廬山記 3.40

3.40

Tanwen was a native of Guangling. He left home in his youth and became a disciple of Master Yuan. He was quite versed in secular learning, uniquely distinguishing the sharp or dull natures of mountain birds and beasts by their coat and feather colors, and thoroughly understanding the wholesome, unwholesome, sweet, and bitter tastes of the branches and trunks of plants and trees. He was especially skilled in giving lectures; his presence was transcendent and bright, his lofty demeanor serene and far-reaching. Careful in textual transmission and transcription, he kept to the original versions without alteration. He commented on the *Vimalakīrti-nirdeśa-sūtra*, and composed the *Qiongtong lun* (Treatise on Failure and Success) and the *Lianshe lu* (Record of the Lotus Society). Fifty-five years after the founding of the temple, in the seventeenth year of the Yuanjia reign-period, a gengchen year (440 CE), he was the last to die, at the age of seventy-nine.