開元釋教錄 16.4

16.4

支派經者。謂大部之中抄出別行。大般若第二會之類是也。夫法門浩廣罕究津涯。典籍紛綸靡窮邊際。故有隨宜化誘應物施緣。多於大部之中隨時略用。披尋者莫知所出。翫習者將義不終。今統集多端會歸當部。仍刪夷舊錄增減有無。具載名題備詳差互。庶使將來學者覽派知源。或恐未周用希來哲。

Extracted sūtras refers to those copied out of larger works to circulate independently, such as the Second Assembly of the *Mahāprajñāpāramitā-sūtra*. The gates of the Dharma are vast, their shores rarely reached; the scriptures are manifold, their boundaries inexhaustible. Hence, adapting to circumstances to transform and guide, responding to beings to bestow conditions, teachers often made brief use of them from within larger works according to the occasion. Readers did not know their origins, while students found their principles incomplete. Now I bring together their multiple strands and return them to their proper collections, pruning the older catalogues and adjusting their presence and absence. I fully record their titles and exhaustively detail their discrepancies, hoping that future scholars, observing the branches, will recognize the source. Fearing this may not yet be exhaustive, I entrust it to future sages.