貞元新定釋教目錄 12.9

12.9

He decreed that the relevant office select copyists from the Palace Library to copy nine sets of the newly translated sūtras and śāstras, and distribute them to the nine great prefectures—Yu, Yong, Luo, Yan, Xiang, Jing, Yang, Liang, and Yi—to circulate successively, so that people throughout the land might equally receive these previously unheard doctrines. The Emperor had earlier promised to compose a preface for the new scriptures, but because pressing administrative affairs were so demanding, he had not yet had the opportunity to turn his attention to it. When the Dharma Master petitioned him again, he then applied his brush and completed it in a short while; it was titled Da Tang Sanzang shengjiao xu (Preface to the Sacred Teachings of the Tripiṭaka of the Great Tang). He copied it himself with his divine brush, decreeing that it be placed at the head of all the scriptures.