出三藏記集 7.32

7.32

The original text of this sūtra has a record stating that it was translated by Lokakṣema. Lokakṣema was a man of the Yuezhi. During the reigns of Emperors Huan and Ling of the Han, he came to China. His extensive learning was profound and wondrous, and his talent and thought fathomed the subtle. Almost all the sūtras he translated were deep and profound; he prized substance and moderation and did not maintain literary embellishment. The present *Aṣṭasāhasrikā*, the *Ajātaśatru*, the *Dundubhisvara*, and the *Pratyutpanna* were all translated by Lokakṣema. There was also Zhi Qian, courtesy name Gongming, who was likewise a man of the Yuezhi. His father also came to pay tribute to China during the reign of Emperor Ling of the Han. Zhi Qian was born in the Han, and it seems he did not manage to meet Lokakṣema. Furthermore, Zhi Liang, courtesy name Jiming, studied under Lokakṣema, so Zhi Qian was able to receive instruction from Zhi Liang. Zhi Qian's talent and learning were deep and penetrating, and he was fully versed in both internal and external texts. Because the latter age valued literary style and the times favored conciseness, the sūtras he translated considerably followed literary elegance. Yet in composing phrases and analyzing principles, his style was refined without being excessive, and concise with the meaning made clear; he may truly be called one who penetrated deeply. Amid the turmoil at the end of the Han, he crossed southward and fled to Wu. From the Huangwu to the Jianxing eras [222–253 CE], the various sūtras he translated totaled several tens of fascicles, which have their own separate biographies and records. It is also said that he translated this sūtra, but today it is no longer seen, and there is another variant text. However, this *Śūraṅgama* itself has slight differences: the phrasing has abundance and brevity, and the text has Jin and Hu elements. Examining and investigating them, they are basically not enough to consider them separate translations by different hands. I suspect that Zhi Qian disliked Lokakṣema's translation for its plain language and frequent Hu sounds, so he pruned and corrected the differences, while transmitting what was identical without change. The two masters each have their own records. This single version is the most concise and convenient among the various texts, and it also has fewer Hu sounds; it circulated widely in the world and is precisely the one emended by Zhi Qian. At the beginning of the Great Jin, there were the śramaṇa Zhi Dharmarakṣa and the layman Zhu Shulan, who both retranslated this sūtra. Seeking their meaning, they mutually elucidate one another. But leafing through and investigating three texts is laborious and difficult to manage together; wishing to allow students to find the counterparts immediately, I have now taken Zhi Qian's emended version as the mother text, Dharmarakṣa's translation as the son, and attached Zhu Shulan's translation to it. Where something is lacking, I have noted and distinguished it in its place. Some passages have text and meaning that are identical, and some have identical meaning with slight additions or subtractions in the text that are not worth writing out again; these I have combined as identical. Although this is of no benefit to the overarching purport, the division of chapters and sentences can be seen reasonably clearly.