辯正論 4.9

4.9

主上。每以聽覽餘暇遊息藝林。討孔壁之謨。披石經之訓。規百王之往事。考三教之指歸。而謂語未涉於空空。事終淪於有有。詳夫性靈真要。可以持心濟俗者。莫過乎釋氏之教矣。眷言法藥有意流通。爰有中天竺國三藏法師。本剎利王種姓。剎利帝名波羅頗迦羅蜜多羅。唐言作明知識。遠聞唐國弘闡大乘。故涉葱河來遊聖世。以貞觀元年大呂之月。躬齎梵本達乎上京。昔高宗治興傅巖入夢。今我皇道盛德星現野。法師識度通敏器宇冲邃。五百應供結集之文。八萬修多所詮之理。自法蘭赴漢僧會遊吳傳譯相尋。而有所未喻者。法師皆委其由末究其異同。假令內部諸計外人別執。莫不吞若胸中說猶指掌。至於承華論席肅成解義。特蒙悅可簡在帝心。其年孟春有詔波頗三藏等。可就勝光伽藍翻譯般若燈大莊嚴二論。上柱國尚書左僕射䢴國公房玄齡散騎常侍左庶子詹事杜正倫等。奉勅銓定碩德一十九人。右光祿大夫太府卿蘭陵男蕭璟為勅使。檢校百司供給四事豐厚。琳又預充執筆。迺為序曰。般若燈論。梵本有六千餘偈。摩伽陀國種姓大士婆毘薜迦菩薩。唐言分別明之所作也。始夫萬物非有一心如幻。心如幻故雖動而恒寂。物非有故雖起而無生。是以聖人說如幻之心。鑒非有之物。了物非物則物物性空。知心無心則心心體寂。達觀之士。得其會歸而忘其所寄。於是分別戲論。不待遣而自除。無得觀門。弗假修而已入。蕩蕩焉不在不離無住無依者也。佛滅度後七百年間。有出家菩薩。厥名龍樹。深達實相得無生忍。為報佛恩開演中論。付法藏云。其人於像法中。然正法炬折邪見幢。外國傳云。智慧日已頹。斯人今再曜。世昏寢已久。斯人寤令覺中論凡五師注釋。分別明菩薩即一人也。此菩薩多聞總持智深志固。以本願力不捨群生。住修羅宮待見彌勒。屬以去聖時遠眾論紛然。致令雪山採藥多收毒草。深水求珠競持瓦礫。誠恐一理不窮反增邪見。一言不盡翻起異端。乃纘述龍樹偈文。為茲般若燈論。其為論也。訶斥內外贊揚真俗。窮無生理究實相源。照無不寂寄名般若。執無不破喻曰明燈。蓋方廣之中心。諸佛之行處矣。嗟乎後之學者。便息百城之遊。永無五失之謬。論凡二十七品。為十五卷。若內人立義皆標人名。無名者例稱自部。若外人立義亦標人名。無名者例稱外人。縛解品已前慧賾執筆觀業品已後法琳執筆。於是起四年夏訖六年冬。勘定既周繕寫云畢。所司詳讀然乃奏聞。勅令所司各寫十部。散付諸寺任共流通。既踵輪王十善化世。國內諸市悉斷屠行。普禁民間不許宰殺。江南之地立寨取魚。三十餘州觸處皆爾。必須破堰然乃取之。所取者比鄧林之一枝。枉死者過恒沙之億數。又降慈造悉廢除之。又屬歲阜時和海內豐稔。又度僧尼三千人諸州散配。既而德動上玄感通至聖。七難俱殄七福備臻。恩洽九垠之表。威加八極之外。其年孟冬兇奴王頡利等。並率其臣子携其部落。襁負爭趨前後繼踵。延望闕庭傾國而至。謁天門而請命。就夷邸以餐和。不煩衛霍之師。自窮巢穴。詎假軒轅之眾。席卷逋逃。漢南無雜虜之憂。塞北罷強胡之寇。馬岸龍堆之域。既沐唐風。交河清海之濱。咸為聖土。康哉康哉。共歡於茲日。無為無事。同慶於今辰。統天立極之功。獨高前古。奉佛崇善之業超諸往賢。主上曾經戰場白刃相拒。至于登極情深厥衷。乃下勅。凡所陣場並建寺。有司供給務令周備。宇內凡置十所。嚴整可觀。又昔因避暑躬幸南山。卜此神居啟茲大壯。其地也。帶秦川之眇眇。接隴岫之蒼蒼。東觀浴日之波。西臨懸月之浦。鳳企窮奇之石。欝律鑽天。龍盤譎詭之崖。穹隆刺漢。豈獨巖松撥日。抑亦㵎竹捎雲。實四皓養德之場。蓋三秦作固之所。為太武皇帝捨而為寺。既增利見。因曰龍田。又送太武及主上等身夾紵像六軀。永鎮供養。大眾所資有司供給無勞買地不待布金。逆風和氣之香。氛氳滿院。吉祥柔滑之草。瀾漫垂階。又為穆太后。於慶善宮造慈德寺。甄叔迦寶閻浮檀金。種種莊嚴一一華麗。雖知所作希有猶言。罔極未申。六年仲夏於臺城西真安坊內。為穆大后又造弘福寺。考茲形勝襟帶市朝爰命鳧人開基締構。甫移銀榜即此金園。法侶摩肩朝貴延首。其地則高墉負墎。羅百雉而紆徐。層城結隅。峻九重而延袤。於是廣闢寶坊備諸輪奐。瞻星測景置臬衡繩。王舄垂暉金鋪曜彩。長廊中宿反宇干霄。浮柱繡栭上圖雲氣。飛軒鏤檻下帶虹蜺。影塔儼其相望。經臺欝其並架。罄丹青之矩矱。殫藻繢之瓌奇。妙極天仙思窮神鬼。金盤承露。比玉樹於甘泉。寶鐸和風。狀瓊林於安養。疎鐘夜徹清梵朝楊。韻合魚山響符龍木。靈異之所栖宅。定慧之所依憑。了義息心於是乎在。

In his leisure from imperial governance, the Sovereign would always stroll and rest in the groves of the arts, examining the plans from Confucius' wall and opening the teachings of the Stone Classics. He took past events under the hundred kings as a model and investigated the ultimate tenets of the three teachings. Yet he considered that their words had not yet touched upon the emptiness of emptiness, and their affairs ultimately remained sunk in existence of existence. Deliberating on the true essentials of spiritual nature that can steady the mind and deliver worldly folk, none surpassed the teaching of the Śākya clan. Mindful of the Dharma medicine, he intended to circulate it broadly. At that time, there was the Tripiṭaka Master from Central India (Tianzhu), originally of the kṣatriya royal lineage, a kṣatriya named Prabhākaramitra, which in Chinese means 'Luminous Good Friend'. Having heard from afar that the Tang empire was broadly propagating the Mahāyāna, he crossed the Onion Ranges to travel to this sagely era. In the month of Dalu (twelfth month) of the first year of Zhenguan, he personally brought Sanskrit texts and arrived at the capital. Formerly, when the governance of Gaozong flourished, Fu Yan entered his dreams; now, as our Emperor's Dao flourishes, the Star of Virtue appears in the wilds. The Tripiṭaka Master had a penetrating and keen discernment, and an expansive and profound character. Regarding the texts compiled by the five hundred arhats and the principles explained in the eighty thousand sūtras—ever since Dharmaratna went to the Han and Sengui traveled to Wu, translations succeeded one another, yet whenever there were points not yet understood, the Master thoroughly traced their origins and ends and investigated their differences and similarities. Even with the internal sectarian positions and external heterodox tenets, there was nothing he did not internalize in his mind or explain with total clarity. As for the debates in the Chenghua