出三藏記集 14.8

14.8

曇無讖。中天竺人也。讖六歲遭父憂。隨母傭織。𣯾𣰆為業。見沙門達摩耶舍。齊言法明。道俗所宗。豐於利養。其母羨之。故以讖為其弟子。十歲與同學數人讀呪。聰敏出群。誦經日得萬餘言。初學小乘兼覽五明諸論。講說精辯莫能詶抗。後遇白頭禪師共讖論議。習業既異。交爭十旬。讖雖攻難鋒起。而禪師終不肯屈。讖服其精理。乃謂禪師曰。頗有經典可得見不。禪師即授以樹皮涅槃經本。讖尋讀驚悟。方自慚恨。以為坎井之識。久迷大方。於是集眾悔過。遂專業大乘。年二十誦大小乘經二百餘萬言。讖從兄善能調象騎。殺王所乘白耳大象。王怒誅之。今日。敢有視者夷三族。親屬莫敢往。讖哭而葬之。王怒欲誅讖。讖曰。王以法故殺之。我以親而葬之。並不違大義。何為見怒。傍人為之寒心。其神色自若。王奇其志氣。遂留供養。讖明解呪術。所向皆驗。西域號為大呪師。後隨王入山。王渴乏須水不能得。讖乃密呪石出水。因讚曰。大王惠澤所感。遂使枯石生泉。隣國聞者皆歎王德。于時雨澤甚調百姓稱詠。王悅其道術深加優寵。頃之王意稍歇。待之漸薄。讖怒曰。我當以甖水詣池呪龍入甖令天下大旱。王必請呪。然後放龍降雨則見待何如。遂持甖造龍。有密告之者。王怒捕讖。讖悔懼誅。乃齎大涅槃經本前分十二卷并菩薩戒經菩薩戒本奔龜茲。龜茲國多小乘學不信涅槃。遂至姑臧止於傳舍。慮失經本枕之而寢。有人牽之在地。讖驚覺謂是盜者。如此三夕。聞空中語曰。此如來解脫之藏。何以枕之。讖乃慚悟別置高處。夜有盜之者。舉不能勝。乃數過舉之。遂不能動。明旦讖持經去。不以為重。盜者見之謂是聖人。悉來拜謝。河西王沮渠蒙遜。聞讖名呼與相見。接待甚厚。蒙遜素奉大法志在弘通。請令出其經本。讖以未參土言。又無傳譯。恐言舛於理不許。於是學語三年。翻為漢言。方共譯寫。是時沙門慧嵩道朗。獨步河西。值其宣出法藏。深相推重。轉易梵文。嵩公筆受。道俗數百人疑難縱橫。讖臨機釋滯。未常留礙。嵩朗等更請廣出餘經。次譯大集大雲大虛空藏海龍王金光明悲華優婆塞戒菩薩地持。并前所出菩薩戒經菩薩戒本。垂二十部。讖以涅槃經本品數未足。還國尋求。值其母亡。遂留歲餘。後於于闐更得經本。復還姑臧譯之。續為三十六卷焉。讖常告蒙遜云。有鬼入聚落。必多災疾。遜不信欲躬見為驗。讖即以術加遜。遜見而駭怖讖曰。宜潔誠齋戒。神呪驅之。乃讀呪三日。謂遜曰。鬼北去矣。既而北境之外疾死萬數。遜益敬憚。禮遇彌崇。會魏虜主託跋燾。聞其道術遣。使迎請。且告遜曰。若不遣讖便即加兵。遜自揆國弱難以拒命。兼慮讖多術。或為魏謀已。進退惶惑。乃密令除之。初讖譯出涅槃。卷數已定。而外國沙門曇無發云。此經品未盡。讖常慨然。誓必重尋。蒙遜因其行志乃偽資發遣。厚贈寶貨。未發數日。乃流涕告眾曰讖業對將至。眾聖不能救矣。以本有心誓義不容停。行四十里。遜密遣刺客害之。時年四十九。眾咸慟惜焉。後道場寺慧觀志欲重求後品。以高昌沙門道普常遊外國善能胡書解六國語。宋元嘉中。啟文帝資遣道普將書吏十人西行尋經。至長廣郡舶破傷足。因疾遂卒。普臨終歎曰。涅槃後分與宋地無緣矣。

Dharmakṣema was a native of Central India. When he was six years old, his father died, and he accompanied his mother in hired weaving, making fine woollen rugs for a living. Seeing the śramaṇa Dharmayaśas—translated into the language of Qi as Faming ('Dharma Brightness')—who was revered by both clergy and laity and received bountiful offerings, his mother envied this and thus made Dharmakṣema his disciple. At the age of ten, chanting dhāraṇīs with several fellow students, his sharp intellect stood out from the crowd, and he could recite over ten thousand words of sūtras each day. At first he studied the Hīnayāna while also reading the treatises on the five sciences; when he lectured, his discernment and eloquence were such that no one could match him. Later, he met a white-haired meditation master and debated with him. As their areas of study differed, they contested for a hundred days. Although Dharmakṣema's attacks and challenges arose like sharp spearheads, the meditation master never yielded. Admiring his profound principles, Dharmakṣema said to the meditation master: 'Might there be any scriptures that I could see?' The meditation master immediately handed him a birch-bark manuscript of the Mahāparinirvāṇa-sūtra. As Dharmakṣema read it through, he was startled into awakening, and felt deeply ashamed, considering his former knowledge like that of a frog in a well, having long strayed from the great expanse. Thereupon he gathered the assembly to confess his faults, and devoted himself exclusively to the Mahāyāna. At twenty, he had recited over two million words of both Mahāyāna and Hīnayāna sūtras. Dharmakṣema's cousin was skilled in training and riding elephants, but he killed the white-eared great elephant ridden by the king. Enraged, the king executed him and issued an order: 'Whoever dares look upon his corpse shall have their three clans wiped out.' None of his relatives dared approach, but Dharmakṣema wept and buried him. Enraged, the king wished to execute Dharmakṣema, but he said: 'Your Majesty executed him according to the law; I buried him out of kinship. Neither violates great