古今譯經圖紀 3.37

3.37

The śramaṇa Guṇavarman (which means "Armor of Merit") was a native of Kaśmīra, being the youngest son of the king of that country. He possessed a penetrating comprehension of the ninefold scriptures and was widely learned in the four Āgamas; he had deep insight into the sections of the vinaya and exquisite mastery of the essentials of dhyāna, chanting over one million words of sūtras from memory. When the king of Kaśmīra died, the assembly asked him to succeed to the throne. Fearing it would obstruct his precepts, he took up residence in the forests, drank from the valleys, walked alone through mountains and wilderness, and hid his traces from the human world. His deportment moved all beings, and those who saw him generated the aspiration [for awakening]. During the Yuanjia era of Emperor Wen of the Song, he arrived in Jianye. Emperor Wen earnestly inquired of him: "I have always wished to observe fasts and refrain from killing, but constrained by worldly duties, I have been unable to follow my inclination. What would the Dharma master instruct me?" Guṇavarman said, "The Way resides in the mind, not in outer matters; the Dharma comes from oneself, not from others. Moreover, the practices of an emperor and those of a commoner are each different. A commoner is lowly in status and inferior in reputation; his commands carry no authority. If he does not restrain himself and subject his body to hardship, what else could he do? An emperor, by contrast, takes the four seas as his home and the millions of people as his children. When he issues one good word, men and women all rejoice; when he spreads one virtuous policy, humans and spirits are brought into harmony. When punishments do not cut short lives and corvée labor does not exhaust strength, then the wind and rain are timely and the cold and warmth accord with the seasons; the hundred grains flourish and the mulberry and hemp grow luxuriantly. In this manner, keeping the precepts is indeed grand, and refraining from killing is indeed widespread! Must one only skip half a day's meal and save the life of a single fowl before it counts as great salvation?" The emperor was greatly pleased, saying, "Dharma Master Guṇavarman is enlightened and thoroughly perceptive; one may converse with him on the boundary between Heaven and man!" An imperial order bade him reside at Zhihuan Monastery, where he was provided for lavishly. Thus, in the Yuanjia era, he translated in the capital Yangdu: the Bodhisattva-śīla Sūtra (twenty fascicles), the Saṃyuktābhidharmahṛdaya Śāstra (twelve fascicles), the Dharmaguptaka Bhikṣuṇī Karmavācanā (one fascicle), the Abridged Treatise on the Five Precepts for Upāsakas (one fascicle), the Three Refuges and Upāsaka Precepts (one fascicle), the Dignified Deportment of Śrāmaṇeras (one fascicle), the Essentials and Practice of the Five Gates of Dhyāna (one fascicle), and the Record of Distinctions between Sūtras and Vinayas (one fascicle)—seven works in total, thirty-eight fascicles altogether. He attained the second fruit [of the śramaṇa].