hall and the exposition of doctrines in the Sucheng hall, he was particularly favored with royal pleasure and recorded in the Emperor's heart. In the first month of spring of that year, an imperial decree commanded the Tripiṭaka Master Prabhākara and others to proceed to Shengguang Monastery to translate the two treatises: the Prajñāpradīpa-śāstra and the Mahāyānasūtrālaṃkāra. Supreme Pillar of State, Left Pushe of the Department of State Affairs, and Duke of Liang State, Fang Xuanling, Cavalier Attendant-in-Ordinary, Left Mentor of the Heir Apparent, and Supervisor of the Household Du Zhenglun, and others, under imperial decree, selected nineteen eminent masters. Right Guanglu Daifu and Chief Minister of the Court of the National Granaries, Baron of Lanling Xiao Jing served as imperial commissioner to oversee the various offices in supplying abundant provisions of the four requisites. I, Falin, also took part as the scribe, and thus composed the preface, which reads: 'The Prajñāpradīpa-śāstra contains over six thousand gāthās in the Sanskrit text. It was composed by the great being of noble lineage in Magadha, Bodhisattva Bhāviveka, which in Chinese means "Discriminating Brightness". To begin with, the myriad things are not existent; the single mind is like an illusion. Because the mind is like an illusion, though active it is constantly tranquil; because things are non-existent, though arising they are without birth. Therefore, the sage speaks of the mind that is like an illusion and inspects things that are non-existent. When one realizes that things are not things, then each and every thing is empty of intrinsic nature; when one knows that the mind has no mind, then each and every mind is tranquil in substance. A person of penetrating insight attains their ultimate convergence and forgets the vehicle through which they were conveyed. Thereupon, conceptual proliferations (prapañca) of discrimination are naturally eliminated without needing to be dispelled; the gate of contemplation of non-attainment is entered without requiring practice. Vast and boundless, it neither exists nor departs, neither abides nor relies on anything. In the seven hundred years after the Buddha's passing into nirvāṇa, there was an ordained bodhisattva named Nāgārjuna. Having profoundly reached the true aspect of reality and attained the tolerance of non-arising phenomena, in order to repay the Buddha's benevolence, he expounded the Madhyamaka-śāstra. The Fu fazang [zhuan] states: "That man, in the Semblance Dharma, lit the torch of the true Dharma and broke down the banner of wrong views." The records of foreign lands say: "The sun of wisdom has already set; this man now shines anew. The world has long slept in darkness; this man awakens them to consciousness." There are five masters who commented on the Madhyamaka-śāstra, and Bodhisattva Discriminating Brightness is one of them. This bodhisattva had broad learning, held dhāraṇīs, had deep wisdom, and firm resolve. By the power of his original vow, he does not abandon sentient beings, and abides in the Asura Palace awaiting to see Maitreya. Since the era of the Sage is distant and various treatises are contentious, collectors of herbs on the Snow Mountains gather mostly poisonous weeds, and seekers of pearls in deep waters scramble for rubble and tiles. Truly fearing that failure to exhaust a single principle would conversely increase wrong views, or that leaving a single word incomplete would mistakenly give rise to divergent doctrines, he compiled and commented on Nāgārjuna's verse text to create this Prajñāpradīpa-śāstra. In this treatise, he rebukes internal and external tenets and praises the ultimate and conventional truths; he exhausts the principle of non-arising and investigates