法苑珠林 100.36

100.36

Since the accomplishment was proclaimed in the Immortal's Park and the tranquil crossing was made by the Golden River, letters have been unfolded to guide the myriad beings and draw out the clouded and benighted. He established plans in accord with faculties and timings, and displayed verbal teachings following dispositions and desires. Encompassing a whole lifetime's teaching and mastering the chiliocosm, those who received his Way were hard to measure, while those who transmitted his lineage were easily enlightened. Thus it was able to spread over the Eastern Xia, spanning six hundred years, translating the regional languages into five thousand fascicles. Talented monastics and laypeople, relying on the holy lineage, produced more than three thousand fascicles of writings and records, adorning the Buddhadharma and glorifying the holy teachings, with floral diction and profound tenets wonderfully worthy of contemplation. As eras flourished and declined, cases and volumes became scattered and lost; though a large number exists, those that are lacking are many. Searching through Chang'an, they fell short by nearly a thousand fascicles. I have only heard that the Donglin Temple on Mount Lu—which is the saṃghārāma founded by Dharma Master Huiyuan during the Jin—managed and maintained all the scriptures as well as the miscellaneous collections, establishing separate repositories for each to store them completely. The administrators guard them firmly and secure them with strict vigilance, handing over and accounting for the numbers as they succeed one another, concerned lest the Dharma disappear in later times and ensuring the teachings remain whole. Now, according to what I have seen and heard, I list them fully as follows (in the hope that what is found later may supplement this section):