北山錄 2

English (machine translation) 2

Language: English

2.2 — 6 parts
2.4 — 5 parts

2.1

Chapter 3: The Arising of the Scriptures of the Dharma (This chapter clarifies the reasons for the establishment of the scriptures, vinaya, and treatises of the Tathāgata's lifelong teachings.)

Subduing Māra beneath the Bodhi tree, he brought serenity and purity to all under heaven (when the Buddha first attained awakening beneath the Bodhi tree on the vajrāsana at the city of Gayā, after subduing Māra with the power of wisdom, the Dharma realm became calm and quiet). He bequeathed [teachings] to the world and established the doctrine for forty-nine years (attaining awakening at thirty, he expounded the Dharma and delivered people for forty-nine years, entering extinction at the age of seventy-nine). He took sūtras, vinaya, and abhidharma as the Tripiṭaka (sūtras being the Sūtrapiṭaka, vinaya being the Vinayapiṭaka, and abhidharma being the Mātṛkāpiṭaka). He took the five precepts, the ten virtues, the four truths, the twelvefold conditioned arising, and the six perfections as the five vehicles (the five precepts are the human vehicle; the ten virtues are the heavenly vehicle; the four truths are the śrāvaka vehicle; the twelvefold conditioned arising is the pratyekabuddha vehicle; and the six pāramitās are the bodhisattva vehicle). He unified them with the twelve divisions (first, sūtra; second, geya; third, vyākaraṇa; fourth, gāthā; fifth, udāna; sixth, nidāna; seventh, avadāna; eighth, itivṛttaka; ninth, jātaka; tenth, vaipulya; eleventh, adbhutadharma; twelfth, upadeśa; also called the twelve divisions of the teaching). He expanded them into four traditions (sūtras, vinaya, abhidharma, and dhāraṇī). The teaching first arose in a single sound, yet it profoundly harmonised with the minds of all beings. It is designated 'sweet dew' (amṛta), and also called the 'poisoned drum' (because it removes the feverish distress of those whose ailments correspond to it, it is called 'sweet dew'; because it arouses afflictions in those whose ailments do not correspond to it, it is called the 'poisoned drum'). After the Utmost Sage had passed away, his subtle words nearly ceased (the Utmost Sage refers to the Tathāgata). Mahākāśyapa promptly summoned a thousand companions who had realised reality, compiling and setting forth the teachings in order that their purport not be lost. The initial council at the royal city was held in the stone cave (the character zhuan 撰 is pronounced xuan 選; after the Buddha passed into extinction and was cremated, Mahākāśyapa summoned one thousand arhats to go to the Pippala Cave to compile the treasury of the Dharma, requesting King Aśoka to serve as the dānapati). The Gui clan presided over the seat (presiding means heading; the Gui clan refers to Kāśyapa). He first called upon Upāli and had him recite the vinaya section (Upāli was the barber to the Śākya princes; when the Śākya princes went forth from household life, they offered him their necklaces, bracelets, and bangles; having received them, Upāli reflected to himself, 'These men are of noble character and eminent status, yet they were able to renounce them; how much more so should I, who am poor and lowly, endure suffering merely to keep treasures?'; he then hung them on a tree for whoever needed them to take freely; he thereupon sought ordination and consistently propagated the vinaya section). Upāli left his seat and was about to ascend the dais (Mahākāśyapa initially established three Dharma seats at Pippala: one for compiling the Vinayapiṭaka, one for compiling the Sūtrapiṭaka, and one for compiling the Abhidharmapiṭaka; hence Upāli rose and went to the seat). He bowed to the feet of the Saṅgha and ascended, holding an ivory fan; just as the former Buddha had spoken, he did not err by a single word (speaking strictly in accordance with what the Buddha had said while present, without missing or mistaking even a single word or character). The one thousand whose taints were exhausted examined and wrote down [the words] in turn; only after verifying his speech twice was it settled. After completing eighty recitations, it was called the Eighty Recitations (Upāli recited from memory as he spoke, and the assembly transcribed and compiled it as he proceeded). Next he instructed Ānanda (Ānanda, being a trainee, was originally not permitted to join the assembly and was expelled outside the cave; he thereupon classified the delusions of the three realms and nine stages into nine categories, aroused the nine uninterrupted paths to sever the nine obstacles, realised the nine paths of liberation, and subsequently obtained the three