出三藏記集 14.4

14.4

Kumārajīva, translated in Chinese as Tongshou ('Youth of Long Life'), was a native of Tianzhu. His family had for generations served as state chancellors. Jīva's grandfather, Datta, was distinguished and unconventional, his renown great throughout the kingdom. His father, Kumārāyana, possessed bright intelligence and admirable virtue; when he was about to inherit the position of chancellor, he resigned, renounced worldly life, and went east across the Congling mountains. When the King of Kucha heard that he had cast aside glory, he held him in deep veneration and went out in person to the suburbs to welcome him, appointing him Preceptor of the State. The King had a younger sister, just twenty years of age, whose natural discernment was bright and quick: what passed before her eyes she could invariably master, and hearing something once she could recite it; furthermore, she had a red birthmark on her body indicating that according to the portents she would bear a wise son. Although various kingdoms sought her in marriage, none succeeded, but upon seeing [Kumār]āyana her heart wished to wed him. Hearing of this, the King was overjoyed and pressured Āyana into making her his wife; she subsequently gave birth to Jīva. While Jīva was in the womb, his mother's understanding and insight doubled what was ordinary. When she went to the Great Cakaraka Monastery to hear the sūtras, she suddenly was able of her own accord to speak the language of Tianzhu, at which everyone marveled in astonishment. An arhat named Dharmaghoṣa said, 'She must certainly be carrying a wise child,' citing for them the precedent of Śāriputra while in the womb. Soon afterwards she gave birth to Jīva, whose precocious brilliance seemed divine. After Jīva was born, she again forgot that foreign tongue. Shortly afterwards, his mother went forth to cultivate the Way, studying and attaining the first fruit. When Jīva was seven years old, he likewise went forth. Receiving sūtras from his teacher, his oral recitation each day achieved a thousand verses; each verse had thirty-two syllables, making thirty-two thousand words in total. Having completed his recitation of the Abhidharma, when his teacher imparted its meanings he grasped and penetrated them of his own accord, leaving nothing subtle uncomprehended. At that time, because his mother was a king's daughter, the people of the kingdom of Kucha provided exceedingly abundant offerings; she thereupon took Jīva away to avoid this. When Jīva was nine years old, he traveled onward to Kapiśa, where he met the monk Bandhudatta, a master of famed virtue who was the cousin of the King of Kapiśa. Profound, refined, and magnanimous, he comprehended the Tripiṭaka and the nine divisions of scriptures as though threading them on a cord; he too could recite a thousand verses a day, his name spreading among various kingdoms. Having arrived, Jīva served him as his master, reciting the miscellaneous collections, the Madhyama-āgama, and the Dīrgha-āgama, totaling four million words. Whenever Bandhudatta debated with Jīva, he deeply admired and yielded to him. Jīva's reputation reached the King, who promptly invited him into the palace and assembled non-Buddhist debate masters to engage him in mutual disputation. When the exchange of words first began, the non-Buddhists made light of his youth and spoke rather rudely, but Jīva seized upon their flaws and defeated them; the non-Buddhists conceded defeat, ashamed and regretful, left speechless. The King respected and marveled at him all the more, providing him each day with a pair of dried geese, three sheng each of nonglutinous rice and wheat flour, and six sheng of clarified butter—these being the finest offerings of foreign lands. The monks of the monastery where he stayed assigned five fully ordained monks and ten śrāmaṇeras to look after, attend to, and sweep for him, just as though they were disciples; such was the reverence and veneration shown to him. By the time he reached the age of twelve, his mother took him back to Kucha. Arriving at the northern mountains of the Yuezhi, there was an arhat who saw him, marvelled at him, and said to his mother, 'You should constantly guard and protect this śrāmaṇera. If he reaches the age of thirty-five without breaking the precepts, he will greatly propagate the Buddha-Dharma and deliver countless beings, no different from Upagupta. If his precepts are not kept whole, he will be capable of nothing [more], remaining merely a Dharma master of talent, intelligence, and fine skill.' Jīva proceeded onward to the