righteousness; why should you be angry?' The bystanders were chilled with fear on his behalf, but his countenance was composed. The king marvelled at his resolve and kept him to receive offerings. Dharmakṣema was well versed in dhāraṇī arts, and all his rituals proved efficacious; in the Western Regions he was called the Great Master of Dhāraṇī. Later, accompanying the king into the mountains, the king grew parched and needed water but could find none. Dharmakṣema secretly empowered a stone with incantations to produce water, and praised the king, saying: 'It is the response to Your Great Majesty's beneficent grace that has caused a dry rock to spring forth a stream.' Neighbouring states hearing of this all praised the king's virtue. At that time seasonal rains were harmonious, and the common people sang praises. The king was delighted with his magical arts and treated him with exceptional favour. After a while the king's favour began to wane, and he treated him more coldly. Dharmakṣema was angered and said: 'I shall take a jar of water to the pool, chant incantations to force the dragon into the jar, and cause a great drought throughout the land. The king will surely beg me to chant incantations; only then will I release the dragon to bring rain, and see how he treats me then.' He thereupon took the jar and approached the dragon. Someone secretly informed on him, and the king angrily set out to arrest him. Fearing execution, Dharmakṣema repented and, carrying the twelve fascicles of the first part of the Mahāparinirvāṇa-sūtra manuscript along with the Bodhisattva-prātimokṣa-sūtra and the Bodhisattva-śīla text, fled to Kucha. Most in Kucha studied the Hīnayāna and did not believe in the Nirvāṇa[-sūtra]. He therefore went to Guzang and stayed in a courier station. Fearing he might lose the sūtra text, he used it as a pillow while sleeping. Someone pulled him down to the floor; Dharmakṣema woke with a start, thinking it was a thief. After this happened for three nights, he heard a voice in the sky say: 'This is the Tathāgata's treasury of liberation; why do you use it as a pillow?' Dharmakṣema was ashamed and awakened to his error, placing it separately in a high spot. At night a thief came to steal it, but could not lift it; though he tried to lift it multiple times, it would not budge. The next morning Dharmakṣema took the sūtra and walked away without finding it heavy at all. The thief saw this, considered him a holy person, and came to bow and apologise. Juqu Mengxun, King of Hexi, heard of Dharmakṣema's fame and summoned him to meet, receiving him with great generosity. Mengxun had long venerated the Great Dharma and aspired to propagate it; he requested that Dharmakṣema translate the scriptural text. Dharmakṣema, considering that he was not yet versed in the local language and lacked interpreters, feared that the phrasing would clash with the principles, and refused. He then spent three years studying the language, translating it into Chinese, and only then began translation and transcription. At that time, the śramaṇas Huisong and Daolang were peerless in Hexi. Encountering his propagation of the Dharma treasury, they held him in great esteem. Dharmakṣema rendered the Sanskrit text, while Master Song acted as scribe. Monastics and laypeople numbered in the hundreds, posing doubts and difficulties from all sides, but