insights and six superknowledges; using the superknowledge of spiritual faculties, he entered through the keyhole and was thus able to join the assembly; Kāśyapa then ordered him to compile the Sūtrapiṭaka, and Kātyāyana to compile the Abhidharmapiṭaka). Ānanda said, 'Yes,' just as Upāli had done. When three months had passed, Drinker of Light (Kāśyapa) feared that [the teachings] might be scattered and lost, and by the power of his vow-knowledge he observed that there was no negligence (Drinker of Light refers to Kāśyapa; yu 虞 means to worry; yi-wang 逸亡 means scattered and lost; fearing that as time passed they would be scattered and lost, he constantly observed them with knowledge and vows, without any laxity). For about a hundred years the level road broadened, and people were guided thereby (from the Buddha's extinction, Kāśyapa propagated and maintained the Dharma treasury for twenty years and transmitted it to Ānanda; after another twenty years, it was transmitted to Madhyāntika; after twenty years, Madhyāntika transmitted it to Śāṇakavāsa; after twenty years, Śāṇakavāsa transmitted it to Upagupta; these five persons together maintained and propagated the Dharma treasury for a hundred years). A hundred years later, when [Upa]gupta departed this world, the outside steeds of the Dharma chariot broke their axle (departing this world means passing away; the horses outside the team are called can 驂; can 𤘚 means broken; this is a metaphor for the breakdown of the Dharma vehicle after the extinction of Upagupta). Although the Vajjiputtakas violated the rules by presumptuously introducing the ten illicit practices, Revata and seven hundred unattached men eradicated them, like the Jinpugu arrow piercing the thin silk of Lu (one hundred years after the Buddha's extinction, in the country of Vaiśālī, there were Vajjiputtaka monks who claimed that ten matters were pure—such as eating with two fingers, drinking wine, and accepting and storing gold and silver—all ten of which had been forbidden by the Buddha; Elder Revata, along with the elder Sambhūta from Ahogaṅgā, the elder of the village of Sobbha, and others, comprising seven hundred arhats, performed the legal proceedings and eradicated these offenses; this appears in the fifty-fourth fascicle of the Four-Part Vinaya; gao 縞 means plain white silk; Jinpugu is the name of an arrow with which Duke Zhuang of Lu shot Nangong Changwan). Then came the Great Elder Mahādeva (who was Dātian; originally the son of a merchant leader in the country of Tokhārā; because his father was away elsewhere, he defiled his mother; when his father returned, he killed him; later he killed his mother and an arhat; fearing his crimes, he sought ordination; he was clever and thoroughly versed in the Tripiṭaka). He falsely usurped the fame of a sage and relied upon the authority of the king (he claimed, 'I have attained arhatship,' and entered the palace of King Aśoka to constantly serve as the royal teacher; hu 怙 means to rely upon). Harboring a base and contentious mind, he schemed to create division, corrupting and altering the Buddha's words, and throwing the sacred scriptures into confusion (when the Saṅgha expounded the precepts on the fifteenth day, he made arbitrary claims, throwing the sacred words into confusion and causing discord with the Saṅgha). The assembly of sages reproached him for being vulgar, contrary, presumptuous, and non-canonical (the elder holy assembly condemned him for violating and confounding the Buddha's words, which then escalated into a dispute; the king was unable to reconcile them). His followers swarmed like hedgehog quills and severed ties to become bitter enemies (Mahādeva's followers grew fierce like hedgehog quills and became mortal enemies of the holy assembly). The assembly of sages was unable to resist the affront (ke 克 means able; Mahādeva's faction was powerful, and the holy assembly was unable to restrain them). Thereupon they split into two schools (Mahādeva formed the Mahāsāṃghika school, and the holy assembly formed the Sthaviranikāya). The streams of these two schools flowed away, drifting and never returning. Within several hundred years, they gradually split into twenty schools (from within the Mahāsāṃghika, nine schools branched out: first, the Ekavyāvahārika; second, the Lokottaravāda; third, the Gokulika; fourth, the Bahuśrutīya; fifth, the Prajñaptivāda; sixth, the Caityaśaila; seventh, the Aparaśaila; eighth, the Uttaraśaila; together with the root school making nine; the Sthaviranikāya divided into eleven schools: first, the Sarvāstivāda; second, the Haimavata; third, the Vātsīputrīya; fourth, the Dharmottarīya).

