翻譯名義集 1.196

1.196

【Dharmakāla】Rendered here as ‘Time of Dharma’. A native of India. In his youth he was talented and perceptive, with a grand and imposing physical appearance. He was skilled in the four Vedas and adept in the treatises on the five sciences. There was nothing of divination charts and seasonal changes that he did not encompass. He considered that in this world, none surpassed himself. He once entered a saṅghārāma and happened to see the Abhidharma of Dharmaratna; studying it attentively, he could not comprehend its purport. He then sighed deeply, saying: ‘The Buddha's Dharma plumbs the profound!’ Thereupon he went forth, recited the scriptures of the Mahāyāna and Hīnayāna, and traveled to convert people in Xu and Luo. The Shichao states: ‘From the initial night dream of Emperor Ming of the Han and the transmission of the Dharma by Kāśyapa and Dharmaratna down to the beginning of Cao Wei, the Saṅgha was very prosperous, but they had not yet received the refuges and precepts; they merely distinguished themselves from common customs by shaving their hair. Even when holding vegetarian fasts and repentances, these resembled ancestral sacrifices. Later, Dharmakāla of Central India, who had memorized the vinayas of the various schools, arrived in Luoyang during the Jiaping era of Wei. He established the karmavācanā ordination rites, which was the beginning of the vinaya precepts in the central realm. Employing the standard of ten monks, the Buddha's Dharma flourished greatly, correcting prior improper customs; he produced the Saṅghika-prātimokṣa. There was also the Śramaṇa Dharmasatya of the Parthian kingdom, who was likewise skilled in the study of vinaya and produced the Dharmaguptaka-karmavācanā, which was the beginning of full ordination for monks.’