出三藏記集 12.12

12.12

Now, the accord of the five periods and nine divisions, the crucial juncture of the three requests and the four scrolls—profound indeed, and remote! Their subtlety cannot be deliberated. Yet the ocean of the Dharma is boundless, and sailing it, few comprehend its vastness; the treasury of wisdom is limitless, and mining it, one gains its jewels. Therefore, persons of great vows weigh and adapt according to the times: Aśvaghoṣa extracted its hidden principles, Nāgārjuna revived its severed lineage, Āryadeva analyzed its technical categories, and Harivarman synthesized its system. Together they assisted and extolled the wonderful scriptures, took captive and cut down non-Buddhist teachings, so that those in the bewildered ford perceived the thoroughfare, and the long night met the dawn. Thus the sun of wisdom made its name fly in crushing heterodoxy, and the moon of merit soared in its achievements in expounding transformation—truly magnificent indeed! Yet living beings are of differing capacities, their faculties and powers of distinct grades. In the decadent final age the Way is debased, faith is feeble, and discernment shallow. When it comes to opening the eyes of the blind and unstopping the ears of the deaf, the task relies on earnest exhortation; treating foolishness and needling delusion require dealing with what is immediate. Therefore, in later generations, the exposition of instruction has differed in being manifest or obscure: some speak aloud for broad understanding, while others pull the ear for direct instruction. The unfolding and rolling up of doctrinal teachings, the raising and lowering of exemplary standards—how could they be rigidly bound to fixed rules? Their aim is simply to awaken the worldly. Prince Wenxuan of Jingling, Grand Preceptor of the Qi, sprouted the causes in a pure land and manifested the fruits in this realm of endurance. His wisdom was endowed by Heaven; his embodiment of the Way appeared right on time. In the depth of his filial piety, loyalty, pure harmony, and the richness of his benevolence, wisdom, and universal love, he reached the utmost by following his nature and arrived at perfection through his heart. As for setting his spirit upon the two truths and settling his endeavors in the Three Jewels, looking forward he stood preeminent, looking backward he was peerless. Thereby he could humble the dignity of an imperial prince, make brilliant the discipline of a pure land, dismiss the nobility of vermilion towers, and lower himself to the courtesy due to a simple cottage. He wore down his heels to save the world, and etched his marrow in devotion to the Way. Looking toward billions of kalpas he galloped far ahead, soaring above a thousand years alone to ascend. As for expounding the sūtras and vinaya, propagating merit and giving, relieving the multitude of common people, and caring for flying and crawling insects, never did he fail to ponder deeply and ceaselessly, with his bright compassion extending to the great and the minute. He sensed spiritual portents in the manifest and the subtle, and communicated with awakened responses in the night dreams. Truly, his reputation among the people was lush and flourishing, and his understanding was brilliantly heard by the spirits. Furthermore, encompassing Confucian instructions and thoroughly penetrating Buddhist scriptures, he embraced both emptiness and existence, and illumined both the internal and external. He ever wished to broaden that isle of refuges and brighten this lamp of the Dharma, calming the waves of the four modes of birth and illuminating the foggy haze of the nine abodes, pointing toward the future limit as his appointed time and shouldering the trichiliocosm as his responsibility. Therefore, with commiseration he bestowed teachings, and with earnest devotion expounded the Way. Thereupon, keen in reflections that reached the clouds, vigorous in compositions that talked of Heaven, he encompassed the syllable-wheels and took the Dharma seal as his model. Thus, with his *Jingzhuzi* he established his lineage and opened the gate to entering the Way; with the *Huayan yingluo* he marked the method of world-transcendence; with the *Jueding yaoxing* he advanced toward the adamantine; and with the *Jieguo zhuangyan* he brought the ambrosia to fruition. Furthermore, his commentaries on various sūtras, his eulogies for Dharma stūpas, his monastic regulations and pharmaceutical records, and his introductory texts and vow petitions—in all of them, sincerity preceded words, and principle emerged beyond expression. The greater probed the deep and sounded the hidden; the lesser gave rein to eloquence to move the worldly. Richly they formed chapters and sections, proliferating into scrolls and cases. He may indeed be called a great being whose mind abode in the bodhimaṇḍa from his very first steps, crowning his era with wondrous transformation and handing down an exquisite model for a thousand generations. In the past, through Dharma conditions, I, Sengyou, had the fortune to take part in these auspicious gatherings; entrusted with the vinaya as a Dharma emissary, I undeservedly bore his confidence. In fasting halls and at Fan assemblies, he often favored me with invitations. Although the wise master has passed away, his mind for the Way has not perished. Quietly seeking his surviving writings, he seems vividly present. Thereupon I have prefaced this catalogue of the collection, so as to transmit it to future generations.