大唐內典錄 1.6

1.6

Ever since the teaching flowed into the Eastern Lands, it has traversed imperial dynasties across the generations. It necessarily relied on contemporary rulers to propagate its renown and outline; only then could monastics and laity follow in repair and construction, thereby inaugurating the foundation. Enlightened monarchs respected its moral principles, their hearts intent on oversight and protection; unenlightened rulers merely complied with its conventions and followed along. Thus, beginning from the Later Han down to the Great Tang, though the ages shifted between corruption and purity, the essential principle remained one. All reverently received the ultimate instruction as the primal standard for extinguishing the defilements, and comprehended the profound scheme as the fundamental proof mirroring life and death. Thus could they transmit and ferry across the Net of Brahmā, flourishing increasingly generation after generation; this is the uninterrupted torrential flow of the gift of the Dharma from age to age. However, the Western Regions and the Five Indias revere celestial speech, whereas the nine provinces of the Eastern Lands traditionally followed the tracks of birds [Chinese script]. Thus celestial writing and celestial speech were beyond the conception of this realm; the eight scripts and six forms of characters were rarely seen from the outset in Greater Xia. This led to what was formerly heard of through successive translations only now being seen here. Furthermore, as between national histories and ritual classics, substance and literary embellishment are alternatively promoted; as between the words of the Buddha and mundane canons, phrasing and principle are as separated as heaven and earth. How is this known? The Buddha's dissemination of teaching prioritizes preaching and guidance: opening the ignorant, splitting the unhewn block, resolving doubts, and removing stagnation; it does not lie in literary elegance nor consist in scrolls. Its intention lies in opening the darkness and brightness of sentiment and principle, and reaching the agile perceptiveness of spiritual thought—such is its aim! 'Listen closely, listen closely, and reflect well on it; I shall explain and analyze it for you'—these are the holy words. 'Excellent, excellent! We wish and delight to hear; would that the World-Honoured One explain and analyze it'—this is the reception of the Dharma. The words are repeated but the meaning is grasped without worry of prolixity; it concerns only correct awakening and does not dwell on literary parallelism—such is the original scripture. Translated through local customs and transmitted according to mundane habits, they often fall into superficial errors, and what is lost is great indeed. This is why Dao'an composed a treatise on the five losses [which are] easy to follow, and Yancong composed an essay on the eight guidelines [which are] difficult to equal—these are truly proof of it. As for other secular practices, they are not worth discussing. Now, I record the wise and worthy translators of those imperial ages and also display the biased contentions of faith and slander among contemporary rulers, taking this as the first catalogue. Moreover, in the eras of the Han, Jin, Sui, and Tang, the realm was largely unified: where the official calendar reached, the Dharma Gate was united. Under dynasties such as the Wei, Song, Qi, and Liang, the territories were divided and fractured, Chinese and foreigners participated in government, and translations were produced in parallel. As for extensive sections being transmitted to the populace, surpassing the past and outstripping the future, we immediately see their propagation and linked brilliance enduring into the distance. Now I compile them chronologically according to their eras, appending thereafter what was composed by monastics and laity, in the hope that future readers will see them as if face to face. In all, there are eighteen dynasties, and the scriptures produced total 2,232 works (in 7,200 fascicles; including 310 works of lost translator attribution in 538 fascicles).