弘贊法華傳 2.27

2.27

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.