一切經音義 25.6

25.6

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.