2.2.2

5. Bhadrayānīya, 6. Saṃmatīya, 7. Channagirika, 8. Mahīśāsaka, 9. Dharmaguptaka, 10. Kāśyapīya, 11. Sautrāntika. The Haimavata was the original school; [together] they formed twenty schools.) Alas, the pure was converted into the diluted, and the great meaning was thereby perverted! (Purity refers to richness, and dilution to thinness. A hundred years after the Buddha's parinirvāṇa, [Buddhism] split into twenty schools, and the flavor of the Dharma grew weak and diluted.) The gold staff was split and the cotton cloth contested; whereupon they drank from divided streams. (This is like a single gold staff divided into five sections, each section being gold—just as the Buddha-Dharma split into five schools. King Kṛkī, father of Kāśyapa Buddha, once had ten dreams, all of which presaged the bequeathed teachings and disciples of Śākyamuni. In one dream, he saw a single piece of white cotton cloth for which twenty men contended, yet the cloth in the end was not torn. This presaged that these twenty schools of the Mahāyāna and Hīnayāna would contend, and thereafter drink from divided streams.) Thus the various schools said, 'Such a sūtra is not chanted in our school'; yet within their own schools, they all attain liberation. (Each regarded their own school's teaching as the word of the Buddha and other schools' as not.) The *Mahāprajñāpāramitopadeśa* of the Mahāyāna school states that Mañjuśrī held a great assembly with various disciples at the Iron Enclosure Mountain and summoned Ānanda to recite it, which was not something that the śrāvakas participated in hearing. (The *Dazhidulun* also says: the *Mahāprajñāpāramitopadeśa* explains that the Mahāyāna compilation was compiled by the Bodhisattva Mañjuśrī together with Ānanda and others at the Iron Enclosure Mountain. At that time, all were of the Mahāyāna; the śrāvakas of lesser wisdom did not participate in the assembly.) When śrāvakas hear it, they become confused, disoriented, and mistaken; this refers perhaps to those of a different vehicle, (Meaning the two vehicles are true śrāvakas.) or perhaps to those who do not turn their minds [toward the Mahāyāna]. (This refers to the class of determined śrāvakas who definitively do not turn their minds, ash their bodies, and extinguish their wisdom. When they hear the Mahāyāna taught, they are confused, mistaken, and do not believe.) As for other sūtras and other sages disparaging [the teachings] without relying on treatises—could it be that practice is arduous, and they are also incapable of knowing them? (Perhaps there are scriptural teachings of other schools and sages of various schools who disparage treatises and do not accept them; this is because treatises belong to the study of wisdom whose principles are profound and subtle, truly difficult to study, and also not easy to know.) Maitreya composed the *Yogācārabhūmi*, totaling seventeen grounds: (1. The ground associated with the five sensory consciousnesses, 2. the mental ground, 3. the ground with examination and investigation, 4. the ground without examination but with investigation, 5. the ground without examination or investigation, 6. the samāhita ground, 7. the non-samāhita ground, 8. the ground with mind, 9. the ground without mind, 10. the ground accomplished through hearing, 11. the ground accomplished through reflection, 12. the ground accomplished through cultivation, 13. the śrāvaka ground, 14. the pratyekabuddha ground, 15. the bodhisattva ground, 16. the ground with residue, and 17. the ground without residue.) which fully sets forth the three vehicles, unfolding and disseminating them. (In Sanskrit, it is called *yoga*; here, it is translated as *xiangying* [correspondence]. It means that all the objects, practices, fruits, and other phenomena of all vehicles are called correspondence. Thus, the seventeen grounds are called its master.) Later scholars took Mañjuśrī to represent the Dharma-nature (dharmatā) and Maitreya to represent the Dharma-characteristics (dharmalakṣaṇa). (The Dharma-nature takes the harmonizing contemplation of ultimate truth as its portal; the Dharma-characteristics take the systematic layout of consciousness-aspects as its purport.) Each set up their own boundaries, vied with one another in chapters and sentences, and boasted of their own excellence, (Later people had differences regarding what they privileged between nature and characteristics. Those who privileged the nature took harmonizing contemplation as superior; those who privileged characteristics took differentiation as good. Each formed factions around their own school.) causing people from the Western Regions to China up to the present day to have the division between the Southern and Northern schools. Thus, the Southern School takes emptiness, the conventional, and the middle as the three contemplations; (Contemplating the emptiness of the pervasive afflictions can reveal the ultimate truth: this is the contemplation of ultimate truth. Contemplating dependent origination as provisional existence is the contemplation of conventional truth. Contemplating the non-differentiation of the ultimate and conventional is the contemplation of supreme truth.) while the Northern School takes the imaginary, the dependent, and the consummate as the three natures. (The imaginary arises based on deluded sentiments; the dependent arises provisionally from multiple conditions; the consummate is the ultimate truth.) However, the *Avataṃsaka* encompasses the dharmadhātu through essence, virtuous characteristics, and karmic functions; (That is, discussing encompassing and embracing in terms of the essence and functions of that which is realized and the means of realization.) once one grasps its portal, it unifies North and South—as easily as pointing to one's palm! (Those who study the *Avataṃsaka* exhaustively penetrate the source of both nature and characteristics, fully plumbing the purport of both North and South.) As for the transmission of the Dharma in India, from the Great Turtle Clan down to the Bhikṣu Siṃha, there were twenty-four individuals, who elegantly inherited the true pronouncements and widely disseminated them. (From after the Buddha's parinirvāṇa, Great Kāśyapa upheld the Dharma treasury down to the Bhikṣu Siṃha, totaling twenty-four individuals, who elegantly carried on the footsteps of the Munificent One and wondrously propagated the profound legacy of the ancestral sages.) When Siṃha met harm in Kashmir, the master-to-disciple transmission and entrustment was extinguished. (The Bhikṣu Siṃha transmitted the Dharma to the country of Kashmir, where he was killed by the king of Kashmir. From then on, though the Dharma treasury was transmitted, its Way became diluted.) Yet the disciplinary rules (vinaya) for guarding against transgressions were instituted exclusively by the Great Sage. (As for discipline: in Sanskrit, it is called *vinaya*; here, it is translated as 'the treasury of subduing'. It prevents wrongdoing, stops evil, and subdues the three karmas of sentient beings. It was personally instituted by the Tathāgata and most strictly entrusted.) Because the precepts concern the karma of the seven branches, and the nature of karma is exceedingly profound, only one who has attained the power of karmic knowledge can fully grasp their number. (The seven branches: the three bodily karmas of killing, stealing, and sexual misconduct, and the four vocal karmas of harsh speech, divisive speech, false speech, and frivolous speech; together these constitute the seven branches. One who attains the power of knowledge comprehends the enumeration of karmas.) Therefore, allowances and prohibitions, observing and violating, involve harm and benefit; yet neither the past buddhas nor the future buddhas ever entrusted another mouth to utter them. (In the Dharma, allowances grant accommodation, while prohibitions terminate actions. Observing means steadfastly keeping them without breach; violating means mistakenly transgressing without observing. The Vinaya Piṭaka was personally instituted by the Buddha and not transmitted by entrusting another mouth.) Furthermore, he strictly established its defenses so that speech does not drift into heedless conduct, and the mind is assisted by concentration and wisdom so as to reach ultimate release; (The Tathāgata clearly instituted the prohibitive precepts, strictly setting up protective defenses against drifting. The mind practices concentration and wisdom so as to reach ultimate release. Ultimate release is like an object tied with a rope, suspended: wisdom comprehends and penetrates, just like untying it.) therefore it is also called the prātimokṣa. (*Prātimokṣa* is translated here as 'individual liberation precept', meaning that the seven classes of disciples observe them individually and obtain liberation; also, by observing one precept, one attains one liberation.) Sūtras are spoken through five kinds of beings, (The *Dazhidulun* states: the five persons are: 1. the Buddha, 2. disciples, 3. divine ṛṣis, 4. devas, and 5. apparitional beings.) to manifest good and denounce evil, guide beings to arouse faith, and determine the false and the true; thus all can be called having the sense of a 'carpenter's marking line'. ('Manifest' means to make clear; 'denounce' means to treat as an illness. It treats evil as an illness and makes good clear, guiding and arousing them. If there are those who do not believe, it guides them to believe; what is undetermined, it settles; what is crooked, it rectifies—just as a worldly marking line can rectify the crookedness of timber.) Exhaustively encompassing the nature and characteristics without letting them scatter and be lost, and threading them through human minds, all can be called having the sense of 'stringing garlands'.