kingdom of Kashgar. Carrying the Buddha's alms-bowl upon his head, he thought to himself, 'The shape of this bowl is exceedingly large; why is it so light?' Thereupon it became overwhelmingly heavy, and crying out in astonishment he set it down. When his mother asked the reason, he answered, 'My mind gave rise to conceptual differentiation; thus the bowl had light and heavy.' In the kingdom of Kashgar, Jīva recited the six sections of the Abhidharma, the various topics, and the Ekottarika-āgama. When he returned to Kucha, his fame covered all the kingdoms. At that time the community of monks in Kucha numbered over ten thousand; suspecting that he was no ordinary man, all of them deferred to and revered him, none daring to take a seat above him; for this reason he did not participate in the regular order for burning incense. He thereupon read widely in the four Vedas, the treatises of the five sciences, and the scriptures, books, yinyang, and astrology of non-Buddhists, examining and thoroughly understanding them all. He possessed an exquisite penetration of good and bad fortune, his prognostications matching like the two halves of a tally. By nature he was candid, uninhibited, and did not discipline himself in minor restraints, on account of which practitioners of cultivation often criticized him. Jīva remained content within his own mind, never slackening in purpose. Later he studied the Daśādhyāya-vinaya under Vimalākṣa, and also inquired into the Mahāyāna under Sūryasoma, exclaiming, 'Formerly when I studied the Hīnayāna, it was like a person who did not recognize gold and took brass to be wondrous!' Thereupon he broadly sought out the essential principles, reciting the Madhyamaka-śāstra and Śata-śāstra. At the New Monastery of King Po Chun of Kucha he obtained the Pañcaviṃśatisāhasrikā-prajñāpāramitā-sūtra. When he first opened and read it, Māra came and obscured the text, so that he saw only blank tablets. Recognizing that this was Māra's doing, Jīva's resolve became all the firmer; when Māra departed the characters reappeared, and he continued studying and reciting it. Later, while reading Mahāyāna sūtras at the Great Cakaraka Monastery, he suddenly heard a voice in the sky saying, 'You are a wise man; why do you read these?' Jīva said, 'You are a petty māra; you should depart at once. My mind is like the earth: it cannot be moved.' He stayed there for two years, reciting Mahāyāna sūtras and śāstras extensively, penetrating their esoteric depths. Later he went to Kapiśa, where he expounded the wondrous doctrine of the One Vehicle in full to his teacher Bandhudatta. His master was moved and convinced in his heart, promptly bowing to Jīva as his teacher, saying, 'I was the upādhyāya's Hīnayāna teacher, and the upādhyāya is my Mahāyāna teacher!' The various kingdoms of the Western Regions deferred to Jīva's divine brilliance, looking up to him in veneration. Whenever he lectured, the various kings would kneel long beside the high seat, bidding Jīva to step upon their knees to ascend it. Jīva's Way shook the Western Regions and his reputation reached the eastern lands. In the thirteenth year of the Jianyuan era of the Fu clan [377 CE], being the dingchou year, in the first month, the grand astrologer memorialized that a star had appeared in the astrological field corresponding to foreign lands, signifying that a wise man of great virtue would enter to assist the Central Kingdom. Fu Jian, having long heard of Jīva's renown, was struck with realization and said, 'We have heard that in the Western Regions there is Kumārajīva; could it not be he?' In the nineteenth year [383 CE], he dispatched the General of Agile Cavalry Lü Guang leading an army to attack Kucha, Karasahr, and other kingdoms. Just before setting out, he said to Guang, 'We hear that in that realm is Kumārajīva, who profoundly understands the marks of dharmas and is well-versed in yinyang, serving as the master of learning there. We long for him greatly. If you conquer Kucha, immediately dispatch relay couriers to send Jīva.' Before Guang's army arrived, Jīva said to King Po Chun, 'The state's fortune is waning; there will come a powerful enemy, men from under the sun coming from the east. You should respectfully submit to them; do not oppose their vanguard.' Chun did not heed him and fought; Guang thereupon crushed Kucha, killed Chun, and captured Jīva. By nature Guang was loose and arrogant; not discerning Jīva's intellectual measure and seeing that he was still young, he made sport of him as a common person, forcibly marrying him to the daughter of the