弘贊法華傳 2.13

2.13

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.