一切經音義 25.6

25.6

涅槃經者。北涼西主沮渠蒙遜玄始三年請天竺沙門曇無羅讖法師。與沙門慧嵩道朗等同譯也。法師初至未閑漢語。三年習學妙盡方言辭辯如流。富於文藻。故此經文後人莫繼。法師所翻經夾唯有上袟。經既未足。再往于闐求本三譯乃畢其功。至玄始十年方得周備。乃是竆原之極教最後之微言。髻裏明珠金剛寶藏者也。竊謂經為佛母。佛為人師。法藉人弘。人唯法器。即三種般若文字居先。十二真詮修多建首。譬以春池競寶獲珠者必假安徐。依文習義會意者須遵定教比者尋條以求本沿波以討源讎挍經文素無定本。復覽諸家音義梗概相傳。梵語未譯於方言。字體仍含於真偽。遂使挑挑渾於手木。悵帳亂於心巾。𧷽草繁於果園要點刪于寫富修脩茲用飾脯天乖悟寤同書解眠翻覆雲匪量寡昧敬慕茲經慮以三點不圓八恒無趣。皮紙骨筆敢盡虔誠。冀握先王之刀更訪新醫之乳。遂觀說文以定字。撿韻集以求音。訓詁多據玉篇傳梵先資金簡。糅為音義兩卷。用為私記時觀案篋未敢流行同意披詳幸無哂誚云耳。

As for the Nirvāṇa-sūtra, in the third year of Xuanshi [414 CE], Juqu Mengxun, the western ruler of the Northern Liang, invited the Indian monk Dharma Master Dharmakṣema to translate it jointly with the monks Huisong, Daolang, and others. When the Dharma Master first arrived, he was not yet skilled in the Chinese language. After three years of study, he mastered regional speech marvelously, his eloquence flowed freely, and he was rich in literary elegance. Therefore, later figures could not equal the literary quality of this sūtra. The bundle of sūtra leaves translated by the Dharma Master contained only the earlier portion; since the sūtra was not yet complete, he went twice to Khotan to search for manuscripts, completing the work after three translations. Only in the tenth year of Xuanshi was it finally brought to completion. This is indeed the ultimate teaching that plumbs the source, the subtle final words [of the Buddha], the bright jewel in the topknot, and the adamantine treasury. We humbly submit that the sūtra is the mother of the Buddhas, the Buddha is the teacher of human beings, the Dharma relies on people for propagation, and people are vessels for the Dharma. Among the three kinds of prajñā, written words stand first; of the twelve divisions of ultimate truth, the sūtras head the list. Taking the metaphor of the spring pool where people compete for the treasure: to obtain the pearl, one must proceed with calm and care. To follow the words to learn the meaning and grasp the sense, one must follow the settled teachings. Lately, those who search along the branches to find the root and trace the ripples to investigate the source find no fixed exemplar in the collation of sūtra texts. Furthermore, looking over the sound-and-meaning glossaries of the various masters, they are passed down in broad outlines: Sanskrit terms are not yet translated into local speech, and character forms still harbor authentic and spurious variants. Consequently, 'carrying' [挑] and 'disordering' [渾] are confused in the hands of woodblock cutters; 'mournful' [悵] and 'disturbed' [亂] are muddled in the mind's cloth. Weeds overgrow the fruit orchard, and essentials are excised to pad superficial abundance. Adorning dried meat with embellishments turns heaven into error; understanding sleep and waking as identical writing turns knowledge upside down. Master Yun, feeling his own inadequacy, reverently admired this sūtra, yet feared that the three dots [of the letter i] would not be rounded and the eight river-sands would lack direction. Daring to exhaust his devotion with skin as paper and bone as pen, hoping to wield the blade of the ancient king and seek anew the milk of the newly arrived physician, he thereupon examined the Shuowen to fix the characters, consulted the Rhyme Collections to establish the pronunciations, based most glosses on the Yupian, and relied on Sanskrit leaves to transmit Sanskrit words. Blending them into two fascicles of sounds and meanings to serve as a private record, to be reviewed at his desk and chest, he did not dare circulate it widely. If like-minded persons open and examine it, may they kindly refrain from sneering and ridicule.