出三藏記集 14.12

14.12

Guṇavarman, rendered in Qi as Gongde'ai ("Armor of Merit"), was an offshoot of the royal house of Kapiśa. At the age of fifteen, Guṇavarman renounced the household to become a śrāmaṇera. The elder monks, seeing his brilliant discernment, all respected and marveled at him. By nature benevolent, compassionate, humble, and respectful, he was thoroughly sincere. Upon receiving full ordination, he recited over a million words of sūtras and understood the vinaya chapters deeply. Having fully mastered the three baskets, he was named after the Tripiṭaka. When he reached thirty years of age, the King of Kapiśa passed away without an heir. Because of his royal lineage, the people deliberated on installing him as king. Fearing that he would be pressed and urged, Guṇavarman traveled far to the Lion Country (Siṃhala) to observe local customs and propagate the teaching. The assembly of those who recognized the truth all stated that he had already attained the first fruit (srotāpanna). Later he arrived at the Shepo (Java) kingdom in the Southern Sea, where he enlightened those steeped in false delusion, extending his transformation beyond the seas. The King of Shepo built a monastery for him and served him with the rites due to a teacher. The mountains harbored many fierce beasts that repeatedly harmed the inhabitants. Guṇavarman requested to move his dwelling there, whereupon the tigers and leopards in the mountains grew tame and their violent attacks ceased. Emperor Wen of Song heard of his reputation from afar and decreed that envoys from Jiaozhou be dispatched to invite him in accordance with the imperial will. Renowned monks of the capital such as Huiyan and Huiguan sent letters to express their devotion, and also sent a letter to the king earnestly requesting him to allow Guṇavarman to propagate the Dharma. Shepo revered him as National Preceptor and for a long time would not let him go. Guṇavarman's intention was to travel to the region south of the Yangtze, and he refused to stay indefinitely. In the first month of the eighth year of the Yuanjia era, he arrived at the capital and stayed at Zhihuan (Jetavana) Monastery. Emperor Wen granted him an audience, inquired after his welfare, and repeatedly offered provisions and gifts. Soon after, he translated various sūtras at Zhihuan Monastery: the Bodhisattvabhūmi, the Dharmaguptaka Karman, the Brief Treatise on the Five Precepts of an Upāsaka, the Threefold Refuge, and the Twenty-Two Precepts of an Upāsaka. Earlier, in the third year of the Yuanjia era, Wang Zhongde, the Regional Inspector of Xuzhou, had invited the foreign śramaṇa Īśvara at Pengcheng to translate the Za xin (Saṃyuktābhidharmahṛdaya), but he stopped before completing the "Chapter on Selection" due to obstructing circumstances. Now Guṇavarman was invited again to re-collate and correct the wording and meaning in the monastery. As he propagated the Way and proclaimed the Dharma, people from near and far turned to him, and nobility and commoners came in succession with carriages to pay their respects. On the twenty-eighth day of the ninth month of that year, after finishing his midday meal, before the recitation of following one's pleasure was performed, he rose first and returned to his chamber. When his disciples arrived shortly after, he had already passed away peacefully at the age of sixty-five. Before his passing, he had composed in advance thirty-six lines of testament verses, recounting his karmic conditions and stating that he had already realized the second fruit (sakṛdāgāmin); he had sealed them under his mat, and no one knew of them until after his death. He was supported in a seated posture on a rope bed; his countenance did not change, appearing as if he were entering samādhi. Over a thousand monks and laypeople gathered, all smelling an extraordinary, fragrant scent. Everyone saw an object shaped like a dragon or snake, about one bolt in length, rise from beside the corpse and shoot straight into the sky, without anyone being able to name it. In front of the ordination platform of Nanlin, they held the cremation rites according to the foreign jhapita (cremation) method, attended by over ten thousand people. Music, banners, and flowers gathered from all four quarters like clouds. A pyre of fragrant firewood was built, and monks and laypeople who arrived stood shoulder to shoulder pouring fragrant oil on it. When ignited, five-colored flames arose. At that time the sky was clear and bright, and monks and laypeople lamented in grief. A white stūpa was subsequently erected at that site.