開元釋教錄 13.3

13.3

The Śrāvakapiṭaka is the teaching explained by the Hīnayāna. The Master of the Teachings who could deliver it manifested birth and manifested extinction, responding to beings and according with conditions. The teachings explained comprise the nine divisions, the four āgamas, the abhidharma, and the vinaya. Good men and good women receive them and cast off the dust of worldly toil; pratyekabuddhas and śrāvakas uphold them and ascend to the other shore. Truly, this is the small vehicle of the true chariot, the conjured city on the way to bodhi; for guiding and advancing beginners, nothing surpasses it. Beginning in the Garden of the Sages and ending at that Golden River, the texts expounding the half-letter syllables are called the Śrāvakapiṭaka. When the hundred rivers meet as one and the three carts proceed together, all alike ascend to wondrous enlightenment and all together realize nirvāṇa. How could there be distinct names of 'small' and 'great'? Truly, these were our Honoured One's gradual enticements. From the dingmao year of Emperor Ming of the Han [67 CE] to the gengwu year of our Kaiyuan era [730 CE], the Hīnayāna Tripiṭaka currently in circulation totals 330 works, in 1,762 fascicles and 165 cases, arranged as the Dharma-piṭaka of the Śrāvakas. The sections and divisions are displayed below in full.