貞元新定釋教目錄 13.21

13.21

誥遣中使弔慰。又內出花樹香盤幢幡蓋輿等六百餘事絹四百匹像一鋪。令充葬儀。及贈孝子門人動餘萬數。輟舂罷相悽慘城邑。聲明文物暉曜郊衢。弘法之功遠矣。哀榮之典備矣。門人智積等仰千仞之崇峻奄歎崩頹。挹萬頃之波瀾俄驚逝閱探遺美於緗簡。式言時於翠竭。其詞曰。彼遍知兮出現比利物乎大仙。有開士兮傳譯邁羅什於秦年。修多因而遠被毘奈。由是遐宣法方煥於朝景。舟忽移於夜川。明主悼兮流賻贈門人慕兮緝遺編。紀丹文於萬古。扃白日於三千。其時復有摩訶支那東都盟津北四由旬太行左麓。假名隱居撰頌德碑。文廣不敘。至肅宗文明武德大聖大宣孝皇帝乾元元年。於塔院所置金光明寺。以表譯經之最勝力也（時至德三年戊戌二月五日改為乾元元年八月十二日勅度七人僧出額名金光明寺十二月日迎至寺所）。

An imperial decree dispatched an envoy from the palace to offer condolences. Moreover, from within the palace were provided more than six hundred items—flowering trees, incense plates, banners, pennants, canopies, and carriages—along with four hundred bolts of silk and a set of images, to supply the funeral rites. In addition, gifts were bestowed upon the mourning disciples, amounting to over ten thousand items. The pounding of grain was halted and the songs of the laborers ceased; sadness enveloped the city. The musical instruments and ritual paraphernalia shone across the suburban avenues. His contribution to propagating the Dharma was indeed far-reaching! The rites of posthumous honor were complete in every respect. His disciple Zhiji and others looked up to his height of a thousand cubits, suddenly lamenting its collapse; they dipped into his waves of ten thousand qing, abruptly startled that he had passed away. Seeking his remaining excellence upon the yellow silk scrolls, they expressed their sentiments upon the verdant stele. Their eulogy ran:

“That All-Knowing One appeared,
Benefiting living beings—the Great Seer!
There was an exalted master who translated and transmitted,
Surpassing Kumārajīva of the Qin.
Because the sūtras were broadly spread,
The vinaya was thereby widely proclaimed.
Just as the Dharma was blazing like the morning sun,
The boat suddenly vanished into the night river.
The enlightened ruler mourned, bestowing lavish funeral gifts;
The disciples longed for him, compiling the writings left behind.
Inscribing cinnabar characters for ten thousand ages,
Closing the bright sun across the three thousand worlds.”

At that time, there was also a recluse under a pseudonym on the eastern foot of the Taihang Mountains, four yojanas north of Mengjin in the Eastern Capital of Mahācīna, who composed an inscription praising his virtues; its text is extensive and is not recorded here. In the first year of Qianyuan under Emperor Suzong—the Civil, Martial, Virtuous, Greatly Sagely, Greatly Illustrious, and Filial Emperor—a Jin’guangming Monastery was established at the site of his stūpa courtyard, in order to mark the supreme power of his translation of scriptures. (At that time, on the fifth day of the second month of the third year of Zhide, a wuxu year, the era name was changed to the first year of Qianyuan. On the twelfth day of the eighth month, an imperial decree ordained seven monks and granted the monastery placard with the name Jin’guangming Monastery. In the twelfth month, they were welcomed to the monastery site.)