大唐內典錄 10.7

10.7

The Mahāprajñāpāramitopadeśa clarifies that among the twelve divisions of scriptures, even up to later generations, explanations of the Buddha's words by ordinary beings and sages constitute the twelfth division, the upadeśa scriptures. In Tang speech, this is translated as 'treatises and discussions' (lunyi). There is a profound reason for calling them 'discussions': their meaning requires penetrating acumen and agile wisdom to be capable of it; it is not something that the clumsy or mediocre can set forth. Thus, as the Buddhist scriptures flowed eastwards from the Han to the Tang, over more than six hundred years, through both legitimate and illegitimate dynasties, clerics and laypersons turned in faith as dense as gathering clouds, assisting the correct principle and propagating the great transformation. An Shigao first authored treatises on conditional principles, working tirelessly and solely for good; Dao'an discerningly explained the regulation of the mind, standing aloof and solitary. From then on, each dynasty has had its notable figures. Reckoned by fascicles, they amount to nearly two thousand fascicles. People of today are frivolous and shallow, rarely examining them thoroughly, which led earlier catalogues to belittle and eliminate them together. Consequently, those who understand the Dharma cannot open the minds of the worldly; if these works are not arranged in order, they will all be buried and lost. In the past, at the end of the Qi and the beginning of the Liang, there was the Vinaya Master Sengyou of Dinglin Si on Mount Zhong, who kept the propagation and protection of the Dharma in his heart, gathered the lost and missing, and compiled and transmitted the scriptural proclamations without disappointing the trust placed in him. Now I take what he compiled as the starting point, and append the rest in order.