the source of the true aspect of reality. Illumination that is nowhere not tranquil is designated "prajñā"; attachments that are nowhere not destroyed are likened to a "bright lamp". It is indeed the core of the Vaipulya teachings and the field of practice of the Buddhas! Ah, future scholars may then cease their journeys through a hundred cities, and remain forever free from the errors of the five losses.' The treatise consists of twenty-seven chapters in fifteen fascicles. When an internal Buddhist proponent establishes a doctrine, his name is indicated; if unnamed, it is universally designated 'our own school'. When an external non-Buddhist proponent establishes a doctrine, his name is also indicated; if unnamed, it is universally designated 'an outsider'. Prior to the 'Chapter on Bondage and Liberation', Huize served as the scribe; after the 'Chapter on the Examination of Karma', Falin served as the scribe. Thereupon, beginning in the summer of the fourth year and concluding in the winter of the sixth year, the collation was completed and the copying was finished. The officials in charge carefully read it and then memorialized it to the throne. An imperial decree ordered the officials to make ten copies each and distribute them to the various monasteries to be circulated at will. Following the wheel-turning king's transformation of the world through the ten virtues, slaughtering trades were abolished in all markets throughout the realm, and the populace was universally prohibited from butchering and killing. In the Jiangnan region, weirs were erected to catch fish, which was done everywhere in more than thirty prefectures; they had to break the dams before catching them. What was taken was like a single branch of the Deng forest, yet those that died needlessly exceeded hundreds of millions as numerous as the sands of the Ganges. Furthermore, the Emperor issued a decree of loving-kindness, abolishing them all. Moreover, the years were abundant, the seasons harmonious, and the land was blessed with bountiful harvests. Three thousand monks and nuns were also ordained and distributed among the various prefectures. Subsequently, his virtue moved the heavens above and resonated with the ultimate sages: the seven perils were all eradicated, and the seven blessings all arrived. His benevolence reached beyond the nine frontiers, and his majestic awe extended outside the eight extremities. In the first month of winter of that year, the Xiongnu king Xieli and others led their ministers and children, bringing along their tribes, carrying infants and competing to hasten forward, arriving one after another. Gazing from afar at the palace gates, they arrived bringing their entire state; they sought an audience at the Heavenly Gates to plead for life and went to the foreign hostel to partake of harmony. Without troubling the armies of Wei and Huo, the enemy dens exhausted themselves; without needing the forces of Xuanyuan, the runaways were swept away like a mat. South of the Han there was no worry of barbarian hordes, and north of the passes the plundering of the fierce Hu was halted. The regions of the Horse Banks and the Dragon Mound were steeped in the Tang style; the shores of Jiaohu and Qinghai all became sagely soil. How peaceful! How peaceful! Together we rejoice in this day. Non-action and peace: together we celebrate in this hour. His achievement in governing heaven and establishing the supreme pole uniquely surpasses ancient times; his work in venerating the Buddha and exalting the good surpasses all past sages. The Emperor had previously experienced battlefields where naked blades opposed one another. When he ascended the throne, deep feelings arose in his heart; thus he issued an edict that monasteries be erected at