廣弘明集 22.60

22.60

The monk Xuanzang states: I have heard that exploring the depths of the six lines of the hexagram is confined to the arena of arising and ceasing, and rectifying the names of the hundred things has not yet touched the realm of tathatā. Yet even looking back to the records of Fuxi, when beholding their depths one cannot fathom their spirit; looking afar to the diagrams of the Yellow Emperor, when reviewing them all, beauty returns to them. Humbly I consider that Your Imperial Majesty descended in substance from the Jade Terrace and governs the heavens with the Golden Wheel, broadening the nine provinces of previous kings and eclipsing hundreds of thousands of suns and moons. You have expanded the boundaries of past dynasties, and taken in dharma-realms numerous as the sands of the Ganges, causing the Anāthapiṇḍada monastery to enter your border-dykes, and sacred birch-bark texts to return to your imperial archives. In the past, shaking my staff, I went for a time to pay homage to Mount Gṛdhrakūṭa; across ten thousand leagues of road, I relied on your heavenly majesty as though it were right beside me. Without riding the thousand petals, I reached the Twin Śāla Groves as quickly as a meal. In searching out and raising up the Tripiṭaka, I exhausted the stores of the dragon palaces; in investigating the One Vehicle, I plumbed the bequeathed intent of Vulture Peak. Loading them all onto white horses, I came to offer them to the Purple Court. Soon after, I received an imperial edict granting permission to translate them. My understanding falls short of Nāgārjuna, and I falsely disgrace the honor of transmitting the lamp; my talent differs from Aśvaghoṣa, and I am deeply ashamed before the agility of pouring from a vase. The sūtras and treatises I have translated contain all too many blunders. Yet I have been blessed with heavenly grace giving mindful attention: the composition of your preface transcends the symbols and commentaries of the Book of Changes, like the gathered sun radiating a thousand rays of light; its principles encompass the gate of all subtleties, like the cloud of Dharma moistening the hundred grasses. Preached in a single voice, it is rarely encountered in a hundred million kalpas; for my humble life to personally hear this Brahma sound makes me leap with joy as though hearing a prophecy of enlightenment. Incapable of bearing the utmost joy and gratitude, I respectfully present this memorial to the palace to express my thanks. Respectfully spoken.