大唐內典錄 5.9

5.9

The Liang fortune declined, and disasters arose from within. At the end of the Wei, the high minister Hou Jing held sway over Henan. Taking advantage of a rift, he fled to the Liang; the Emperor alone proposed and accepted him, enfeoffing him as the King of Henan. Trading upon favour, he threw the ranks into chaos and brought about the downfall of the Liang house. After two years, he assumed the imperial title. The King of Xiangdong of the Liang, who was formerly stationed in the Jing gorges, dispatched General Wang Sengbian, Chen Baxian, and others to pacify Jinling. Before they could turn on their heels, Xiangdong was destroyed by the Western Wei, and Sengbian was killed by Baxian. Leading his troops, he declared himself king and made his capital at Jinling, naming the dynasty after his own surname. His ancestors were men of Changcheng in Wuxing, an eminent clan for generations. His physical form and bearing were extraordinary: nine chi and two cun in height, a beard three chi long, with hands hanging below his knees. His spirit was high and expansive, esteemed by the multitudes. Upon ascending the imperial throne, he restored the ancient foundation of the Liang. In the old capital of Jianye, there were over seven hundred monasteries; after Hou Jing put them to the torch, few remained. As the founder of the Chen established his rule, he repaired them all, translating new sūtras and expounding ancient śāstras without falling short of the standards of former times. From the founding of the state in the first year of Taiping to the surrendered ruler Shubaou in the third year of Zhending, there were altogether five emperors and thirty-three years. For twenty-four of these years, its rule ran parallel to the Zhou; for nine years, its rule ran parallel to the Sui. The year of its surrender was indeed the ninth year of the Kaihuang era of the Sui. Three individuals, both monastics and laymen, transmitted and translated texts; the sūtras, biographies, treatises, commentaries, and so forth produced by them amount to fifty works in two hundred and forty-seven fascicles, constituting the scriptural catalogue of the Chen dynasty.