King of Kucha. Jīva refused and would not accept, pleading with utmost anguish. Guang said, 'A master of the Way's virtue does not exceed that of his late father; why offer such bitter refusals?' He then gave him pure wine to drink and locked them together in a secret room. Subjected to extreme coercion, Jīva eventually compromised his virtue. At times [Guang] would have him ride an ox or mount an unruly horse in an attempt to make him fall; Jīva constantly maintained forbearance, never displaying an unusual countenance. Ashamed, Guang ceased doing so. On the journey back, Guang encamped his army at the foot of a mountain when the generals and soldiers were already resting. Jīva said, 'You must not do so. If you remain here, you will certainly face disaster; you should move the army atop the ridge.' Guang did not accept his advice. Come nightfall, torrential rain indeed fell and flash floods suddenly rose, with water several fathoms deep, drowning several thousand men. Only then did Guang hold him in respect and wonder. Jīva said to Guang, 'This is a place of ruin and death; you should not linger. Deducing the calculations and assessing destiny, you should quickly resolve to return. Midway along the route there will surely be an auspicious land where you can dwell.' Guang followed his advice. Arriving in Liangzhou, he learned that the Fu clan had already been destroyed, whereupon he carved out territory in the land of Liang and established his authority over that region. In the first month, a great gale struck Guzang. Jīva said, 'An ominous wind: there will surely be treason and rebellion, yet without effort it will subside of itself.' Shortly thereafter Liang Qian and Peng Huang rebelled in succession, but were soon eliminated. In the second year of Guang's Longfei era [397 CE], the Lushui Hu Juqu Jiecheng of Zhangye and his cousin Mengxun rebelled, elevating the governor of Jiankang, Duan Ye, as their leader. Guang dispatched his son Zuan, Duke of Taiyuan, leading a force of fifty thousand to suppress them. Contemporary opinion held that Ye and the others were a ragtag mob, while Zuan had an imposing reputation, so they were certain to achieve total victory. Guang asked Jīva about it, and Jīva said, 'Observing this expedition, I see no benefit.' Afterwards Zuan was defeated, barely escaping with his life. Guang's director of the Secretariat, Zhang Zi, was cultivated and elegant in his writings, and his capacity for understanding was deep and refined; he fell bedridden with severe illness, and Guang broadly sought remedies and medical treatment for him. There was a foreign religious practitioner named Rākṣa who said he could cure Zi's illness, and Guang was delighted, bestowing lavish gifts upon him. Jīva knew that Rākṣa was deceitful and told Zi, 'Rākṣa can provide no benefit; it will merely be futile expense. Although the dark operations of fate are hidden, they can be tested by means of a device.' He then took five-colored silk thread, knotted it into a cord, burned it to ash, and threw it into water: 'If the ash floats out of the water and returns to being a cord, the illness cannot be cured.' In an instant the ash dispersed, floated to the surface, and resumed the original form of the cord. Thereafter Rākṣa's treatment was ineffective, and in a few days Zi died. Shortly after this Lü Guang died, and his son Zuan usurped the throne. In the second year of Xianning [400 CE], a sow gave birth to a piglet with one body and three heads. A dragon emerged from the well of the eastern wing and coiled itself before the hall; by dawn it had vanished. Zuan regarded this as an auspicious omen, naming the grand hall the Dragon Soaring Hall. Shortly thereafter a black dragon ascended at the Nine Palaces Gate facing the sun; Zuan changed the name of the Nine Palaces Gate to the Dragon Rising Gate. Jīva memorialized, 'Recently a hidden dragon emerged to wander, and a monstrous pig manifested an anomaly. Dragons belong to the yin category; their emerging and entering have their proper seasons. To appear repeatedly now indicates a calamity or misfortune. There will certainly be an uprising in which inferiors plot against their superior. You should restrain yourself and cultivate virtue so as to respond to the warnings of Heaven.' Zuan did not heed him. When playing board games with Jīva and taking a piece, he said, 'I chop off the head of the Hu slave.' Jīva immediately answered, 'You cannot chop off the Hu slave's head; the Hu slave will chop off a man's head.' These words held a hidden intent, but Zuan never understood. Later