弘明集 8.42

8.42

The Treatise on the Three Destructions says: "The old versions of Buddhist scriptures originally said futu; Kumārajīva altered it to fotu ('follower of the Buddha') because he recognized the evil of its origin. The reason it was called futu was that the barbarians were fierce and wicked. Laozi said that when he began converting them, he did not wish to harm their bodies, and therefore shaved their heads and named them futu, likening it to butchering (tu). Coming down to Sengyi, it was later altered to fotu ('image of the Buddha'). Originally, old scriptures said sangmen ('gate of mourning'); 'gate of mourning' came from the gate of death and extinction, meaning that its Dharma was a teaching of non-birth, hence called sangmen. Coming down to Kumārajīva, he changed it again to sangmen ('mulberry gate'); Sengyi again changed it to shamen (śramaṇa). Shamen comes from the method of sorting (shatai); it is not worth praising."