傳法正宗記 9.65

9.65

序曰。涅槃曰。復至他方有諸煩惱毒箭之處。示現作祖為其療治。又曰。我有無上正法悉已付囑摩訶迦葉。是迦葉者當為汝等作大依止。此吾道之有祖宗尚矣。但支竺相遠傳之者不真。致令聖人之德不甚明效。加之暴君嫉善毀棄大教。而佛子不善屬書。妄謂其祖絕於二十四世。乃生後世者之疑。聖德益屈。余嘗慨之。適因治書。乃得眾賢所道祖宗之事凡十家。故并其人。列為宗證傳云爾。

The Preface states: The Nirvāṇa [Sūtra] says, 'Go further to other lands where there are the poison arrows of afflictions, manifest as patriarchs, and cure them.' It also says, 'I have entirely entrusted the unsurpassed true Dharma to Mahākāśyapa; this Kāśyapa shall serve as a great refuge for all of you.' From this, [it is clear that] our Way possessing patriarchs and an ancestral lineage is of ancient standing. Yet China and India are distant from one another, and those who transmitted it were not authentic, causing the sagely virtues not to be clearly manifest. Moreover, tyrannical rulers, jealous of goodness, destroyed and abandoned the great teaching, while Buddhist disciples were inept at composing books, falsely asserting that its patriarchs ended with the twenty-fourth generation; thus doubts were engendered in later generations, and the sagely virtues were increasingly obscured. I have often lamented this. Having recently attended to editing books, I obtained the deeds of the patriarchs and ancestral lineage narrated by various worthy figures, totaling ten accounts. Therefore, taking their authors together, I have arranged them as the Biographies Testifying to the Lineage, so it is said.