大唐內典錄 1.10

1.10

The Preface says: The source and origins of the teaching's transmission truly lay in the Ji family's Zhou dynasty. When the First Emperor of Qin abolished it, remnant traces still appeared sporadically. When Liu Xiang catalogued books in the Imperial Library, he frequently encountered Buddhist scriptures. Gauging by these grounds, [the transmission] was not restricted to the era of Emperor Ming of the Han. Other [details] are as shown separately elsewhere; here I introduce the beginning of its illumination of the secular [world] and its resurgence, and thus arrange them from the start. As for the claim that the emergence of scriptures began with Emperor Xiaoming of the Later Han: the Emperor's personal name was Zhuang, his temple name was Xianzong, and he was the fourth son of Emperor Guangwu. His divine nature was serene and simple, elegantly exemplifying sagehood. In the seventh year of Yongping, he dreamt by night of a golden man sixteen feet in height, bearing a solar disc around his neck, flying through the sky and arriving. His brilliant light shone resplendently over the palace courtyard. At dawn, [the emperor] gathered his ministers and ordered them to divine the dream. The broadly learned scholar Fu Yi came forward to memorialise, answering, "Your subject has heard that in ancient times there was a spirit in the Western Regions whose name was Buddha. What Your Majesty saw must surely be he." The Emperor took it to be so, and rejoiced with feeling at the auspicious omen. He decreed that an embassy of fourteen men—including Qin Jing, a palace gentleman of the Feathered Forest, and the doctoral disciple Wang Zun—be dispatched to travel to India. In the Yuezhi country, they met the monks Kāśyapa Mātanga and Dharmaratna, procured transcriptions of scriptures and images, loaded them on white horses, and returned, arriving at Luoyang. According to the Han faben neizhuan, at that time the Daoists of the Five Sacred Peaks and the eighteen mountain hermitages submitted a memorial objecting to [Buddhism's] allowance. The Emperor then set up a traveling palace west of the capital and allowed them to contend in capability. The Daoists and others erected an altar, arrayed offerings, placed Daoist scriptures and the works of the philosophers upon the altar, and set fire to burn the scriptures, taking their non-destruction into ash as proof [of truth]. When they finished reciting their incantations, the scriptures were consumed by the flames. Chu Shanxin and Fei Shucai, Daoists of the Southern Sacred Peak, died of their own deep humiliation. More than six hundred other Daoists all converted to the Buddhadharma and asked to leave household life; the Emperor granted it. From this, monks and nuns were ordained widely. Initially ten monasteries were established; precisely at this site, the Baima Si (White Horse Monastery) was founded. The various prefectures vied to build [monasteries] to repay the debt of gratitude to the white horse. More than two hundred paces to the left of the Qingmen Gate Road in the old city of Chang'an stands the Zhongxing Si; to its right are the remaining foundations of the White Horse Monastery. Dharmaratna immediately translated the Sūtra of Forty-two Sections there, and it was sealed in the stone chamber of the Orchid Pavilion. From then on, the Śākya teaching arose like gathering clouds in succession; monks and faithful laymen followed on one after another translating and transmitting. In the time of Emperor Xiaohuan, Buddha images were crafted in gold and silver. In the time of Emperor Xiaoling, in the third year of Guanghe, palace grandees were sent to the Buddhist stūpas and monasteries in Luoyang to provide meals for the monks, hang silk banners, burn incense, scatter flowers, and light lamps. By the seventh year of Guanghe, because of the plot of Zhang Jiao and others, their rebellious faction was executed, and all maternal and paternal kin who were involved in serving Laozi, bewitching shamans, healers, and diviners were abolished together. Those who observed the five Buddhist precepts were not prosecuted. By this event, it is verified that the Buddhist teaching is upright and true; "steeped in black it does not blacken, ground down it does not wear thin." Treachery, deceit, defilement, and taint are merely floating clouds to us; truly it is worthy of veneration! From the monk Śrīmitra (Shilifang) under the Qin and Liu Zizheng under the Western Han onward, although Buddhist scriptures had been heard of, their titles were not known. Only when reaching the Later Han was there a definite catalogue, in which the Sūtra of Forty-two Sections is the foremost, and the monk Kāśyapa Mātanga is the earliest. Down to the end of the Jian'an reign period of Emperor Xian, a span of one hundred fifty-two years passed through eleven monarchs; twelve Chinese and non-Chinese, monastics and laymen, gathered ancient remnants and supplemented previous omissions. Together with ancient translations of lost attribution, they produced a total of 334 sūtras and vinaya texts in 416 fascicles. These form the Later Han scripture catalogue, set forth upon this scroll, so that those with broad discernment may know the dispersion and aggregation of canonical scriptures ancient and modern, awaiting the time when the glorious propagation and flourishing conversion of the Dharma jewel's illumination are displayed.