2.2.3

[just as people in the Western lands string together flower garlands as an adornment].) The supreme words have a standard, conform to the compass and square, and when the people take them as a model, all attain [benefit]; hence they are called 'teachings of the Dharma' (just as when a king's words go forth, the whole realm conforms to them; the compass is round, the square is rectangular, both square and round accord with their standards and serve as the norm for mankind, hence called 'dharma'; dharma means a standard). Their words are like thoroughwort, their trustworthiness ever-constant, and when all under heaven draw upon them without knowing exhaustion, all attain [benefit]; hence they are called 'teachings of constancy' (thoroughwort is a fragrant herb; 'constant' means eternal; like a gushing spring that never dries up, hence called 'constant'). Treatises are composed by disciples together; because they are able to combine and separate the ultimate and conventional, unfolding and gathering nominal principles, their inner profundities are fully mastered, their flavour is deep and vast, and they are the source from which Dharma principles arise, all [such texts] may be called mātṛkā (treatise has the sense of cyclic scrutiny and exhaustive clarification of the true school; originally they were only spoken by the Buddha and scattered among the various sūtras; later both Mahāyāna and Hīnayāna noble disciples composed them in common; being able to separate and combine the ultimate and conventional, distinguish form and mind, determine the purport of being and non-being, and exhaust the inner profundities of terms and meanings—is that not uniquely the Treatise Piṭaka? In Sanskrit it is called mātṛkā, here translated as 'matrix'; it generates wisdom just as a mother gives birth to a child). Subduing and feigning compliance, capturing and releasing, opening and closing the strategic passes (to feign is deception; to comply is submission; capture is seizure; release is letting go; the method of doctrinal debate sometimes feigns compliance or releases, only to seize the meaning later; opening is unlocking; closing is shutting; pass is a gate's bolt; barrier is a bypath; the doctrinal schools have openings and closures, prohibitions and blockades at their critical passes), their speech aims precisely at the mark, yet they still retain reserve strength upon release (the way of setting forth speech must have precise accuracy; like an arrow shot from a bowstring, it must strike the target; release means letting loose; setting forth one's thesis must leave courage to spare; in the Four Schools of the Nyāyamukha, one does not look back to doctrinal treatises, etc.), so that none of the rival factions of non-Buddhists dare to insult them (treatises crush the heterodox and manifest the orthodox, so followers of non-Buddhist paths dare not treat them with contempt); hence they are all called upadeśa (in Sanskrit upadeśa, here translated as doctrinal exposition). Dharma refers to what is confronted (belonging to the objective sphere illuminated). Wisdom is the directed contemplation (referring to the mind capable of illumination). Direction brings overcome destruction (meaning that when the cognitive wisdom arises, all afflictions are destroyed). Contemplation achieves sagehood (meaning that when wisdom illuminates the principle, like a lamp illuminating things, it reveals the holy path). Hence they are all called abhidharma (in Sanskrit abhidharma, here translated as 'incomparable Dharma'). Formerly, on one occasion, the Buddha said, 'This side, that side, and the middle,' and entered samādhi (one day the Buddha spoke of three items—this side, that side, and the middle—without specifying them, and entered samādhi). The great disciples each according to their own understanding competed to proclaim the Sage's meaning: some took saṃsāra as 'this side', nirvāṇa as 'that side', and the Path as 'the middle' (saṃsāra refers to the two kinds of saṃsāra, discontinuous and transformative, as 'this side'; nirvāṇa refers to the principle realized in the four kinds of nirvāṇa as 'that side'; the Path is the realizing wisdom as 'the middle'); some took the eye sense-organ as 'this side', visible form as 'that side', and consciousness as 'the middle' (the sense-organ is capable of illuminating, the objective sphere is what is illuminated, and consciousness in the middle is capable of discerning). In this way there were five hundred explanations, none agreeing with another, yet their intentions did not contradict (though each was different, each spoke his own understanding). When the Great Sage arose from samādhi, Śāriputra and the others presented their views and inquired about their doubts. The Buddha said: 'I spoke of contact as this side, origination as that side, and feeling as the middle (contact is confronting the object, origination is capable of defiling, and the mind's feeling in the middle receives and experiences it). Though your understandings were not my intention, nevertheless they are all causes for extinguishing suffering, and all should be retained and practised, not forgotten' (caobei means their group; though what the disciples said was not the Buddha's original intention, it still did not violate the principle). Therefore, while the Buddha-sun had not yet set, Śāriputra composed the Saṅgītiparyāya-pāda-śāstra (twenty fascicles, one hundred eighty-nine sheets, translated by Xuanzang), Maudgalyāyana composed the Dharmaskandha-pāda-śāstra (twenty fascicles, one hundred seventy-eight sheets, translated by Xuanzang), and Kātyāyana composed the Prajñapti-pāda-śāstra (eighteen thousand verses; this has not yet been seen in circulation; the above three treatises were all composed by disciples during the Tathāgata's lifetime). After the jade urn-hair grew dark, Devaśarman composed the Vijñānakāya-pāda-śāstra (sixteen fascicles, composed one hundred years after the Buddha's passing, translated by Tripiṭaka Master Xuanzang), Vasumitra composed the Prakaraṇapāda-śāstra (eighteen fascicles, two hundred ninety sheets, composed three hundred years after the Buddha's passing) and the Dhātukāya-pāda-śāstra (three fascicles, forty-nine sheets, composed by Vasumitra; the above are called the Six Pādas). Kātyāyanī[putra] composed the Jñānaprasthāna-śāstra (sixteen fascicles, three hundred sixty-five sheets; because the great doctrines are complete, this treatise is designated the 'body', and the six pādas are designated the 'feet'; composed after the Buddha's passing). In all, these seven treatises gave free rein to talent and refinement, surpassing ordinary models; they sought the Sage's intention from all angles, assisting the divine transformation. In their vastness they exhausted heaven and earth; in their minuteness they examined the subtlest atoms (the seven treatises are all Hīnayāna texts; their rhetoric is vast and magnificent, their style exceptional; from nature and marks to mind and form, there is nothing they do not fully discuss; the subtlest atom is the dust mote bordering on void). Compared to the Ruist school, it is as if the Three Commentaries and the Four Odes each made their sounds of gold and jade (the Three Commentaries are: first, the Zuo Qiuming Commentary; second, the Gongyang Gao Commentary; third, the Guliang Chi Commentary. The Four Odes are: the Lu Odes, transmitted by Master Shen Pei of Lu, whom Emperor Wu of Han summoned with rush-cushioned wheels when he was over eighty, using the Book of Odes as instruction, transmitted orally without written commentary; second, the Qi Odes, transmitted by Master Yuan Gu of Qi; third, the Han Odes, studied by Han Ying of Yan; fourth, the Mao Odes, transmitted to Zixia by Master Mao of Hejian, courtesy name Wencao). For this reason, at the beginning of the four-hundredth year, in the country of Kaśmīra, five hundred [arhats with] the six supernatural knowledges compiled the Mahāvibhāṣā based on the Jñānaprasthāna (at the beginning of the four-hundredth year after the Buddha's passing, there was an arhat named Kātyāyanīputra who struck the gaṇḍī and universally announced to all devas, worthy ones, and sages of the ten directions that those who had heard even one verse or one phrase from the Buddha must not enter nirvāṇa, and should all gather in Kaśmīra; once the holy ones arrived, they gathered what they had heard, accepting what was correct and discarding what was false, thereby completing the Mahāvibhāṣā, translated here as 'Great Commentary'; it was forbidden to let it leave the country, but it is said that the Venerable Vasubhadra secretly entered that country, recited it, left the country and returned, transmitting it to Jibin, after which it spread to the various countries), fully explaining the Tripiṭaka (meaning sūtra, vinaya, and śāstra). Because it has eight chapters, translators called it the 'Eight Skandhas', and also called it the 'Eight Piṭakas' (skandha and piṭaka both mean a collection; namely the eight skandhakas). By the five-hundredth year, Nāgārjuna's learning had exhausted everything within the realm.

