翻譯名義集 1.220

1.220

[Guṇabhadra] In the Song [dynasty], this is translated as "Virtue-Excellence" (Gongdexian). A man of Central India. In his youth, he studied the five sciences and the treatises of the four Vedas. In disposition and character, he was intelligent and acute, his capacity all-embracing and vast. Later, he encountered the *Saṃyuktābhidharmahṛdaya*, and, finding its depths unfathomable, only then realised the sublimity and profundity of the Buddhadharma. Casting aside his hairpin and shaving his hair, he concentrated his efforts on his vocation and became widely versed in the Tripiṭaka. Compassionate, harmonious, respectful, and reverent, he served his masters with utmost propriety; abandoning the Small [Vehicle], he studied the Great, deeply awakening to its arcane purport. Emperor Wen of the Song decreed that he reside at the Jetavana Monastery. Liu Yixuan, the Prince of Nanjiao and Regional Inspector of Jingzhou, once invited him to lecture on the *Avataṃsaka-sūtra*. Bhadra felt ashamed that he was not yet skilled in the Song [Chinese] language; morning and evening he made prostrations and repentance, praying to Avalokiteśvara. Suddenly, he dreamed of a person in white robes bearing a sword, carrying a man's head, who came and said to Bhadra, "Why are you sorrowful?" Bhadra replied with his thoughts. The person answered, "You need not worry so much!" Thereupon, with the sword, he replaced Bhadra's head, setting on a new one. He asked, "Does it not hurt?" [Bhadra] answered, "It does not hurt." Once he awoke, his mind and spirit were joyful and elated; there upon taking up the lecture, his eloquence and commentary flowed like a stream. Later he returned to the capital at Yang[zhou], arriving just when the Emperor held a banquet where the princes and dukes were all assembled. The Emperor wished to test his quick-witted eloquence and see whether he understood human nature. Seeing his white hair, the Emperor said to him, "Master, today you have not betrayed the intention of having come from afar; other than this, what else do you know, when only one thing remains?" Bhadra immediately answered, "Yearning for your transformation, I came from afar, and have been graced by the Son of Heaven's favor for nearly thirty years; this year I am seventy-one, and only death remains." The Emperor was greatly pleased.