傳法正宗記 9.71

9.71

罽賓沙門那連耶舍者。以東魏孝靜之世至于鄴都。專務翻譯。及高氏更魏稱齊。耶舍乃益譯出眾經。初與處士萬天懿者。共譯出尊勝菩薩無量門陀羅尼經。天懿嘗問耶舍曰西土頗有大士奉此教乎。耶舍曰。西國諸祖二十七大士。皆亦受持。然其二十七祖號般若多羅。所出繼世弟子曰達磨多羅者。昔當此明帝正光元年。至此雒陽。其人亦善此經。萬天懿曰。然此大士我亦聞其當於祖位傳佛正法。不悉其後復有繼之者乎。耶舍遂說偈而答天懿曰。尊勝今藏古。無肱又有肱。龍來方受寶。奉物復嫌名。天懿復問如前。耶舍又說偈曰。初首不稱名。風狂又有聲。人來不喜見。白寶初平平。天懿復聞。耶舍復說偈曰。自起求無礙。師傳我設繩。路上逢僧禮。脚下六支生。天懿復問。耶舍復說偈曰。三四金無我。隔水受心燈。尊號過諸量。徒瞋不起憎。天懿復間。耶舍復說偈曰。奉物何曾奉。言勤又不勤。唯書四句偈。將勸瑞田人。天懿復問。耶舍復說偈曰。心裏能藏事。說向漢江濱。湖波探一月。將照二三人。天懿復問。耶舍復說偈曰。領得珍勤語。離鄉日日敷。米梁移近路。餘算脚天徒。天懿復問。耶舍曰。前所記者。將有國德間生。吾不復語。然其後之事。為汝并以六偈記之。其一曰。艮地生玄旨。通尊媚亦尊。比肩三九族。足下一屯分。其二曰。靈集媿天恩。生牙二六人。法中無氣味。石上有功勳。其三曰。本是大蟲男。迴成師子談。官家封馮嶺。同詳三十三。其四曰。九女出人倫。八箇絕婚姻。朽床添六脚。心祖眾中尊。其五曰。走戊與潮隣。媥烏子出身。二天雖有感。三化寂無塵。其六曰。說少何曾少。言流又不流。草若除其首。三四繼門修。復謂天懿曰。吾滅度後凡二百八十年。是國有大王者。善治其民。風俗安樂。前之所記賢聖。相次皆出。大益群品。然因一勝師始開其甘露門。而致後如此。萬天懿即從耶舍譯其讖偈。耶舍復出其所謂二十七祖與般若多羅之繼世弟子二十八祖。菩提達磨之事者。與天懿正之（亡當時為書之名）耶舍尋悠然獨往廬山。遂入滅於山中。其後梁簡文帝聞之。因使臣劉縣運往齊取其書歸國。詔沙門寶唱。編入續法記（梁簡文。當齊有國。方一戴餘即崩。然其死阨在賊臣暴亂之際。乃暇求法事耶。豈先此因使北聘已得是書手。又不見寶唱作續法記年月尚疑之。但取其文字。自北而傳南。其來有因。且從舊錄而筆之耳）然自七佛至乎二十八祖菩提達磨。蓋此那連耶舍之所譯也。西域沙門犍那者。不知其果何國人。亦不詳何時至於中國也。唐天寶中。會河南尹李常者。得三祖璨大師舍利。遂集沙門於其家。置齋落之。而犍那與焉。李常因問犍那曰。天竺禪門祖師多少。犍那曰。自迦葉直至般若多羅。凡有二十七祖。若敘師子尊者傍出。達磨達之四世二十二人。總有四十九祖若從七佛至。此璨大師。不括橫枝凡有三十七祖。常又問席間他僧曰。余嘗見祖圖。或引五十餘祖。至其支派差殺。宗族不定。或但有空名。此何以然。適有六祖弟子曰智本禪師者。對曰。斯蓋後魏之世佛法毀廢。當時沙門有曰曇曜者。於倉卒間單錄諸祖名目。不暇全寫。懷之亡于山澤。及魏之文成復教。前後歷三十載。至孝文帝之世。曇曜乃進為僧統。尋出其事授眾沙門。修之目為付法藏傳。其差誤亡逸。始自曇曜之所致也。犍那後不知所終。