2.2.4

he proclaimed himself an omniscient person and was just about to establish himself as a grand master when the dragon Anavatapta led him into his palace and showed him the secret treasuries [vast as] sands of dust. Ashamed of the offense he had incurred, he temporarily recited them in the dragon palace for ninety days, deeply regretting what he had claimed. (Nāgārjuna was originally a brahmin from Southern Tianzhu. He recited the four Vedas and thereupon entered the royal palace. Disgusted with desire, he went forth from the household. Having recited all the scriptures and treatises, he resented that the scriptures spoken by the Buddha were not numerous. Later, the dragon king invited him into his palace, where he spent ninety days; yet he could not finish marking the scripture titles. Deeply regretting his mistaken words, he attained comprehensive understanding and composed the *Treatise on the Great Perfection of Wisdom* in one hundred thousand gāthās. In Tianzhu, shrines were erected to revere him like a Buddha.) What he had memorized and practiced was partly obtained by the human realm; from this he broadly composed various treatises, greatly upholding the earlier teachings. (Greatly means vastly; it means he was greatly able to propagate and maintain the teachings of the ancient sages.) Down to one thousand years [after the nirvāṇa], Vasubandhu initially studied the Hīnayāna and frequently wished to disparage the Mahāyāna. His elder brother Asaṅga pitied him; feigning illness, he sent for him to come, and instructed him thoroughly with subtle words. Vasubandhu withdrew, examined his fault, and was startled. Taking up a knife himself, he was about to cut off his tongue. Asaṅga quickly came before him, stopped him, and said, "The offense comes from your mind, not from the fault of your tongue. Formerly you used it to defame [the Mahāyāna]; now why not use it to praise it? (Why not means why don't you.) What would cutting it off make up for?" Thereupon he composed a thousand treatises, either establishing doctrines or explaining texts, to assist and support the five vehicles. (Bodhisattva Vasubandhu was a native of the kingdom of Puruṣapura in Northern Tianzhu. The three brothers all went forth from the household under the Sarvāstivāda school. The elder brother Asaṅga first awoke to the Mahāyāna; he frequently went to Tuṣita to request Maitreya to explain the *Yogācārabhūmi*. When Vasubandhu was in the Sarvāstivāda school, he first composed five hundred Hīnayāna treatises broadly refuting the Mahāyāna. Later, due to Asaṅga converting him, having awakened to the Mahāyāna, he then conversely composed five hundred Mahāyāna treatises broadly praising the Mahāyāna; therefore he is called the master of a thousand treatises.) In the generation of Zheng of Qin, (The First Emperor of Qin. Surnamed Ying, named Zheng, courtesy name Zulong. Son of King Zhuangxiang of Qin. He absorbed the six states, built the Great Wall of Ten Thousand Li, and ordered fangshi practitioners to enter the sea and go to Penglai to seek the elixir of immortality.) eighteen śramaṇas arrived from the Western Regions. (Refers to eighteen people including Śrīmitra and others.) That violent Ying was just then occupied with all under heaven and had no leisure for the Great Way. (Had no leisure means having no time to practice the Great Way.) Resenting our virtuous ones, he imprisoned the śramaṇas within multi-layered walls, whereupon a vajrapāṇi spirit exerted his might and struck the walls. (The First Emperor merely submitted, bowed, and apologized, and the men of the Way returned back to the western countries.) Indeed, Qin's relation to our Way was like a stone not being soaked by water. That the gate of the incurable allows no medicine to take effect lies precisely here! (Qin was just then without the Way. Converting them with goodness thus did not accord. Duke Jing of Jin was ill and sought a physician from Qin. He dreamed that the disease transformed into two young boys, who said, "He is a good physician; I fear he will harm us." One said, "If we dwell above the huang and below the gao, what can he do to us?" When the physician arrived, he said, "The disease cannot be cured." Now the violent wickedness of Qin could not be converted with goodness, like an incurable disease.) Although the śramaṇas of that time were not appreciated in Qin and were even interrogated, they truly provided a basis for what followed. (Although Śrīmitra and the others did not meet with recognition in Qin and were moreover imprisoned, it was because Qin was violent and would not receive goodness; it also served as the cause for [She] Moteng and [Zhu] Falan.) The perilous and easy dispositions of the human mind are separated by mountains and rivers; that later arrivals were truly fortunate was because Śrīmitra and the others had tasted it first. Had they not sought them, they would not have arrived. (Tasted means tried out. Because Śrīmitra and the others first tried coming, although Qin did not accept them, later Tripiṭaka masters fortunately came to know of this matter; thus if Cai Yin had not sent men to seek and invite them, they would not have reached here.) In the seventh year of the Yongping reign of the Han, a xinmao year, (Calculating by the calendar, it should be jiazi; the present xinmao is an error.) Xianzong dreamed of a golden man (Xianzong refers to the second ruler of the Later Han, Emperor Ming. Named Zhuang, son of Guangwu, born of Empress Yin.) wearing sunlight at the nape of his neck, flying in the palace courtyard. Thereupon he put on his robes at night to wait for dawn. (To wait means to await. Dreaming at night of a golden man with light on his body, he thereupon sat to await dawn.) He summoned the assembly of ministers to inquire of it, and Fu Yi replied, "This is the Buddha spirit." (At that time Wang Zun, Fu Yi, and others memorialized: "In the twenty-fourth year of King Zhao of the Zhou, Grand Scribe Su You said: 'The Buddha will be born in the western countries; after one thousand years his voice and teachings will flow here.' Now over a thousand years have passed, and it must be that the Buddha spirit has arrived.") He ordered Cai Yin and Qin Jing to bear the command and seek the subject of his dream. (Thereupon he dispatched Cai Yin and others, eighteen men in all, to go to the western countries to seek it.) Reaching the Da Yuezhi, they met with She Moteng and Zhu Falan. (Reaching the kingdom of Yuezhi, they met two Tripiṭaka masters: one surnamed Kasyapa named Moteng, and one surnamed Zhu named Falan.) Those two gentlemen had long harbored the aspiration for distant travels to rescue the world; having obtained Qin and Cai, their purposes joined. (Qin Jing and the others met the two Tripiṭaka masters in Yuezhi, sought and invited them, and returned to the Han state.) In the tenth year, a jiawu year, (The original text had dingmao; jiawu is an error.) the Han envoys arrived from the Western Regions, and the two śramaṇas entered Luoyang. (At that time the Later Han had its capital in Luoyang.) They presented images of Śākyamuni and various scriptures; thereupon a monastery was first founded in the city of Luoyang (When the Tripiṭaka masters first arrived, they lodged at the Honglu Court. Because they came with scriptures packed on white horses, it was thereupon called the White Horse Monastery. In Sanskrit it is saṅghārāma, rendered here as 'community park', meaning a place where the Way is practiced.) and images were made at the Qingliang Terrace of the Southern Palace and above the Kaiguang Gate at the Xianjie Tomb. (They made painted images in all these places.) The translation of the scriptures was first commanded, with the *Scripture in Forty-Two Sections* placed at their head. (The two Tripiṭaka masters, Moteng and the other, first translated one fascicle of scripture, entitled the *Scripture in Forty-Two Sections*.) They were sealed in the Orchid Terrace and the Stone Chamber, awaiting those who could hear to hear them. How august! (The Orchid Terrace and Stone Chamber were the secret imperial archives for storing books in the Han. 'Yu' is an exclamation of sighing; 'mu' means reverent.) When the sacred teaching relates to the times, it may be accorded with, but not forced: when accorded with, it enriches things; (Enriches means soaks; refers to coming in the era of Emperor Ming of the Han.) when forced, it harms things. (Like coming in the Qin era, harming and sickening them.) Therefore, without supreme wisdom, one cannot perceive the way of drawing and leading. As people have also said: What era was Yongping, and what virtue had Emperor Ming of the Han? For the primordial simplicity was gradually deteriorating, and benevolence and righteousness were gradually falling into disuse; the Way, its virtue, and the Five Classics were about to fall to the ground. (From the time of Yongping, morality had already worn thin and written records were about to fall into ruin; this speaks of the extreme deterioration of the world.) Yet compassionate operations were devised from afar, and the teaching of the Śākya broadly spread, causing those of this land who had grown weary of what they had previously practiced to rejoice in what they newly heard. (The Buddha-dharma came in a declining and shallow age, causing those who were tired of benevolence, righteousness, rites, and music to rejoice in its new teaching.)