Zuan's cousin Chao, whose childhood name was Hu slave, indeed killed Zuan and cut off his head. Jīva's foreseeing of signs and omens was always of this sort. Staying in Liang for many years, since the Lü father and sons did not promote the Way, Jīva harbored the sūtras and teachings within, with nowhere to propagate and transform others. Fu Jian having already died, they never met after all. Yao Chang, hearing of his high reputation, earnestly invited him, but it was not until the second year of Long'an of the Jin dynasty [398 CE] that Lü Long finally permitted Jīva to go east. When he arrived in Guzang, Chang happened to pass away, and his son Xing ascended the throne, dispatching envoys to welcome Jīva. In the third year of Hongshi [401 CE], trees with interlocking branches grew in the ancestral temple courtyard and the Xiaoyao Garden, and scallions transformed into shallots. On the twentieth day of the twelfth month of that year, Jīva arrived in Chang'an, where he was received with the etiquette of a State Preceptor and treated with exceptional favor. Ever since the great Dharma spread east beginning under Emperor Ming of the Han, passing through the Wei and Jin dynasties, the sūtras and treatises had gradually grown numerous, yet what Zhi Qian and Zhu Fahu had produced mostly clung to the literal text or relied on matching concepts (geyi). Xing had revered the Three Jewels from his youth and was keenly devoted to lectures and assemblies; once Jīva arrived, he invited him to enter the Ximing Pavilion in the Xiaoyao Garden to translate various sūtras. Jīva for the most part recited from memory, thoroughly understanding everything, and was further able to translate fluently into the spoken Chinese language. Having examined the older sūtras and finding many discrepancies and errors, which all stemmed from earlier translators losing the underlying purport and not matching the foreign originals, Xing thereupon ordered more than eight hundred monks, including Sengzhao, Senglüe, and Sengmiao, to consult and receive Jīva's purports, commissioning him to re-translate the Larger Prajñāpāramitā. Jīva held the foreign text while Xing held the old sūtra to collate and compare them. Where the new text differed from the old, the meaning was in every case completely coherent, and the multitude was satisfied and convinced, none failing to rejoice and praise it. Members of Xing's royal clan, the Duke of Changshan, Xian, and the Marquis of Ancheng, Song, both had firm faith in karmic causality and repeatedly invited Jīva to lecture on the new sūtras at the Great Monastery of Chang'an. Subsequently he produced the Smaller Prajñāpāramitā, Vajracchedikā-prajñāpāramitā, Daśabhūmika, Saddharmapuṇḍarīka, Vimalakīrtinirdeśa, Viśeṣacintibrahmaparipṛcchā, Śūraṅgamasamādhi, Hastikakṣyā, Lokadhara, Buddhapiṭaka, Bodhisattvapiṭaka, Bequeathed Teachings, Bodhi-apramāda, Sarvapunyasamuccayasamādhi, Nidāna-dṛṣṭi-ekadeśa, Sukhāvatīvyūha, the new Bhadrakalpika, Sarvadharmāpravṛtti, Dhyāna-sūtra, Essentials of Dhyāna, Commentary on the Essentials of Dhyāna, Maitreyavyākaraṇa, Descent of Maitreya, Praise of the Virtues of the Buddhas, Daśādhyāya-vinaya prātimokṣa, Mahāprajñāpāramitopadeśa, Satyasiddhi-śāstra, Daśabhūmika-vibhāṣā, Madhyamaka-śāstra, Śata-śāstra, and Dvādaśanikāya-śāstra—in all, thirty-two works in more than three hundred scrolls. All illuminated and gave vent to the spiritual source and manifested profound purport. At that time, śramaṇas who studied doctrinal meanings in the four directions came without considering ten thousand li too far; eminent and outstanding figures of famous virtue, including Masters Caichang, Daoheng, Sengbiao, Huirui, Sengdun, Sengbi, and Sengzhao, numbering more than three thousand monks, received his teachings, inquired, carefully investigated, and dedicated themselves to exhausting the profound purport. Huiyuan of Mount Lu, whose practice of the Way was vast and refined, dispatched an envoy to convey greetings and questions. Daosheng of Longguang, whose understanding of wisdom penetrated the subtle, also entered the Pass to consult and receive instruction. Among those who transmitted the Dharma lineage, none could rival his brilliance, and his magnificent achievement has been vast and enduring, looked up to as a model even to this day. Earlier, the śramaṇa Huirui had superior talent and discernment, and regularly followed Jīva to transcribe texts. Jīva would frequently discuss with Rui the stylistic forms of Western writing and deliberate on the similarities and differences, saying, 'The customs of