翻譯名義集 1.233

1.233

[Xuanzang] A native of Luoyang in Henan, his secular surname was Chen; he was a descendant of Chen Zhonggong of Yingchuan. At the age of riding dove-carts, he had his hair shaved; at the years of bamboo-hobbyhorses, he penetrated the profound. His walls and parapets towered into the clouds, his demeanor like the bright moon; the eminent and virtuous of the capitals and of Luoyang all esteemed his capacity. Once his full ordination was completed, he devoted himself especially to the Vinaya; his deportment was auspicious and virtuous, a wondrous standard and exemplar for all. He examined the snares and traps of the Nine Hills, and explored the arcane purport of the Eight Canons. He constantly lamented that the teachings lacked transmitting masters, and that principles were obscured by translators, causing the wish-fulfilling jewel to be incomplete, and the Snowy Mountain stanza to remain half-untold. Thereupon, taking up his staff and wrapping his feet, he walked perils as if smooth ground; once he reached the realm of Brahmā, his inquiries and deliberations were untiring. In the scriptures of the five sciences and the four Āgamas, the snares of the three pitakas and twelve divisions, the sounds of the seven cases and eight declensions, the phrases of the three tones and six compounds, he exhausted all their subtleties, fully fathoming their wonders. The Dharma Master discussed and debated for seventeen years, traveling through over a hundred kingdoms. In the nineteenth year of Zhenguan, he turned his reins back to the supreme capital, and was ordered to translate at the Hongfu Monastery. Most of the above is drawn from the Dharma Master Jingmai's *Yijing tu ji*.