2.2.5

to reform past [habits] and practice anew) and to transform transgressions by following exhortations, bringing together the three teachings so that they brightly illuminate all under heaven. (Commentary: "Teachings" means instructions. "Bringing together" means assembling. It means assembling the three teachings to transform the world.) Therefore, if our Way is not yet to be promoted, though a thousand years pass, [the circumstances] will be as estranged as the constellations Shen and Chen. (Commentary: Our teaching is the root of transforming and guiding. If it does not harmonize with the world, even after a thousand years, it will surely not meet, like the stars Shen and Chen.) But when it is to be promoted, though separated by ten thousand leagues, even horses driven by the mating wind will find passage. (Commentary: When the teaching can be promoted, though the route spans ten thousand leagues, it can still reach through. "Horses driven by the mating wind" refers to mares and stallions pursuing each other. When Duke Huan of Qi attacked Chu, the Viscount of Chu said: "We are so far apart that horses and oxen driven by the mating wind would not reach each other.") Thus, the Han imperial decree was sent down to the edges of heaven, and the sun of the sage arose in the eastern quarter. (Commentary: "Edges" means borders. It refers to Qin Jing and others reaching the Yuezhi. "Sun of the sage" refers to Kāśyapa Mātaṅga coming to the east.) It illuminated living beings at the distant horizons and manifested the Great Awakened One in the luminous heavens. (Commentary: "Horizons" means borders. The Buddha-sun illuminated the multitudes of beings and made the heavens and earth radiant.) To set down a standard for ten thousand generations on the basis of a single night's dream—in Emperor Zhuang, all under heaven truly had a sovereign! (Commentary: Emperor Ming of the Han dreamt one night of a golden man, sought the teachings in the west, and first established a model. His voice and teaching ultimately became the rule for ten thousand generations.) To declare his heart in brilliant schemes and gloriously inaugurate the Han dynasty—in men like Wang Zun, Fu Yi, Qin Jing, and Cai Yin, the Han house truly had ministers! (Commentary: "Brilliant" means magnificent, and "scheme" means plan. To declare one's heart in magnificent plans and bring brightness to the Han line refers to Wang Zun, Fu Yi, Qin Jing, Cai Yin, and others.) To act as the surviving disciples of the Dharma King (Commentary: "Surviving" means descendants; "disciples" means followers.) and grandly inherit his virtuous sound—in men like Kāśyapa Mātaṅga and Dharmaratna, Tianzhu truly had monks! (Commentary: They were able to inherit the voice and teaching.) When we look back upon antiquity, those whose abundant virtue and profound benefit were truly laboured for the people had their gifts received by the people; their glorious renown was spread abroad and celebrated in the sacrificial registries. (Commentary: "Look back upon" means scrutinizing. Observing that past eras brought benefit to the people, [the people] were moved by their grace, were bound to proclaim their excellence, and broadly set out great offerings in the ancestral sacrifices.) Thus the *Book of Rites* says: "Those who gave laws to the people are sacrificed to after death. Those who by their labor established the state are sacrificed to. Those who could ward off great calamities are sacrificed to. Those who could defend against great disasters are sacrificed to." Now, the Flame Clan [dynasty] and its two or three ministers propagated the teaching of the Golden Immortal and reached customs that had never heard it, causing people with sincere devotion (Commentary: "Devotion" means earnestness.) to know whither sin and merit lead, to weary of the bounded bodily form, and to esteem the principle of extinguishing the mind. (Commentary: Emperor Ming of the Han and his two or three ministers first opened the Buddhist teachings, causing worldly people who were inverted and confused to comprehend sin and merit, weary of the perishable body, and attain realization of the principle of non-arising.) Grandly did their work of profound transformation crown the temples of benevolence; yet the world neither exalts their burial halls nor clarifies their sacrificial rites. Though antiquity called this a deficiency, the present day has also failed to remedy it. (Commentary: "Grandly" means expansively. Although their achievement expansively influenced transformation and should rank at the head of the sacrificial canons, the world does not revere their ancestral shrines nor clarify their sacrificial offerings. What antiquity called a deficiency has not been remedied today either.) Since the beginning of the Han restoration, it trickled forth like a spring overflowing a wine cup. (Commentary: "Overflowing" means spilling over. When the Han River first emerges, it can only fill a wine cup. From the beginning of the Later Han, the Buddhist Dharma was a trickling stream, like the Han River when it first emerges.) In the Wei, it flowed [so as to carry] bundles of firewood. (Commentary: By the Cao Wei period, it gradually