Tianzhu place great value on literary refinement; their musical pitch and poetic rhyme are considered good when suited to stringed instruments. Whenever one has an audience with the king of a state, there must be praises of his virtue; the etiquette for beholding the Buddha gives the highest place to verses of praise. The gāthās in the sūtras are all of this form. But when changing Fan into Qin, one loses their lush elegance; though the general meaning is conveyed, it is completely severed from the literary form. It is like chewing rice to feed another: not only is the flavor lost, it even causes one to vomit in disgust.' Jīva often composed verses presented to the śramaṇa Fahe, saying: 'The mind-mountain nurtures the fragrance of virtue, / its scent wafting ten thousand yojanas; / a sorrowful luan bird cries from a solitary tong tree, / its pure sound piercing the nine heavens.' In all he composed ten gāthās, the phrasing and metaphors being all of this kind. Jīva took the Mahāyāna as his supreme standard and set his mind on broadly propagating it; he often sighed and said, 'If I were to take up the brush to compose a Mahāyāna Abhidharma, it would be no match for [mere] Kātyāyana! Now in the land of Qin those with deep understanding are few; with my wings clipped here, what is there to discuss?' He then broke off in sorrow. He only composed the Treatise on the Real Mark (Shixiang lun) in two scrolls for Yao Xing; when he spoke, it immediately formed refined prose without any need for deletion or correction, its words and metaphors gentle and restrained, none failing to be deep and profound. In person Jīva was lucid and bright in spirit, lofty and preeminent among his peers, grasping principles according to circumstance with rarely an equal. Moreover, he was deeply kind and benevolent by nature, taking universal love as his heart, modest and good at guiding others, never tiring all day long. The lord Yao once said to Jīva, 'The Great Master's intelligence and transcendent awakening are without peer under heaven; if one day you pass to another life, how could we let the lineage of Dharma be left without heirs?' Thereupon he forced ten courtesans upon him and compelled him to accept them. From that time on he no longer dwelt in the monastic quarters, but had a separate residence established for him where provisions were abundantly supplied. Whenever he was about to give a lecture, he would always first say of himself, 'It is like a lotus blossom growing out of foul mud: just take the lotus blossom; do not take the foul mud.' Earlier, while Jīva was in Kucha, he received the Vinaya from the Vinaya master Vimalākṣa. When Vimalākṣa later entered Guanzhong, Jīva, hearing of his arrival, rejoiced and served him as master with complete ritual propriety. Not yet knowing of the forced marriage, Vimalākṣa asked Jīva, 'You have encountered great conditions in the Han territory; about how many disciples have received the Dharma from you?' Jīva replied, 'The sūtras and Vinaya were not yet complete in the Han realm; the new sūtras and Vinaya were mostly transmitted by me. Three thousand followers have all received the Dharma from me, but my karmic hindrances are deep, and therefore I could not keep my master's teachings.' Moreover, when the bhikṣu Beidu was in Pengcheng and heard that Jīva was in Chang'an, he sighed and said, 'It has been more than three hundred years since I parted in jest with this fellow; distant and with no set time, I must patiently wait to meet him in a future life.' When Jīva was facing the end of his life, he rallied his strength despite illness to bid farewell to the assembly of monks, saying, 'We have met through the Dharma, yet I have not fully poured out my heart. Now returning to a different world, how can grief describe it? Considering myself benighted and foolish, I falsely filled the post of translator. If what I transmitted is without error, may my tongue not be burned or decayed after my body is cremated.' In the Yixi era of the Jin dynasty, he died in Chang'an. Thereupon, in accordance with the foreign custom, his corpse was cremated with fire in the Xiaoyao Garden; when the firewood was consumed and his form dissolved, only his tongue remained unchanged. Later a foreign śramaṇa arrived and said that what Kumārajīva had mastered did not amount to even one-tenth of what he translated. Formerly, another name of Jīva was Kumārajīva; in foreign naming practices, names are mostly based on those of the parents. Jīva's father was Kumārāyana, and his mother's name was Jīvā; thus his name combined both.