出三藏記集 13.12

13.12

Zhu Shixing was a man of Yingchuan. His aspirational practice was pure and refined, his spirit and tone clear and resolute; he was firm, upright, square, and honest, and neither encouragement nor dissuasion could move him. In his youth, he harboured farsighted understanding and cast off worldly dust. After leaving home [to become a monk], he took the great Dharma as his own responsibility. He often said that entering the path relies on wisdom, and therefore devoted himself exclusively to the sūtras. Formerly, the Indian Zhu Shuofo, during the reign of Emperor Ling of the Han, brought out the Daoxing jing; the translator transmitted it orally, and if he did not understand something, he would readily abbreviate and pass over it; therefore, the meaning had considerable obstruction between beginning and end. Shixing often lectured on the Xiaopin in Luoyang, frequently finding it blocked; he always sighed that this scripture was the essential core of the Mahāyāna, yet its translation did not exhaust the principles. He pledged to sacrifice his life to go far away and welcome the Dapin. Thereupon, in the fifth year of the Ganlu reign era of the Wei, he set out from Yongzhou and crossed the flowing sands to the west. Having arrived in Khotan, he indeed obtained and copied a Sanskrit text of the authentic chapter, an Indian manuscript of ninety chapters and over six hundred thousand words. He sent his disciple Ruhutan—in Jin speech, Farao—together with ten others, to escort the Indian manuscript of the sūtra back to Luoyang. Before they set out, the Hīnayāna community of Khotan reported to the king, saying: 'The śramaṇa of the Han land wishes to use brāhmaṇa books to confuse and disrupt the authentic canonical texts. You, Great King, are the master of the land; if you do not forbid it, you will cut off the great Dharma and blind and deafen the Han land, which will be the fault of the King.' The king thereupon did not permit them to take the scripture away. Indignant and sorrowful, Shixing asked to burn the scripture as proof. The king wished to test it, so he piled firewood in the palace courtyard and burned it with fire. Standing before the steps, Shixing made a vow, saying: 'If the great Dharma should spread to the Han land, the scripture shall not burn; if there is no response, what is there to say of my fate?' Having spoken, he cast the scripture into the flames; the fire was immediately extinguished, not harming a single word, and the bark and boards were just as before. The great assembly was awe-struck and convinced, praising his spiritual resonance. Thus they were able to deliver it to Cangheng Shuinan Temple in Chenliu. The layman Zhu Shulan of Henan, who was skilled in regional tongues, translated it as the Fangguang jing in twenty fascicles. Shixing died at the age of eighty. According to the Western practice of jhāvita, when the firewood was exhausted and the fire extinguished, his corpse remained entirely intact. The assembly were all startled and amazed, so they chanted an incantation, saying: 'If he truly attained the Dharma of the path, it ought to be destroyed.' At the sound [of the words], it broke apart and scattered. They then collected his bones and erected a stupa.