古今譯經圖紀 3.14

3.14

The śramaṇa Puṇyatāra—translated here as Gongdehua ("Flower of Merit")—was a native of Jibin, renowned for his discipline in the precepts. He thoroughly understood the Tripiṭaka, was specifically expert in the Daśabhāṇavāra, and contemplated the four dhyānas. In the Hongshi era of the Yao Qin, he shook his staff and entered Hao[jing]. The Qin ruler [Yao] Xing treated him with the etiquette of an honored guest. The Dharma Master [Kumāra]jīva also admired his deportment and venerated him deeply, far beyond ordinary convention. On the seventeenth day of the tenth month in the sixth year of the Hongshi era, the cyclical year guimao, having gathered several hundred monks who studied the doctrine, they requested him to translate the Shisong lü in one work (fifty-eight fascicles) at the Middle Monastery in Chang'an, with Kumārajīva rendering the language.