法苑珠林 25.28

25.28

[His verses] totaled ten, and their language and metaphors were all of this kind. Kumārajīva was deeply fond of the Mahāyāna and bent his mind upon its broad dissemination. He would often sigh and say, 'If I were to set brush to paper and compose an Abhidharma of the Mahāyāna, Kātyāyanīputra could not compare with me. Now, in the land of Qin, those of profound understanding are few; my wings are broken here—what is there to expound?' Thereupon he sorrowfully desisted. He only composed for Yao Xing the Treatise on the Real Mark (Shixiang lun) in two fascicles and annotated the Vimalakīrti-nirdeśa. His spoken words naturally formed elegant compositions without need of revision or deletion; his diction and allegories were subtle and graceful, and none failed to be profoundly abstruse. In character, Kumārajīva had a lucid and penetrating disposition, lofty and outstanding above the crowd. In grasping things according to the occasion, he had few peers. By nature devoted, benevolent, and kind, he held universal love in his heart; emptying himself and excelling at guidance, he never tired throughout the day. Yao Xing, the sovereign of Qin, once said to Kumārajīva, 'The Master's brilliant comprehension transcends all others; there is none like him in the realm. If one day you pass away, how can we let the lineage of the Dharma have no successor?' At that time, the bhikṣu Beidu was in Pengcheng. Hearing that Kumārajīva was in Chang'an, he sighed and said, 'It has been more than three hundred years since I playfully parted from that fellow. Our separation has been long and without appointment; only in a future life can I look forward to meeting him.' Before his end, Kumārajīva was aware that the four great elements [of his body] were failing. He said, 'I vow that everything I have proclaimed and translated will be transmitted to future generations and widely propagated together. Now, before the assembly, I make this sincere vow: if what I have transmitted is free of error, may my tongue not be scorched or rot away after my body is burned.' On the twentieth day of the eighth month of the eleventh year of the Hongshi era of the illegitimate Qin, he passed away in Chang'an. This was the fifth year of the Yixi era of the Jin. Thereupon, in the Xiaoyao Garden, they burned him with fire according to foreign practice. The firewood was consumed and his form reduced to fragments, but his tongue alone was not reduced to ashes.