became like a current that could float bundles of firewood.) Down to our Tang today, its influence has grown ever broader. (Commentary: From the first arrival of the Buddhist Dharma in the Han to our Great Tang today, its Dharma has gradually broadened.) Thoroughly searching the various divisions, (Commentary: "Thoroughly" means exhaustively.) there are over eight thousand fascicles, and even now the translation work of Indian monks has not ceased. In the meantime, during the Qi and Liang eras, the two Xiao clans (Commentary: Xiao Daocheng of the Southern Qi and Xiao Yan, Emperor Wu of the Liang. Both of the two Xiao clans in the two dynasties had their capitals at Jinling.) had abundant learning and refined phrasing, producing many compilations. For instance, Xiao Ziliang, Prince of Jingling, made anthologies from the various sutras, dividing them into seventy works in two hundred and fifty-nine fascicles. (Commentary: The Prince of Jingling of the Qi made anthologies classified by category.) Though at the time he did not intend for them to be circulated abroad, later generations copied them and entered them into the orthodox catalogues. Xiao Gang, Crown Prince of Liang (Commentary: namely Emperor Jianwen), compiled the *Liang bi of the Dharma Treasure* in two hundred fascicles. The śramaṇa Sengyou (Commentary: who compiled the *Hongming ji* in sixteen fascicles), Sengmin (Commentary: who resided on Mount Huqiu; Xiao Ang went to pay homage to him, and he remained lying comfortably without rising, so that people called him the Uncrowned King of the Liang dynasty), Baochang (Commentary: a monk of Zhuangyan Monastery in the capital of Yangdu, of broad knowledge and rich erudition, whom Emperor Wu of Liang ordered to compile the *Jinglü yixiang* in fifty fascicles), and Zhizang (Commentary: an eminent monk of the Liang, intelligent and well-read), all made compilations with numerous entries. In later generations, some abandoned the broad thoroughfare and followed branching byways. (Commentary: "Broad thoroughfare" refers to the grand road, meaning the orthodox scriptures; "branching byways" refers to small paths, meaning miscellaneous anthologies.) At that time, the daughter of the National Academy Scholar Jiang Mi (Commentary: a scholar of the Liang dynasty), who was only eight years old, from the first year of the Yongyuan era to the fourth year of the Tianjian era (Commentary: Yongyuan was a Southern Qi reign era; Tianjian was a reign era of Emperor Wu of the Liang; from the year *jimao* to *yiyou*, totaling seven years), sat quietly with her eyes closed and naturally recited thirty fascicles. (Commentary: In the canon today there are titles, but no scripture texts; since they were not the Buddha's words, they are now placed in the catalogue of apocrypha.) Commentators considered them heaven-bestowed. How, then, are we to distinguish the genuine from the spurious? The Great Vehicle takes a single principle, namely the True Mark. (Commentary: "True Mark" means suchness.) The Lesser Vehicle has three, namely: all conditioned factors are impermanent; all phenomena are without self; and nirvāṇa is quiescent. What contradicts these is not our teaching. Those that are cluttered, crude, and shallow—such as the *Dharani Sutra of the Seven Buddhas*, the *Samantabhadra's Verification*, the *Lotus Measures*, the *Eight Yang of Heaven and Earth*, and the *Prolonging Life Sutra*—contradict the various scriptures, forfeit the substance of holy speech, and are retained as suspect or apocryphal, not worthy of discussion. (Commentary: They are all preserved in the catalogue of suspect and apocryphal scriptures.) Those that are unadorned, crude, verbose, and minute (Commentary: such as the *Yin chi ru jing* and *Dao di jing*), or the lost-translator scriptures of the Han and Wei, as well as the *Bhaiṣajyaguru Sutra* and others (Commentary: translated by Śrīmitra and Huijian of Luye Monastery; they are now in the orthodox catalogue), although not elegant or profound, are nevertheless neither flawed nor erroneous; verified against retranslations, they must not be discarded. Indeed, although a bird is caught by a single mesh of the net, it depends on the myriad meshes to support that single mesh; although liberation from suffering is through the Dharma of a single gate, it combines myriad Dharmas to support that single gate. (Commentary: Although a bird is caught with a single mesh, one cannot open only a single mesh; although one accords with faculties through a single Dharma, one cannot expound only a single Dharma.) Thus they were expounded and extended into the eighty-four thousand Dharma stores. Mouzi says: (Commentary: Mouzi was the Governor of Cangwu; he wrote a book called *Mouzi*.) "The Buddhist sutras speak beforehand of matters a hundred million years in the past, and explain the essentials of ten thousand generations to come. Before the Great Simplicity had formed signs, before the Great Origin had arisen, when heaven and earth first began, its subtlety could not be grasped and its fineness could not be penetrated. The Buddha completely encompassed the exterior of their vastness and analyzed the interior of their profundity.

