弘贊法華傳 2.13

2.13

右。沙門竺曇摩羅剎。此云法護。其先月氏人。本姓支氏。世居燉煌郡。年八歲出家。事外國沙門竺高座為師。誦經日萬言。過目即能。天性純懿。操行精苦。篤志好學。萬里尋師。是以。博覽六經。遊心七籍。雖世務毀譽。未甞介抱。是時晉武之世。寺廟圖像。雖崇京邑而方等深蘊在葱外。護乃慨然發憤。志弘大道。遂隨師至西域。遊歷諸國。外國異言。三十六種。書亦如之。護皆遍學。貫綜詁訓。音義字體。無不備識。遂大齎梵經。還歸中夏。自燉煌至長安。㳂路傳譯。寫為晉文。所譯賢劫正法花等。一百六十五部。孜孜所務。唯以弘道為業。終身寫譯。勞不告倦。經法所以廣流中夏者。護之力也。以西晉大康七年八月十日。護手執梵本。口宣出前經二十七品。優婆塞聶承遠。張仕明。張仲改。共筆受。九月二日訖。天竺沙門竺力。龜茲居士帛元信。共參校。元嘉元年二月六日重覆。又元康元年。長安孫伯虎虞世雅等。以四月十五日寫素訖。護後立寺於長安青門外。精勤行道。於是。德化遐布。聲蓋四遠。僧徒數千。咸所宗事。春秋七十有八。與門徒避地。東下至澠池。遘疾而卒。

Concerning the above: By Śramaṇa Zhu Tanmolaicha (Zhu Dharmarakṣa), rendered here as Fahu. His ancestors were Yuezhi people, originally surnamed Zhi, who resided for generations in Dunhuang Commandery. At the age of eight, he left home to become a monk, serving the foreign śramaṇa Zhu Gaozuo as his master. He recited ten thousand words of sūtras daily, mastering them as soon as his eyes passed over them. By natural disposition he was pure and admirable, his conduct refined and austere. With earnest resolve and a love of learning, he traveled ten thousand li in search of masters. Thus, he was broadly versed in the Six Classics and immersed his mind in the seven categories of books. Although the affairs, praise, and blame of the mundane world surrounded him, they never weighed upon his heart. At that time, during the reign of Emperor Wu of the Jin, although monasteries and images were revered in the capital, the profound store of Vaipulya texts remained beyond the Congling Mountains. Hu then sighed with indignation and stirred his resolve, determined to broadly propagate the Great Way. He subsequently accompanied his master to the Western Regions, traveling through various kingdoms. The foreign languages were of thirty-six kinds, and their scripts were just as varied; Hu studied them all thoroughly, comprehensively mastering their glosses, pronunciations, meanings, and orthography, being deficient in none. Thereupon, he brought back a great number of Sanskrit texts and returned to the central lands of China. From Dunhuang to Chang'an, he transmitted and translated along the way, writing them in the Jin language. The works he translated, including the Bhadrakalpika-sūtra and the True Lotus Sūtra, numbered one hundred and sixty-five texts. In diligent pursuit of his task, he took the propagation of the Way as his sole calling, translating and copying throughout his entire life without ever complaining of weariness. That the sūtras and teachings were widely circulated in China was due to Hu's efforts. On the tenth day of the eighth month in the seventh year of the Taikang reign of the Western Jin, Hu held the Sanskrit manuscript in his hands and orally produced the twenty-seven chapters of the aforementioned sūtra. The upāsakas Nie Chengyuan, Zhang Shiming, and Zhang Zhonggai jointly took it down in writing, finishing on the second day of the ninth month. The Indian śramaṇa Zhu Li and the layman Bo Yuanxin from Kucha jointly proofread it. On the sixth day of the second month in the first year of the Yuanjia reign, it was reviewed again. Furthermore, in the first year of the Yuankang reign, Sun Bohu, Yu Shiya, and others of Chang'an finished copying it onto white silk on the fifteenth day of the fourth month. Hu later established a monastery outside the Qingmen Gate of Chang'an, practicing the Way with diligent energy. Thereupon, his virtuous transformation spread far and wide, and his renown covered the four directions. Several thousand monks took him as their honored master. At the age of seventy-eight, he evacuated with his disciples and went east down to Mianchi, where he contracted an illness and died.