大唐內典錄 3.9

3.9

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.