出三藏記集 9.42

9.42

阿鋡暮者秦言趣無也。阿難既出十二部經。又採撮其要逕至道法。為四阿鋡暮與阿毘曇及律並為三藏焉。身毒學士以為至德未墜於地也。有阿羅漢。名婆素跋陀。抄其膏腴以為一部。九品四十六葉。斥重去復文約義豐。真可謂經之瓔鬘也。百行美妙辨是與非。莫不悉載也。優奧深富行之能事畢矣。有外國沙門。字因提麗。先齎詣前部國。祕之佩身不以示人。其王彌第求得諷之。遂得布此。余以壬午之歲八月。東省先師寺廟。於鄴寺令鳩摩羅佛提執胡本。佛念佛護為譯。僧導曇究僧叡筆受。至冬十一月乃訖。此歲夏出阿毘曇。冬出此經。一年之中。具二藏也。深以自幸。但恨八九之年始遇斯經。恐韋編未絕不終其業耳。若加數年將無大過也。近勅譯人直令轉胡為秦。解方言而已。經之文質所不敢易也。又有懸數懸事。皆訪其人為注其下。時復以意消息者為章。章注修妬路者。其人注解別經本也。其有直言修妬路者。引經證非注解也。

'Āgama-artha' in the language of Qin means 'tending toward nothingness'. After Ānanda recited the twelve divisions of scripture, he also extracted their essentials, which directly lead to the Dharma of the Way, making the Catur-āgama-artha, which, together with the Abhidharma and Vinaya, formed the tripiṭaka. Scholars of Shendu considered that the supreme virtue had not yet fallen to the ground. There was an arhat named Vasubhadra, who excerpted its essence to form a single text in nine chapters and forty-six folios, cutting out redundancies and eliminating repetitions, with concise text and abundant meaning; it may truly be called the garland of the scriptures. Excellent in the hundred practices, distinguishing right from wrong, there is nothing it does not record. Deep and rich, the mastery of practice is exhausted in it. There was a foreign śramaṇa styled Yintili, who had previously brought it to the Nearer Division [of Jushi], keeping it secret on his person and not showing it to others. Its king, Midi, sought to obtain it and recite it, and so it was able to be circulated. In the eighth month of the renwu year, traveling east to visit the monastery of my late master, in the Ye monastery I had Kumārabodhi hold the Hu text, Zhu Fonian and Fohu translate, and Sengdao, Tanjui, and Sengrui serve as scribal recorders; it was completed by the eleventh month in the winter. In the summer of this year, the Abhidharma was produced, and in the winter, this sūtra was produced; within a single year, two piṭakas were fully obtained. I consider myself deeply fortunate, but I only regret that it was not until my eighty-ninth year that I encountered this scripture; I fear the leather thongs will snap before I can complete the task. If a few more years were granted, there would perhaps be no great error. Recently, I instructed the translators merely to turn Hu into Qin, explaining the regional languages and nothing more; the literary ornamentation and plainness of the sūtra were not something I dared to alter. Furthermore, wherever there were uncertain numbers or uncertain matters, I consulted that person and annotated them below. Where my own understanding occasionally provided clarification, I made it an exposition. Where the exposition notes 'sūtra' [xiuduolu], that person was commenting on another scriptural text. Where it directly says 'sūtra' [xiuduolu], it cites a sūtra to verify, not as an explanatory note.