出三藏記集 14.8

14.8

Dharmakṣema was a native of Central India. When he was six years old, his father died, and he accompanied his mother in hired weaving, making fine woollen rugs for a living. Seeing the śramaṇa Dharmayaśas—translated into the language of Qi as Faming ('Dharma Brightness')—who was revered by both clergy and laity and received bountiful offerings, his mother envied this and thus made Dharmakṣema his disciple. At the age of ten, chanting dhāraṇīs with several fellow students, his sharp intellect stood out from the crowd, and he could recite over ten thousand words of sūtras each day. At first he studied the Hīnayāna while also reading the treatises on the five sciences; when he lectured, his discernment and eloquence were such that no one could match him. Later, he met a white-haired meditation master and debated with him. As their areas of study differed, they contested for a hundred days. Although Dharmakṣema's attacks and challenges arose like sharp spearheads, the meditation master never yielded. Admiring his profound principles, Dharmakṣema said to the meditation master: 'Might there be any scriptures that I could see?' The meditation master immediately handed him a birch-bark manuscript of the Mahāparinirvāṇa-sūtra. As Dharmakṣema read it through, he was startled into awakening, and felt deeply ashamed, considering his former knowledge like that of a frog in a well, having long strayed from the great expanse. Thereupon he gathered the assembly to confess his faults, and devoted himself exclusively to the Mahāyāna. At twenty, he had recited over two million words of both Mahāyāna and Hīnayāna sūtras. Dharmakṣema's cousin was skilled in training and riding elephants, but he killed the white-eared great elephant ridden by the king. Enraged, the king executed him and issued an order: 'Whoever dares look upon his corpse shall have their three clans wiped out.' None of his relatives dared approach, but Dharmakṣema wept and buried him. Enraged, the king wished to execute Dharmakṣema, but he said: 'Your Majesty executed him according to the law; I buried him out of kinship. Neither violates great righteousness; why should you be angry?' The bystanders were chilled with fear on his behalf, but his countenance was composed. The king marvelled at his resolve and kept him to receive offerings. Dharmakṣema was well versed in dhāraṇī arts, and all his rituals proved efficacious; in the Western Regions he was called the Great Master of Dhāraṇī. Later, accompanying the king into the mountains, the king grew parched and needed water but could find none. Dharmakṣema secretly empowered a stone with incantations to produce water, and praised the king, saying: 'It is the response to Your Great Majesty's beneficent grace that has caused a dry rock to spring forth a stream.' Neighbouring states hearing of this all praised the king's virtue. At that time seasonal rains were harmonious, and the common people sang praises. The king was delighted with his magical arts and treated him with exceptional favour. After a while the king's favour began to wane, and he treated him more coldly. Dharmakṣema was angered and said: 'I shall take a jar of water to the pool, chant incantations to force the dragon into the jar, and cause a great drought throughout the land. The king will surely beg me to chant incantations; only then will I release the dragon to bring rain, and see how he treats me then.' He thereupon took the jar and approached the dragon. Someone secretly informed on him, and the king angrily set out to arrest him. Fearing execution, Dharmakṣema repented and, carrying the twelve fascicles of the first part of the Mahāparinirvāṇa-sūtra manuscript along with the Bodhisattva-prātimokṣa-sūtra and the Bodhisattva-śīla text, fled to Kucha. Most in Kucha studied the Hīnayāna and did not believe in the Nirvāṇa[-sūtra]. He therefore went to Guzang and stayed in a courier station. Fearing he might lose the sūtra text, he used it as a pillow while sleeping. Someone pulled him down to the floor; Dharmakṣema woke with a start, thinking it was a thief. After this happened for three nights, he heard a voice in the sky say: 'This is the Tathāgata's treasury of liberation; why do you use it as a pillow?' Dharmakṣema was ashamed and awakened to his error, placing it separately in a high spot. At night a thief came to steal it, but could not lift it; though he tried to lift it multiple times, it