大唐內典錄 3.9

3.9

自晉氏失御天下分崩。匈奴焚雒伊瀍涇渭。非曰帝京。夫子有云。四夷交侵中國微矣。其在斯乎。然則天無二日。有道則可君。人十六國中二秦為霸得矣。符氏富有八州。意在兼并區宇。姚主情存三寶。志在弘護法城。故使萬里追風異人間出。翻傳大部盛集于今。是則棟幹由茲增隆。匡救不爽。高稱言前。秦苻氏錄者。其先蒱健氐武都人也。因二趙亂據有關西。子孫乘機繼立稱帝。號秦都長安。至第三主諱堅字永固。生有神光從天屬地。銘見其背曰草付臣。遂改蒱為苻氏。堅立後十有六年。時太史奏。有德星見外國分野。當有聖人輔中國。得之者王。堅乃使將呂光求龜茲國鳩摩羅什。又使將苻丕攻取襄陽彌天釋道安并習鑿齒等。堅既獲之。欣然謂僕射權翼曰。朕不以珠玉為珍。但用賢哲為寶。今以十萬之師攻襄陽獲一人有半。翼曰誰。堅曰。安公一人。鑿齒半也。每與安同輦。言及東征。安極諫曰。東南土卑氣厲。非曰中華。且虞舜遊而不返。秦皇適而不歸。今以百萬之師求厥田下下之土。未敢聞也。餘云云不載。自爾詢安政術兼敷釋典。征西得什。而堅已沒。六主四十四年。依甲子推苻健皇始元年當晉穆帝永和六年庚戌之歲。至堅建元二十一年。當晉孝武太元十年乙酉之歲。華夷道侶凡八人。所出經戒論集志解傳。四十部。合二百三十九卷。結為前秦之錄。

Ever since the House of Jin lost control, the realm fell into disunity and ruin. The Xiongnu burned Luoyang; the Yi, Chan, Jing, and Wei rivers no longer belonged to an imperial capital. Confucius said: 'When the four barbarian tribes invade one another, the Central Realm becomes feeble.' Does this not refer to such a time? Yet, as Heaven does not have two suns, whoever possesses the Way may rule the people. Among the Sixteen Kingdoms, the two Qin dynasties attained hegemony with justification. The Fu clan possessed eight provinces, intending to annex the entire realm. The Yao ruler harbored deep devotion to the Triratna, his will set upon propagating and protecting the fortress of the Dharma. Therefore, men traversed ten thousand leagues following their fame, and extraordinary talents appeared in succession. Great works were translated and propagated, gathering in abundance down to the present day. Thus, the pillars and beams [of the Dharma] were strengthened and flourished through them, and the salvation was unerring, soaring above previous ages. As for the catalogue of the Fu clan of the Former Qin, their ancestor was Pu Jian, a Di from Wudu. Taking advantage of the turmoil of the two Zhao dynasties, he occupied the area west of the Pass. His descendants seized the opportunity to ascend successively, claiming the imperial title, naming their state Qin, and capital at Chang'an. When it came to the third ruler, named Jian, styled Yonggu, at his birth a spiritual light connected heaven to earth, and an inscription appeared on his back reading 'Grass-Fu-Minister'; thereupon he changed Pu to the surname Fu. Sixteen years after Jian's accession, the Grand Astrologer memorialized: 'An auspicious star has appeared in the celestial field of foreign kingdoms; a sage should arrive to assist the Central Realm, and whoever obtains him shall reign.' Jian then dispatched General Lü Guang to seek Kumārajīva in the kingdom of Kucha, and also dispatched General Fu Pi to attack and capture Shi Dao'an, whose fame filled the sky, along with Xi Zuochi and others in Xiangyang. After Jian obtained them, he joyfully said to Vice Director Quan Yi: 'I do not consider pearls and jade to be treasures, but take sages and philosophers as my gems. Now, with an army of one hundred thousand attacking Xiangyang, I have obtained one and a half persons.' Yi said: 'Who are they?' Jian said: 'Master Dao'an is one, and Zuochi is half a person.' He frequently shared his carriage with Dao'an. When conversation turned to an eastern expedition, Dao'an remonstrated strongly, saying: 'The southeastern lands are low and the climate pestilential; it cannot be called China. Moreover, Emperor Shun toured there and did not return, and the First Emperor of Qin went there and did not come back. Now, to seek lands of the lowest grade with an army of a million is something I have never dared to hear of.' The rest of their conversation is extensive and not recorded here. From that time on, he consulted Dao'an on governance and simultaneously expounded the Buddhist scriptures. The western expedition obtained Kumārajīva, but by then Jian was already dead. Across six rulers and forty-four years—calculating by the sexagenary cycle, the first year of Fu Jian's Huangshi era corresponds to the gengxu year, the sixth year of the Yonghe era of Emperor Mu of Jin; down to the twenty-first year of Jian's Jianyuan era, which corresponds to the yiyou year, the tenth year of the Taiyuan era of Emperor Xiaowu of Jin—there were eight Chinese and foreign members of the monastic community in total. The sūtras, precepts, treatises, compilations, records, commentaries, and biographies translated and produced by them amounted to forty works, totaling two hundred and thirty-nine fascicles, which are compiled as the catalogue of the Former Qin.