2.2.6

Nothing was left unrecorded by him; therefore, his scripture fascicles are counted by the tens of thousands, and his words by the hundreds of millions. (Commentary: Thus Nāgārjuna could not finish reading their title slips in the Dragon Palace after ninety days.) This is like going to a river and drinking water: one drinks one's fill and is naturally satisfied; how could one know the rest? The scriptures of the two sages of the Central Lands (Commentary: referring to the Dutiful Son [King Wen] and Master Xuan [Confucius]) dwell among the hundred schools like the Northern Pole among the suspended celestial bodies. (Commentary: Confucius and the *Classic of Filial Piety* are the Northern Pole; the various masters are the myriad stars.) And beyond Confucius and Laozi, there are still maxims modeled on the sages. Yang Zhu and Hui Shi were of the school of emptiness and nothingness; (Commentary: from the *Zhuangzi*.) Mo Di and Han Fei were of the school of statecraft. (Commentary: from the *Records of the Grand Historian*.) In between, Sima Qian compiled history, (Commentary: Sima Qian, courtesy name Zijian, a man of Emperor Wu of the Han; as Grand Astrologer, he continued his father's work in compiling the *Records of the Grand Historian* in one hundred and thirty fascicles.) giving precedence to Huang-Lao and placing the Six Classics second; (Commentary: The Six Classics refers to the *Spring and Autumn Annals*, *Book of Rites*, *Mao Poetry*, *Classic of Documents*, *Book of Changes*, and *Classic of Music*.) Ban Gu in his Treatise on Literature (Commentary: Ban Gu, courtesy name Mengjian, compiled the *History of the Former Han* in one hundred and twenty fascicles.) began with the Ruists and placed the Dao and De second; these, together with our tradition, make the three teachings. (Commentary: the so-called Ruism, Daoism, and Buddhism.) They display a radiance like the sun and moon that never decays; as for their decline and prosperity, their adoption and rejection, all depend upon the times. (Commentary: Whether accepted or rejected, whether declining or flourishing, all depend upon the allotments of time.) Among later writers, some had words that surpassed their reasoning, while others had talents that fell short of the matters at hand. (Commentary: In some, though the diction was rich, the reasoning was sparse; in others, though the events were fully cited, their talent and ability were insufficient.) Striving for ornament, they abandoned reality; (Commentary: It means omissions; those fond of historical style often lost sight of real facts.) esteeming the profound, they rejected the yellow [robes]. Those who understood this were grieved that their dwelling [in this floating world] was so brief: who could enter into debate with the deceased? (Commentary: Having recognized the error of one-sided attachments, yet lamenting that the floating world is so short, who could debate right and wrong with people of earlier generations?) Those who did not understand simply recited them in their hearts, spreading them without limit. (Commentary: Those who do not understand merely know to memorize and recite them in their hearts, spreading them endlessly, and that is all.) Now, the Ruist teaching takes court audiences, ancestral sacrifices, mourning, and warfare as the guiding bonds of the state; (Commentary: "Court audiences" refers to the rites of grand audiences, visits, and meetings. "Sacrifices" refers to ancestral temples and the six pure offerings. "Mourning" refers to the rites of condolences, presents, burials, and attending funerals. "Warfare" refers to practicing military arts and punitive expeditions.) by comprehensively practicing its Way, they are seldom thrown into disorder. (Commentary: "*You*" means where; "*wen*" means disorder. If one can manage these matters comprehensively and practice them, then in the rites there will be little disorder.) As for the teachings of Śākya and Laozi, their principles lie in the void and profound, while their traces involve both provisional and real; (Commentary: Their principles being empty, non-existent, and profound, their ways are either provisional or real.) this leads those of average capacity and below (Commentary: The superior person hears it and practices it; the average person hears it and keeps it as if it exists and does not exist; the inferior person laughs loudly and ridicules it.) to flatter and twist interpretations, which are either spurious or delusional, so that the music of Zheng corrupts the elegant odes, and fish eyes are passed off as pearls. Thus, on the Daoist side, there is the *Scripture of Converting the Barbarians* (Commentary: compiled by the Daoist priest Wang Fu during the Jin dynasty, originally in one fascicle, and later gradually augmented to eleven fascicles) and the "Three Destructions", "Ten Differences", and "Nine Confusions" regarding the Barbarians and the Chinese; (Commentary: These are all Daoist texts criticizing Buddhism.) while on the Buddhist side, there are the *Destroying Confusion*, *Refuting the Barbarians and Chinese*, (Commentary: Zhen Luan's *Xiaodao lun* and so forth, all in the *Hongming ji*.) and the *Destroying Heresy and Discerning the Orthodox*. (Commentary: compiled by the Tang śramaṇa Falin.) In tumultuous rivalry they overstepped each other: what went forth in error was also countered in error; (Commentary: They contradicted each other like spear and shield.) their feelings were full of jealousy and partisanship; (Commentary: "Jealousy" means despising it; "partisanship" means favoring it.) their reasoning did not follow straightforwardness, but entangled with each other like twisted cords, (Commentary: taking the crooked as straight.) responding to each other like echo to sound. Blended onto wooden and bamboo slips (Commentary: "Blended" means mixed together.) and sealed up in cords and bindings, (Commentary: "Cords and bindings" means sealed up.) how could this pertain to the root of the twelve divisions [of scriptures] or the five thousand words? (Commentary: In the intentions of the sages, there are originally no texts of right and wrong.) The Western Regions synthesize the teachings of the Buddha's lifetime into three periods: namely, the teaching of existence (Commentary: which refers to the Āgamas and so forth), the teaching of emptiness (Commentary: which refers to the Prajñā sutras in eight divisions and so forth), and the teaching of neither emptiness nor existence (Commentary: which refers to the *Saṃdhinirmocana-sūtra*). In this land, they distinguish the taxonomy by five periods: first, the Four Truths (Commentary: referring to the four matters of suffering, accumulation, cessation, and the path, which is the Lesser Vehicle teaching); second, Prajñā (Commentary: referring to the emptiness teaching of the Prajñā sutras in eight divisions); third, Vimalakīrti and Viśeṣacinti, etc. (Commentary: referring to the inconceivable teaching of the *Vimalakīrti* and so forth); fourth, the *Lotus Sutra* (Commentary: the Middle Way teaching that converges the two [vehicles] into the one); and fifth, the *Mahāparinirvāṇa Sutra* (Commentary: the teaching of perfect quiescence). Some say this is not so. For now, we preserve the ancient one. (Commentary: meaning the teaching of the three periods.)

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北山錄 — Classical Chinese