大宋僧史略 1.20

1.20

重之曰。前言月八日者。為東夏耶。為西域耶。若尋條見本。從水求源。則事無不周。理有攸貫。且天竺歲首諸說不同。高僧傳中。慧嚴與何承天爭中邊言。西域以建辰為歲首。傳又云。十二月三十日號大神變月。即此土正月十五日。此指夏正也。而用十六日生魄。為月初一日焉。今未詳。建辰月為取今三月月生日為歲首。為是月半分之準。西土無正二三月名。但取星直月。為月名耳。如毘舍佉月迦提月是也。

To restate it: when it was said earlier 'the eighth day of the month', was that for the Eastern Xia [China] or the Western Regions? If one traces the branches to find the root and follows the water to seek the source, then the matter will be complete and the principle coherent. Moreover, theories regarding the New Year in India differ. In the Gaoseng zhuan, when Huiyan debated the center and the periphery with He Chengtian, he said that the Western Regions take the month with the dipper pointing to chen as the beginning of the year. The biography also says that the thirtieth day of the twelfth month is called the Month of the Great Miracle, which corresponds to the fifteenth day of the first month in this land, referring to the Xia calendar; and they take the sixteenth day, when the crescent wanes, as the first day of the month. It is not yet clear whether the month pointing to chen takes the day the moon appears in the present third month as the start of the year, or whether it follows the division of fortnights. In the Western lands there are no names like the first, second, or third months; they merely take the asterism associated with the month as its name, such as the month of Vaiśākha or Kārttika.