大唐內典錄 5.17

5.17

When the sage brings benefit and appears, it accords with the prophetic mandate in due season. At the close of Emperor Yang's reign under the Sui, heaven and earth were as if shuttered. Owls spread their wings and magpies rose; ants formed clusters and serpents coiled. The people had no livelihood to rely upon, and living beings found no peace or respite. The August Tang arose with vigor, its righteous cause moving the heart of Heaven. The four seas were swept clear, and the triratna rose like lofty clouds. From the initial sacrificial year of Wude down to the first year of Longshuo, the realm has been greatly unified for over forty years. Gaozu established the foundation and settled the imperial enterprise; Taizong expanded and pacified the cardinal directions; and the present Emperor lets fall his robes in the imperial halls, enjoying unending fortune, ordaining monks and erecting monasteries, broadly engaging in propagation and support. Newly translated sūtras have been fully recorded in the various historical records, and I now compile them here in brief, expanding upon them as circumstances allow. This shall serve to spread what has not yet been heard, and to act as a mirror for both present and antiquity. Yet at the inception of the imperial fortune, the course of Heaven was still beset with difficulties. Xue Ju raised troops in Bin and Qi; Wang Shichong assembled armored hosts in the Yellow River and Luo regions. Drawing foes from east and west, each held tyrannical sway; beyond them, petty commanders swarmed like bees and bristled like hedgehogs. The state safeguarded its root and concentrated its resolve on punitive destruction; hence it was not yet able to attend to the further elevation of Buddhist principles. Thus, throughout Gaozu's reign, the court continued to venerate [the religion] as of old, but had not the leisure to evaluate and catalog translations. In the beginning of the Zhenguan era, remnants of warfare still lingered. The Xianyun watered their horses in the Wei and Jing rivers; the capital regions sought sustenance in Fan and Bian. Locusts covered the wilderness, and the Luo river flooded the palace. The Civil Emperor (Taizong) opened the nets and contemplated governance, forgetting his meals as the sun sank late. Reflecting upon monasteries and stupas, he applied himself to their construction. Thus, garrisons in all four quarters were all converted into monasteries, and stelae were erected to manifest virtue so as to glorify the imperial enterprise. (For instance, upon crushing Xue Ju he established Zhaoren Si; upon crushing Wang Shichong he established Zhaojue Si; upon crushing Liu Wuzhou he established Hongji Si; upon crushing Song Gang he established Ciyun Si; upon crushing Song Laosheng he established Puji Si; upon crushing Dou Jiande he established Dengci Si; upon crushing Liu Heita he established Zhaofu Si. All were provided with official offerings and ordinations, and Buddhist ceremonies were performed magnificently. Stelae were erected praising virtue to serve as a great sanctuary for ten thousand generations.) When the realm became peaceful and clear, he contemplated propagating the benevolent teaching: he thereupon donated his old residence to become Xingsheng Si, erected Hongfu Si for his late mother, established Ci'en Si for the Crown Prince, and founded Yaotai Si at Zhaoling. He personally visited Hongfu Si and composed the memorial text with his own hand; shedding tears before the assembly of monks, he delivered gracious words with solemn respect. Whenever he issued clear edicts overseeing construction through the relevant officials, the completion of sūtras and images was invariably exquisite. As for the ancestral teachings of Laozi, praise and prominence were seldom heard. At that time, there was the Indian monk Prabhākaramitra, whom the Emperor deeply honored, welcoming him into the inner palace and repeatedly inquiring after him with favor. Newly translated texts were supplied by the imperial treasury. When the present Emperor succeeded to the throne, his faith and veneration became even more profound. The secondary palaces of the late emperor were all donated to become monasteries, and the transmission and translation of the Dharma texts flourished far more than ever before. There was the śramaṇa Xuanzang, who observed the regions, traveled abroad, and returned to the imperial capital. The two emperors respectfully received him and summoned him into the palace; they composed prefaces to the teachings for him, disseminating the sūtras he translated. Official provisions have been rich and magnificent down to the present day without cessation. Thus, from the beginning of the Zhenguan era down to the years of Longshuo, over a span of more than thirty years, there were roughly more than ten masters, lay and clerical, śramaṇas of China and India, who transmitted the sūtras. Those who collated texts and took down translations with brush are fully listed below. The sūtras, śāstras, records, biographies, liturgies, and so forth produced by them total more than one hundred works in more than 1,500 fascicles. These are compiled as the Catalogue of Buddhist Scriptures of the August Dynasty, to be transmitted to distant generations and forever serve as a model, glorifying the same track and abiding imperishably. It is hoped that wise persons of the future will rely on this to continue the compilation, recording the divine merits of the triratna, spreading transformation throughout the Sahā world, propagating the established teachings of the thousand Buddhas, and continuing endlessly throughout the Bhadrakalpa.