出三藏記集 11.5

11.5

The *Mūlamadhyamakakārikā* has five hundred verses; it was composed by Bodhisattva Nāgārjuna. It is named 'Middle' to illuminate its reality; it is termed 'Treatise' to exhaust its words. Reality cannot be comprehended without a name; therefore, it relies on 'the Middle' to proclaim it. Words cannot be fully grasped without explanation; therefore, it borrows 'Treatise' to clarify it. Once its reality is proclaimed and its words are clarified, then with regard to the bodhisattva's practice and the illumination at the site of enlightenment (bodhimaṇḍa), there is a clear and profound liberation.

Now, lingering delusions arise from inverted views, and the three realms sink and drown on their account; one-sided awakenings stem from averse knowledge, and uncompromising minds lead to estrangement on their account. Hence we know that great awakening lies in vast illumination, while small wisdom is tangled in a narrow heart. If illumination is not vast, it is insufficient to level existence and non-existence and unify the sacred and the conventional. If knowledge is not exhaustive, one cannot traverse the middle path and obliterate the two extremes. That the sacred and conventional are not leveled and the two extremes are not obliterated is the grief of the bodhisattva. Therefore, the great master Nāgārjuna broke through them with the Middle Way, causing those in deluded realms to gaze upon the dark purport and immediately transform; he pacified them with immediate transformation, causing visitors of profound awakening to lose their questions upon the dawn of breakthrough. Vast and boundless! He can truly be said to have leveled the road of principle upon the ethereal steps, opened the dark gate within the cosmos, fanned the wind of wisdom upon dry decay, and poured the sweet dew (amṛta) upon the withered and parched.

Now, when a structure of a hundred beams rises, one disdains the cramped meanness of a thatched hut; beholding the vast expanse of this treatise, one recognizes the vulgarity and baseness of one-sided awakenings. How fortunate that this small realm of China should suddenly be able to move Vulture Peak to serve as a bulwark! The coarse inclinations of this frontier region have thus received the lingering grace of this flowing light. From now on, worthy men who discuss the Way can at last converse about the real with it.

It is said that in the various kingdoms of India, all who dared venture into the ranks of scholars relished this treatise and treated it as vital. Those who dipped their brushes to set forth explanations were also quite numerous. What was translated here is the commentary of the Indian brāhmaṇa named Piṅgala, which means 'Blue Eyes' in the Qin language. Although this man had faith in and understanding of the profound Dharma, his phrasing was not elegant or balanced. Where it was incongruous, deficient, cumbersome, or repetitive, the Dharma Master [Kumārajīva] trimmed and supplemented it, so that the principle running through the scriptures was fully brought out; yet the style was occasionally uneven and not entirely perfected. The *Śataśāstra* deals with the external to ward off heresy; this text dispels the internal to wash away stagnation. The *Mahāprajñāpāramitopadeśa* is profound and extensive; the contemplation of the *Dvādaśamukhaśāstra* reaches the core of the matter. If one investigates these four, it is truly like the sun and moon entering one's breast: there is nothing that is not brightly mirrored and thoroughly understood. I savored and relished it, unable to put it down; thus, forgetting my own vulgar clumsiness, I entrusted my awakened feelings to a preface, and also listed the chapter meanings and placed them at the head. How could I expect to be capable of explaining it? It is merely out of a desire to rejoice in finding my own mind in accord with it.