古今譯經圖紀 2.23

2.23

The śramaṇa Faxian was surnamed Gong and was a native of Wuyang in Pingyang. He left household life at three years of age and was devotedly filial, loyal, and steadfast. When he received the full precepts, his aspiration and conduct were clear and acute, and his deportment was orderly and solemn. Constantly lamenting the corruptions and deficiencies in the sūtras and vinaya, he vowed to go in search of them. In the third year of the Long'an reign of Emperor An of the Jin, the year jihai, he traveled widely through India, reverently venerating the holy sites. He studied Indic writing and languages, investigated the profound tenets, and copied Indic texts by hand. In the first year of the Yixi reign of the Jin, the year yisi, he returned by sea and reached the southern capital. At Daochang Monastery he translated: the *Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra* (six fascicles); the *Vaipulya Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra* (two fascicles); the *Miscellaneous Piṭaka Sūtra* (one fascicle); the *Mahāsaṃghika Bhikṣuṇī Prātimokṣa* (one fascicle); and the *Saṃyuktābhidharmahṛdaya Śāstra* (thirteen fascicles); altogether five works in twenty-three fascicles.