開元釋教錄 1.2

1.2

夫目錄之興也。蓋所以別真偽明是非。記人代之古今。標卷部之多少。摭拾遺漏刪夷駢贅。欲使正教綸理金言有緒。提綱舉要歷然可觀也。但以法門幽邃化網恢弘。前後翻傳年移代謝。屢經散滅卷軸參差。復有異人時增偽妄。致令混雜難究蹤由。是以先德儒賢製斯條錄。今其存者殆六七家。然猶未極根源尚多疎闕。昇以庸淺久事披尋。參練異同指陳臧否。成茲部帙。庶免乖違。幸諸哲人俯共詳覽。

The rise of catalogues is indeed that by which the genuine is distinguished from the spurious, right is clarified from wrong, the past and present of persons and eras are recorded, and the quantity of fascicles and works is demarcated. They gather what was lost and omitted and pare away redundancies and superfluities, desiring to make the coherent order of the correct teaching and the golden words properly arranged, raising the main outline and presenting the essentials so that they are clearly discernible. However, because the Dharma-gates are profound and the net of transformation is vast, as translations and transmissions succeeded one another through passing years and changing dynasties, texts repeatedly suffered scattering and destruction, and their fascicles and scrolls became irregular. Furthermore, there were eccentric individuals who occasionally added spurious texts, causing confusion and making it difficult to trace origins. Therefore, former worthies and Confucian sages composed such systematic catalogues; those surviving today are barely six or seven schools. Yet they still have not plumbed the roots and sources, and many omissions and deficiencies remain. I, Zhisheng, despite my mediocrity and shallowness, have long engaged in perusing and searching them, comparing and verifying similarities and differences, and pointing out merits and demerits to compile this multi-case work, hoping to avoid errors and discrepancies. I hope all wise persons will deign to examine it together.