Dharmakṣema resolved the sticking points on the spot without ever being hindered. Song, Lang, and others further requested that he translate other sūtras extensively; he went on to translate the Mahāsaṃnipāta, Mahāmegha, Mahākāśagarbha, Sāgaranāgarāja, Suvarṇaprabhāsa, Karuṇāpuṇḍarīka, Upāsaka-śīla, and Bodhisattvabhūmi-dhāra, together with the previously translated Bodhisattva-prātimokṣa-sūtra and Bodhisattva-śīla text, nearly twenty works in all. As the chapters of the Nirvāṇa-sūtra text were not yet complete, Dharmakṣema returned to his native land to seek them out. Finding that his mother had died, he stayed for over a year. Later he obtained more manuscript chapters in Khotan, returned to Guzang, and translated them, expanding the work to thirty-six fascicles. Dharmakṣema once told Mengxun: 'Ghosts have entered the settlements; there will surely be many calamities and illnesses.' Mengxun did not believe it and wished to see for himself as proof. Dharmakṣema immediately applied his arts to Mengxun, who saw them and was terrified. Dharmakṣema said: 'You should purify your sincerity through fasting and precepts, and expel them with divine dhāraṇīs.' He recited incantations for three days and then told Mengxun: 'The ghosts have departed to the north.' Soon after, beyond the northern borders, those who died of illness numbered in the tens of thousands. Mengxun grew even more fearful and reverent, treating him with even higher respect. It happened that the ruler of the Northern Wei, Tuoba Tao, heard of his magical arts and sent an envoy to invite him, while also warning Mengxun: 'If you do not send Dharmakṣema, we will immediately send our armies.' Mengxun assessed that his own state was weak and could hardly resist the order; moreover, he feared that Dharmakṣema, possessing many arts, might scheme against him on behalf of the Wei. Anxious and undecided between advancing and retreating, he secretly ordered him assassinated. Earlier, when Dharmakṣema translated the Nirvāṇa-sūtra and the number of fascicles was fixed, the foreign śramaṇa Dharmottara had said: 'The chapters of this sūtra are not yet exhausted.' Dharmakṣema was often filled with deep regret and vowed that he would seek them again. Mengxun took advantage of this wish to travel, feigning support for his departure and bestowing lavish gifts of precious treasures. A few days before setting out, Dharmakṣema wept and told the assembly: 'The retributive karmic debt of Dharmakṣema is about to arrive, and all the sages cannot save me. Yet because of my original heartfelt vow, righteousness allows no delay.' After he had travelled forty li, Mengxun secretly sent assassins to murder him, at the age of forty-nine. The assembly all grieved with profound regret. Later, Huiguan of Daochang Monastery wished to seek the remaining chapters again; because the śramaṇa Daopu of Gaochang frequently travelled to foreign regions, was skilled in Hu script, and understood the languages of six countries, during the Yuanjia era of the Song dynasty, Huiguan petitioned Emperor Wen to fund and dispatch Daopu, leading ten scribes on a journey west to seek the sūtras. When they reached Changguang Commandery, the ship wrecked and injured his foot, and he died of illness. On his deathbed, Pu sighed and said: 'The latter portion of the Nirvāṇa[-sūtra] has no affinity with the land of the Song.'