弘贊法華傳 2.27

2.27

右。沙門法獻。姓徐。西海延水人。先隨舅至梁州。仍出家。至元嘉十六年。方下京師。止定林上寺。傳通經律。志業強捍。善能住極。眾計修葺寺宇。先聞猛公西遊。備矚靈異。乃誓欲忘身往觀聖迹。以宋元微三年。發踵金陵。西遊巴蜀。路出河南。道經苪苪。既到于闐。欲度葱嶺。棧道斷絕。遂於于闐而返。獲此前品。於是而還。其經途危阻。具諸別記。獻以齊武帝永明年中。遇外國三藏法師達摩摩提。齊云法意。於楊州瓦官寺。譯出獻時為僧主。以建武末年卒。春秋七十有五。

The above [was obtained by] the śramaṇa Faxian, whose lay surname was Xu, a native of Yanshui in Xihai. He earlier followed his maternal uncle to Liangzhou, where he left the household life. In the sixteenth year of the Yuanjia reign, he went down to the capital and stayed at the Upper Dinglin Monastery. He transmitted and propagated the sūtras and vinaya; his aspirations and endeavors were steadfast and vigorous, and he was skilled at enduring hardships, with all sorts of schemes for repairing monasteries. Having earlier heard that the venerable Fayong had journeyed west and witnessed all manner of spiritual wonders, he vowed to forget his own body and go to view the sacred traces. In the third year of the Yuanhui reign of the Song, he set out from Jinling, traveled west through Ba and Shu, took the road via Henan, and passed through Rouran. Arriving at Khotan, he wished to cross the Congling Mountains, but the plank roads were cut off; thereupon he turned back from Khotan, having obtained this previous chapter, and then returned. The dangers and obstacles along his journey are fully recorded in a separate account. During the Yongming reign of Emperor Wu of the Qi, Xian met the foreign Tripiṭaka master Dharmamati, whose name was translated as Fayun ('Dharma Meaning') in Qi; at the Waguan Monastery in Yangzhou, it was translated. Xian was at that time the leader of the saṃgha. He died at the end of the Jianwu reign at the age of seventy-five.