北山錄 9.2.2

9.2.2

[All] from here on are commentaries on them.) In high antiquity, many composed commentaries. Among them, the most excellent has eighteen thousand verses, which expounds their primary texts (it expounds the four treatises mentioned above). It was composed by the great scholar Jayāditya. That man was contemporary with the beginning of our dynasty (during the Wude and Zhenguan eras). All who travel to the Western lands without studying this find their study in vain. Then there is the commentary on the *Vṛttisūtra* in twenty-four thousand verses, composed by the scholar Patañjali. This further clarifies the earlier treatise (it explains the earlier root treatise). There is also the *Haricarita* treatise in twenty-five thousand verses, which broadly recounts human affairs and the rise and fall of the various schools of grammar (like our histories today), taking its author's name as the title of the treatise. All these books are in the foreign land; both monastics and laity study them thoroughly before they are considered knowledgeable (the foreign land is the Western countries). As for the treatise masters of that region, in the early period there were Nāgārjuna, Āryadeva, and Aśvaghoṣa (Nāgārjuna is Longshu; a South Indian brāhmaṇa, he composed the *Mahāprajñāpāramitopadeśa* in one hundred thousand verses. Āryadeva was a native of South India whose talents surpassed his peers. In a certain kingdom there was a golden statue of Maheśvara twenty feet high with crystal eyes; Āryadeva gouged them out, and in a dream the deity demanded his eye, so he gouged out his own eye with his hand and returned it, thus lacking one eye; he became a monk under Nāgārjuna and was killed by a non-Buddhist. Aśvaghoṣa had the Venerable Pārśva as his master; originally a non-Buddhist, he expounded the Dharma for the Yuezhi king, and the horses shed tears and neighed sorrowfully; another version says that when he was born, all the horses whinnied, hence his name). In the middle period, there were Asaṅga, Vasubandhu (natives of North India, who appeared nine hundred years after the Buddha's parinirvāṇa), Saṅghabhadra, and Bhāviveka (Saṅghabhadra is also called Zhongxian. Bhāviveka composed the *Karatalaratna*, and struck an asura cave with mustard seeds, awaiting the appearance of Maitreya to question him on the doctrine). In the recent period, there were Dignāga, Dharmapāla, Dharmakīrti, Śīlabhadra, Siṃhacandra, Sthiramati, Prajñāpāla, and Guṇaprabha (as for Śīlabhadra, the Tang Tripiṭaka master [Xuanzang] still met him when he went to the Western countries). None of them did not possess these inner and outer scriptures. The Great Being Aśvaghoṣa composed the song-lyrics on Prince Suvarṇa (the prince's fondness for giving away boys, girls, and so forth), along with the *Buddhacarita* poem (recounting the Buddha's attainment of awakening and other matters; together with the *Buddhacarita-kāvya*, it is now in the canon). Nāgārjuna sent a letter in the form of a poem to King Sātavāhana of South India. The people of that region all recite and chant it (like the *Wen xuan* in this land), regarding it as both ornate and classical. There was also Mātṛceṭa, who, receiving the Buddha's prior prediction, broadly composed praises and hymns, first composing the four hundred verses, and next composing the one hundred and fifty verses. Among those who practiced rhetoric in the Western lands, such as Asaṅga and Vasubandhu, none did not drill into, look up to, and follow their tradition as exemplary (the *Analects* says, 'The more I drill into it, the harder it becomes; the more I look up to it, the higher it seems.' Following the tradition means receiving it from masters; 'ancestor' means origin, and 'tradition' means study). In Shendu, they regard the brāhmaṇas as the highest and refuse to associate with the other three castes (the brāhmaṇas were originally descendants of Brahmā, their virtue held in honour; the kṣatriyas are merely noble, and hence none match them). Therefore they have the four Veda books, comprising about one hundred thousand verses (the first is called Āyurveda, here rendered 'Formulas for Life', referring to medicine and formulas; the second is called Yajurveda, referring to sacrifice and scriptures; the third is Sāmaveda, referring to rituals, the ten signs, music, martial arts, and such matters; the fourth is Atharvaveda, referring to incantations and such; all were spoken by Brahmā). They are entirely transmitted by mouth and not written on palm leaves or birch bark (at seven years old