would not budge. The next morning Dharmakṣema took the sūtra and walked away without finding it heavy at all. The thief saw this, considered him a holy person, and came to bow and apologise. Juqu Mengxun, King of Hexi, heard of Dharmakṣema's fame and summoned him to meet, receiving him with great generosity. Mengxun had long venerated the Great Dharma and aspired to propagate it; he requested that Dharmakṣema translate the scriptural text. Dharmakṣema, considering that he was not yet versed in the local language and lacked interpreters, feared that the phrasing would clash with the principles, and refused. He then spent three years studying the language, translating it into Chinese, and only then began translation and transcription. At that time, the śramaṇas Huisong and Daolang were peerless in Hexi. Encountering his propagation of the Dharma treasury, they held him in great esteem. Dharmakṣema rendered the Sanskrit text, while Master Song acted as scribe. Monastics and laypeople numbered in the hundreds, posing doubts and difficulties from all sides, but Dharmakṣema resolved the sticking points on the spot without ever being hindered. Song, Lang, and others further requested that he translate other sūtras extensively; he went on to translate the Mahāsaṃnipāta, Mahāmegha, Mahākāśagarbha, Sāgaranāgarāja, Suvarṇaprabhāsa, Karuṇāpuṇḍarīka, Upāsaka-śīla, and Bodhisattvabhūmi-dhāra, together with the previously translated Bodhisattva-prātimokṣa-sūtra and Bodhisattva-śīla text, nearly twenty works in all. As the chapters of the Nirvāṇa-sūtra text were not yet complete, Dharmakṣema returned to his native land to seek them out. Finding that his mother had died, he stayed for over a year. Later he obtained more manuscript chapters in Khotan, returned to Guzang, and translated them, expanding the work to thirty-six fascicles. Dharmakṣema once told Mengxun: 'Ghosts have entered the settlements; there will surely be many calamities and illnesses.' Mengxun did not believe it and wished to see for himself as proof. Dharmakṣema immediately applied his arts to Mengxun, who saw them and was terrified. Dharmakṣema said: 'You should purify your sincerity through fasting and precepts, and expel them with divine dhāraṇīs.' He recited incantations for three days and then told Mengxun: 'The ghosts have departed to the north.' Soon after, beyond the northern borders, those who died of illness numbered in the tens of thousands. Mengxun grew even more fearful and reverent, treating him with even higher respect. It happened that the ruler of the Northern Wei, Tuoba Tao, heard of his magical arts and sent an envoy to invite him, while also warning Mengxun: 'If you do not send Dharmakṣema, we will immediately send our armies.' Mengxun assessed that his own state was weak and could hardly resist the order; moreover, he feared that Dharmakṣema, possessing many arts, might scheme against him on behalf of the Wei. Anxious and undecided between advancing and retreating, he secretly ordered him assassinated. Earlier, when Dharmakṣema translated the Nirvāṇa-sūtra and the number of fascicles was fixed, the foreign śramaṇa Dharmottara had said: 'The chapters of this sūtra are not yet exhausted.' Dharmakṣema was often filled with deep regret and vowed that he would seek them again. Mengxun took advantage of this wish to travel, feigning support for his departure and bestowing lavish gifts of precious treasures. A few days before setting out, Dharmakṣema wept and told the assembly: 'The retributive karmic debt of Dharmakṣema is about to arrive, and all the sages cannot save me. Yet because of my original heartfelt vow, righteousness allows no delay.' After he had travelled forty li, Mengxun secretly sent assassins to murder him, at the age of forty-nine. The assembly all grieved with profound regret. Later, Huiguan of Daochang Monastery wished to seek the remaining chapters again; because the śramaṇa Daopu of Gaochang frequently travelled to foreign regions, was skilled in Hu script, and understood the languages of six countries, during the Yuanjia era of the Song dynasty, Huiguan petitioned Emperor Wen to fund and dispatch Daopu, leading ten scribes on a journey west to seek the sūtras. When they reached Changguang Commandery, the ship wrecked and injured his foot, and he died of illness. On his deathbed, Pu sighed and said: 'The latter portion of the Nirvāṇa[-sūtra] has no affinity with the land of the Song.'