遍。是以世多不能盡知。而亦莫窮其所以為神也。故間繙閱。采輯其傳。總為九卷。使觀者不必用力於搜求。一覽而盡得之。如入寶藏而眾美畢舉。遂用刻梓以傳。昭著其迹於天地間。使人皆知神僧之所以為神者有可徵矣。用書此於編首。概見其大意云爾。

Divine monks are those whose divine transformations are manifold, and who transcend the ordinary lot of their kind. Yet all have biographies scattered throughout the scriptures and canonical records. When viewers suddenly wish to examine and seek them out, the texts of the Tripiṭaka are so vast and expansive that they cannot easily cover them entirely. For this reason, the world mostly cannot know them completely, nor can it plumb how they became divine. Therefore, in intervals of reading, I have selected and compiled their biographies into a total of nine fascicles, so that readers need not spend their effort in searching, but may take them in completely at a single glance, like entering a treasure house where all beauties are displayed at once. Thereupon I have had it carved on woodblocks to transmit it, making their traces manifest throughout heaven and earth, so that all people may know that how the divine monks were divine has proof. I therefore write this at the head of the volume to give a general account of its main purport.