出三藏記集 11.8

11.8

Now, the myriad transformations are not without a source, yet that which sources them is without mark. The empty source is not without an accordance, yet that which accords with it is without mind. Therefore, the consummate person, by means of the wondrous wisdom of no-mind, accords with that empty source of no-mark. Inner and outer are both obscured; conditions and cognition are alike quiescent. How could names and numbers find room therein? Yet, as the substance of those who aspire to the profound must have a course whereby to proceed, without names there is no means to grasp the numbers, and without numbers there is no means to model the source. Thus names were established to name it, and numbers were instituted to discriminate it. This being so, the arising of names and numbers arises from entanglements whereby one may approach the utmost, yet they are not the utmost itself. If indeed they are not the utmost, what permanence could they possess? For this reason, when the Tathāgata first attained true awakening, responding to beings and receiving the coarse, he opened it to them with existence; later, for the sake of the Great Vehicle, he taught the dharmas of emptiness. The teachings suited the occasions, and what was realized was non-dual. Coming down to the final age within the semblance teaching, people's faculties became superficial and their understanding of the Way grew dim. They ultimately discarded the fish and kept the trap, preserved the finger and forgot the moon: beholding the teaching of emptiness, they immediately claimed that sin and merit are both extinguished; hearing the explanation of marks, they immediately took them to be real. This caused existence and non-existence to arise in conflict, and arising and ceasing to contend by turns, so that the various extremes of annihilation and permanence sprang up in turmoil. At that time there was a great being whose name was Nāgārjuna. Entrusting himself to the ocean palace, he attained the forbearance of the non-arising of dharmas. Intent on aiding the ancestral teaching and uplifting the bequeathed doctrine, he composed a treatise to determine the mean. As for his intention in establishing the treatise, there is no word it does not probe to the limit, and no dharma it does not exhaust. Yet gathering its essential import, it synthesizes the two truths: because of the ultimate truth, there is no existence; because of the conventional truth, there is no non-existence. Because it is ultimate, there is no existence—hence though non-existent, it exists; because it is conventional, there is no non-existence—hence though existent, it is non-existent. Though existent, it is non-existent, and thus not entangled in existence; though non-existent, it exists, and thus not stranded in non-existence. Not stranded in non-existence, views of annihilation cease; not abiding in existence, permanence and the like melt away like ice. Quieting these various extremes—therefore it is named "Middle". Analyzing the subtle through questions and answers—this is why it is called a "treatise". Such was the overarching intent of the author. It is also called "Madhyamaka-darśana" (Middle Contemplation), merely because contemplation is discerned in the mind, while treatise is proclaimed by the mouth. (Master Kumārajīva produced it at the Great Monastery in the eleventh year of the Hongshi era of the Qin).