one attends a master to study by oral recitation; when one's study is complete, one becomes a master of the state). In that country, it is traditionally said that there are methods for acquiring intelligence: the first is called 'generating wisdom through careful review' (meaning to infer and seek principles, and carefully examine meanings and tastes); the second is 'revealing the alphabet' (from letters generate letters, from sounds generate sounds). Focusing the mind within a decade of days or a month, their thoughts gush forth like a spring; presumably, without these methods, they would have no way to recite numerous texts as swift as an arrow. Formerly, Buddhayaśas and Guṇavarman were such men. At first, when Yaśas arrived in Qin and was about to engage in translation, the people of Qin tested him, handing him registers of corvée labour, medical formulas, and various books; he finished reciting them all within three days. What Guṇa recited amounted to more than a million words. Among the Tripiṭaka masters who came, rare were those who did not attain this standard. In Huaxia, from the time of Suirenshi, who looked up to observe the Northern Dipper to fix the names of directions (Fuxi […] the people were pure and dull; they only knew their mothers and did not know their fathers; they only knew how to cover their front and did not know how to cover their back; when hungry they sought food, when sated they cast aside the leftovers. Taihao subdued and transformed them, hence he was called Fuxi; he looked up to observe the heavenly patterns and looked down to examine the geography, so as to discern the regional products), Paoxi used this to draw the eight trigrams and create written tallies. As for the *Three Graves*, the *Five Canons*, the *Eight Cords*, and the *Nine Hills*, all are surviving books of antiquity (the *Three Graves* are the books of the Three Sovereigns; the *Five Canons* are the books of the Five Thearchs; the *Eight Cords* are the books of the eight trigrams; the *Nine Hills* are the gazetteers of the Nine Provinces), such as were read by Yixiang of Chu (in the time of King Ling of Chu, the scribe of the left, Yixiang, was able to read the *Three Graves*, the *Five Canons*, the *Eight Cords*, and the *Nine Hills*). Coming down to Zhongni, he edited the *Odes* and settled the rites and music, elucidated the Way of the *Changes* and compiled the *Spring and Autumn Annals*, revitalising decaying customs (from King You and King Li of the Zhou onward, the capital was moved east to Luoyi; the feudal lords led expeditions on their own authority, and the rites and music collapsed. In the eleventh year of Duke Ai of Lu, the Master returned to Lu from Wei; in the fourteenth year, a qilin was captured, whereupon he compiled the *Spring and Autumn Annals*, edited the *Odes*, settled the rites, and rectified the collapsing customs). Thus there are the Six Classics (the *Spring and Autumn Annals*, the *Book of Rites*, the *Zhou Changes*, the *Book of Documents*, the *Mao Odes*, and the *Music*). Therefore Confucius said: 'Gentle, kind, generous, and sincere is the teaching of the *Odes* (without studying the *Odes*, one has no means of speaking); broad-minded, discerning, far-sighted, and profound is the teaching of the *Documents* (rectifying the way of the king's words); broad, extensive, easy, and good is the teaching of the *Music* (harmonising the feelings of the people); pure, clean, refined, and subtle is the teaching of the *Changes* (fathoming principles and exhausting natures); respectful, frugal, dignified, and reverent is the teaching of the *Rites* (securing superiors and governing the people); choosing words and comparing events is the teaching of the *Spring and Autumn Annals*' (rectifying the way of praise and blame, and categorising similar affairs). [Then there are] Zuo's *Discourses of the States* (Zuo Qiuming, considering that the events and meanings of the *Spring and Autumn Annals* were incomplete, compiled the *Discourses of the States* to provide mutual reference), Sima Qian's *Records of the Grand Historian* (Sima Qian was punished and confined to the silkworm chamber, where he compiled the *Records of the Grand Historian*, reaching down to Emperor Wu of Han, in one hundred and thirty fascicles in all). From the Han and Wei onward, all have had histories and treatises (Ban Gu's *History of the Former Han* in one hundred and twenty fascicles; Sima Biao's *History of the Later Han* in eighty fascicles; Chen Shou's *Records of the Three Kingdoms*, and so forth).