The Jibin monk Narendrayaśas arrived at the capital city of Ye during the reign of Emperor Xiaojing of the Eastern Wei, devoting himself exclusively to translation. When the Gao clan replaced the Wei and declared [the Northern] Qi, Yaśas translated even more sūtras. Earlier, together with the retired scholar Wan Tianyi, he translated the Zunsheng pusa wuliangmen tuoluoni jing. Tianyi once asked Yaśas: 'Are there any great beings in the Western Regions who uphold this teaching?' Yaśas replied: 'The twenty-seven great beings among the patriarchs of the Western lands all upheld it as well. However, the twenty-seventh patriarch was named Prajñātāra, and his Dharma-inheriting disciple was called Dharmatrāta. Formerly, in the first year of Zhengguang under Emperor Ming of this [Northern Wei dynasty], he arrived here at Luoyang. This man was also well versed in this sūtra.' Wan Tianyi asked: 'Indeed, I have also heard that this great being held the patriarchal seat and transmitted the Buddha's true Dharma. I do not know, however, if there were any successors after him?' Yaśas then spoke a verse in response to Tianyi: / 'The [teaching of] Zunsheng now conceals the ancient; / It has no arms, yet it has arms. / Only when the dragon arrives are the jewels received; / Receiving the thing, he yet disdains the name.' / Tianyi asked again as before. Yaśas spoke another verse: / 'At the beginning, he does not declare his name; / Wild like the wind, he yet makes a sound. / When people come, they take no pleasure in seeing him; / The white jewel is at first level and plain.' / Tianyi asked again. Yaśas spoke another verse: / 'Arising of itself, it seeks non-obstruction; / Transmitted by the master, I set the guideline. / On the road he meets a monk and bows; / Beneath his feet six branches arise.' / Tianyi asked again. Yaśas spoke another verse: / 'Three and four, gold without self; / Across the water he receives the lamp of the mind. / His honorable title surpasses all measures; / Though in vain they rage, he stirs no hatred.' / Tianyi asked again. Yaśas spoke another verse: / 'Receiving the thing, when was it ever received? / Speaking of diligence, yet not diligent. / Only writing a four-line verse, / To encourage the people of the auspicious field.' / Tianyi asked again. Yaśas spoke another verse: / 'Within the mind he can harbor things, / Speaking toward the shores of the Han River. / Reaching into the lake's waves for a moon, / It will shine upon two or three people.' / Tianyi asked again. Yaśas spoke another verse: / 'Receiving the precious and earnest words, / Departing his homeland, he spreads them day by day. / Rice and grain move to the nearby road; / The remaining reckoning is for the fellows of foot and sky.' / Tianyi asked again. Yaśas said: 'What was recorded before indicates that virtuous men of the state will be born between times; I will say no more about it. Yet as for the affairs after them, I will record them for you together in six verses.' The first reads: / 'In the Gen direction the profound intent is born; / Communicating with the honored, the flattering is also honored. / Shoulder to shoulder with the three times nine lineages; / Beneath their feet one village is divided.' / The second reads: / 'Numen gathered, ashamed before Heaven's grace; / Giving birth to fangs, two times six men. / Within the Dharma there is no flavor; / Upon the stone there is merit and accomplishment.' / The third reads: / 'Originally the son of a tiger, / Turning around, he makes the lion's roar. / The court bestows a title upon Feng Mountain; / Together considering the thirty-three.' / The fourth reads: / 'Nine daughters transcend human relations; / Eight individuals cut off marriage. / To the rotten couch six legs are added; / The mind-patriarch is honored among the crowd.' / The fifth reads: / 'Running Wu borders the tide; / The offspring of the crow takes his leave. / Though the two heavens have resonance; / The three transformations are tranquil, without dust.' / The sixth reads: / 'Speaking of few, when was it ever few? / Speaking of flow, yet it does not flow. / If the grass has its head removed, / Three and four cultivate in succession at the gate.' / He further said to Tianyi: 'Two hundred and eighty years after my parinirvāṇa, there will be a great king in this land who will govern his people well. Customs will be peaceful and happy. The sages and worthies recorded before will all appear in succession, greatly benefiting all living beings. Yet it is because one supreme master first opened the gate of nectar that matters will subsequently be like this.' Wan Tianyi then followed Yaśas in translating these prophetic verses. Yaśas also brought out his account concerning the twenty-seven patriarchs and the successor disciple of Prajñātāra, the twenty-eighth patriarch Bodhidharma, and verified it with Tianyi (the title given to the book at that time has been lost). Soon after, Yaśas wandered off alone to Mount Lu and passed into extinction in the mountains. Later, Emperor Jianwen of the Liang heard of this, and accordingly dispatched the envoy Liu Xianyuan to the Qi to obtain this book and return with it to the realm. He decreed that the monk Baochang should compile it into the Xu faji. (Emperor Jianwen of the Liang reigned for only a little over a year when the Qi was established before he died. Moreover, his demise occurred during the violent rebellion of a treacherous minister; did he have the leisure to seek out Dharma matters? Could it be that before this, through an embassy sent to the north, he had already obtained this book? Furthermore, the date when Baochang composed the Xu faji is not found, so I still doubt it. It is merely that the text was transmitted from the north to the south, and its transmission had an origin; I tentatively follow the old records and write it down.) Thus, from the Seven Buddhas down to the twenty-eighth patriarch Bodhidharma, it was translated by this Narendrayaśas. As for the monk Jiana of the Western Regions, it is unknown which country he was actually from, nor is it clear when he reached China. During the Tianbao era of the Tang, it happened that Li Chang, Governor of Henan, obtained the relics of the Third Patriarch, Great Master Can. He then assembled monks at his house and held a vegetarian banquet to dedicate them, and Jiana was among them. Li Chang thereupon asked Jiana: 'How many patriarchs are there in the Indian Chan lineage?' Jiana said: 'From Kāśyapa directly down to Prajñātāra, there are twenty-seven patriarchs. If one lists the collateral branch of the Venerable Siṃha, the twenty-two individuals over four generations from Dharmatrāta, there are forty-nine patriarchs in total. If counted from the Seven Buddhas down to this Great Master Can, not including the collateral branches, there are thirty-seven patriarchs.' Chang also asked the other monks at the gathering: 'I have often seen patriarch charts that cite more than fifty patriarchs, and as for their branch lineages, they vary greatly, their clans are unfixed, or they have only empty names. Why is this so?' It happened that a disciple of the Sixth Patriarch named Chan Master Zhiben replied: 'This was because during the Later Wei dynasty, the Buddha-Dharma was suppressed and destroyed. At that time, a monk named Tanyao, in the midst of the emergency, simply recorded the names of the various patriarchs, having no time to transcribe them completely. Holding them in his bosom, he fled into the mountains and marshes. By the time Emperor Wencheng of the Wei restored the teachings, thirty years had elapsed. When Emperor Xiaowen came to the throne, Tanyao was promoted to Controller of Monks. Soon after, he brought out these matters and gave them to the assembly of monks to edit, titling it the Fu fazang zhuan. The errors and omissions began with what Tanyao caused.' Later, Jiana's final end was not known.