經律異相 1.3

1.3

如來應跡投緣。隨機闡教。兼被龍鬼。匪直天人。化啟憍陳。道終須跋。文積巨萬簡累大千。自西徂東固難得而究也。若乃劉向校書。玄言久蘊。漢明感夢。靈證彌彰。自茲厥後傳譯相繼。三藏奧典雖已略周。九部雜言通未區集。

The Tathāgata manifested traces in response to conditions, expounding the teachings according to capacity; he reached not only gods and humans, but nagas and ghosts as well. His conversion began with Kauṇḍinya and his path concluded with Subhadra. His texts accumulated by myriads, and his bamboo slips piled up to fill a great chiliocosm. Coming from the west to the east, they were indeed difficult to fathom completely. When Liu Xiang collated the books, the profound words had long been concealed; when Emperor Ming of the Han was moved by a dream, the spiritual evidence became ever more manifest. From then on, transmission and translation followed one another in succession; although the profound scriptures of the Tripiṭaka were roughly comprehensive, the varied teachings of the nine divisions had never been classified and gathered together.