all battlefields, with the authorities providing supplies to ensure complete provision. Ten sites were established within the realm, all solemn, orderly, and magnificent. Formerly, to escape the summer heat, he personally visited the Southern Mountains, divined this spiritual dwelling, and opened this magnificent structure. As for its terrain: it is girdled by the vast expanse of the Qin River and borders the verdant peaks of the Long mountains. To the east one observes the waves where the sun bathes; to the west one overlooks the inlet where the moon is suspended. Like phoenixes standing on curious rocks, jagged peaks bore into the sky; like coiling dragons on treacherous cliffs, vaulted heights pierce the Milky Way. Not only do cliffside pines brush against the sun, but mountain bamboo also sweeps across the clouds. It was truly the place where the Four Whiteheads cultivated their virtue, and the stronghold for the Three Qin. For the sake of Emperor Taiwu, it was renounced to become a monastery. Since it added beneficial omens, it was named Longtian (Dragon Field). He also presented six dry-lacquer life-size statues of Emperor Taiwu and the reigning Emperor for eternal enshrinement and offerings. Provisions for the assembly are supplied by the authorities, saving the labor of buying land without waiting for the spreading of gold. Fragrance carried on the wind and gentle breeze fills the entire courtyard in abundance; the auspicious and soft grass hangs gracefully over the steps. Furthermore, for Empress Dowager Mu, he built Cide Monastery at Qingshan Palace. Decorated with kiṃśuka jewels and Jāmbūnada gold, varied alaṃkāra adorned every part with utmost splendor. Although knowing that what was created was rare, he still felt that his filial devotion was not yet fully expressed. In the midsummer of the sixth year, within Zhen'an Ward west of the Taicheng Palace, he further built Hongfu Monastery for Empress Dowager Mu. Examining this superb location, flanked by market and court, he ordered master builders to lay the foundations and erect the structures. No sooner had the silver placard been moved than this golden garden arose. Dharma companions rubbed shoulders, and court notables stretched their necks to gaze. The site features high ramparts backing onto the outer walls, spreading across a hundred zhi in graceful curves; multi-tiered battlements link corners, soaring through nine tiers across wide expanses. Thereupon, broad jewel-precincts were opened, fully equipped with magnificent structures. Observing the stars and measuring the sun's shadow, they set up gnomic markers and leveled plumblines. Jade slippers shed brilliance, and golden door-rings shone with color. Long corridors provided shelter, and upturned eaves touched the clouds. Floating pillars and embroidered bracket-sets were painted above with cloud vapors; flying verandas and carved balustrades were encircled below by rainbows. Shadowed pagodas stood majestically facing each other, and scripture terraces rose grandly side by side. Exhausting the rules of cinnabar and malachite painting, and draining the wondrous varieties of multicolored patterns, it was sublime as if made by celestial beings, taxing the minds of spirits and ghosts. Golden dew-catching basins rivaled the Jade Tree of the Ganquan Palace; jeweled wind chimes harmonized with the breeze, resembling the jasper groves of the Pure Land of Sukhāvatī. Sparse bells chimed clearly through the night, and pure Sanskrit chanting rose in the morning. Their cadences matched Fish Mountain, their sounds resonated with dragon and wood. It is a dwelling where spiritual wonders reside, and the foundation upon which samādhi and wisdom rely. Definitive meaning and the calming of the mind are found right here.