古今譯經圖紀 3.41

3.41

The śramaṇa Dharmodgata—in Chinese, Fayong—had the lay surname Li and was a native of Huanglong in Youzhou. Having become a novice in his youth, he cultivated dhyāna and ascetic practices, upheld the precepts, and chanted the sūtras, and was held in high esteem by his master. Having once heard that Faxian had journeyed in person to the Buddhist lands, he took an impassioned vow to devote his life [to the same quest]. In the first year of the Yongchu era of Emperor Wu of the Song, he gathered twenty-five like-minded companions, including the monk Sengmeng, and together they traveled through the Western Regions for over twenty years. All the others died along the way; only Dharmodgata returned alone. He obtained Sanskrit sūtra manuscripts in Kaśmīra. Arriving in the capital Yangdu in the final years of the Yuanjia era, he personally translated the Guan Shiyin shouji jing (one fascicle).