貞元新定釋教目錄 6.10.7

6.10.7

and passed him by. Such was his focused dedication. Later, he arrived in the kingdom of Kashgar. At that time, the crown prince Dharmaputra (in Qin, "Fazida") saw his refined and elegant demeanor and asked where he had come from. Yaśas replied with clear eloquence, and the crown prince was delighted, thereupon inviting him to the palace to make offerings to him and treat him with great generosity. When Kumārajīva arrived later, he studied under him and respected him deeply. When Kumārajīva returned east with his mother, Yaśas stayed behind. Soon after, the king died and the crown prince ascended the throne. At that time, Fu Jian dispatched Lü Guang to attack Kucha. Kucha urgently sought rescue from the king of Kashgar, who personally led troops to rescue them. He had Yaśas remain behind to assist the crown prince, entrusting him with subsequent responsibilities. Before the rescue army arrived, Kucha had already fallen. When the king returned, he recounted in full how Kumārajīva had been captured by Lü Guang. He then sighed and said, "Though Kumārajīva and I met for a long time, we did not fully open our hearts to each other. Now he has suddenly become a captive—when shall we meet again?" Yaśas remained for more than ten years until the king died. He then traveled to Kucha, where his propagation of the Dharma flourished greatly. At that time, Kumārajīva was in Guzang and sent a letter to invite him. Yaśas packed provisions intending to leave, but the people of the country begged him to stay, so he remained for more than a year longer. Later, he said to his disciples, "I wish to seek out Kumārajīva; you may secretly pack baggage and depart by night, letting no one know." A disciple said, "I fear that when dawn arrives and pursuers come, we will not avoid having to turn back." Yaśas then took a bowl of clear water, put medicine into it, chanted a mantra of several tens of words over it, and washed his disciples' feet with it; they then set out by night. By dawn, they had traveled several hundred li. He asked his disciples, "What did you feel?" They replied, "We only heard the sound of rushing wind, and tears flowed from our eyes." Yaśas again washed their feet with incanted water, and they rested. The next morning, when the people of the country pursued them, they had already diverged by several hundred li and could not catch up. Traveling on, he reached Guzang, but Kumārajīva had already entered Chang'an. When Kumārajīva heard that he had reached Guzang, he urged Yao Xing to welcome him, but Xing did not take it up. Soon after, Yao Xing ordered Kumārajīva to translate the canon of sūtras. Kumārajīva said, "In propagating the teachings of the Dharma, one should make the phrasing and meaning perfectly penetrate each other. Although this poor monk can recite the text, he has not fully mastered its principles. Only Buddhayaśas deeply comprehends the purports of the sūtras. He is now in Guzang; I pray that you issue an edict to summon him. We should deliberate three times over every single phrase before putting brush to paper. This will prevent the subtle words from falling into ruin and secure trust for a thousand ages." Xing complied with this and immediately dispatched an envoy to invite and welcome him. When lavish presents were bestowed upon him, he refused them all. Only after repeated letters and earnest persuasion did he finally arrive in Chang'an. Xing personally went out to greet and inquire after him, erecting a new residence for him in the Xiaoyao Garden and providing the four offerings, all of which he declined. When the time came, he merely went begging for food for a single meal. At that time, Kumārajīva was translating the Daśabhūmika-sūtra; for more than a month, he had hesitated over difficult points and had not yet set brush to paper. Yaśas arrived first, and together they investigated and resolved them, whereupon the phrasing and principles were settled. The monastics and laity, numbering more than three thousand, all praised his penetrating mastery of the essentials. In appearance, Yaśas had red hair and was adept at explaining the Vibhāṣā; therefore, people of the time called him the "Red-Beard Vibhāṣā." Having become Kumārajīva's teacher, he was also called the "Great Vibhāṣā." When the four assemblies offered him robes, bowls, and bedding, enough to fill three rooms, he did not take it to heart. Xing sold them for him and built a monastery south of the city. Yaśas had previously memorized the Dharmaguptaka-vinaya, and the Director of Retainers, Yao Shuang (also written Yao Shi), requested that he be made to translate it. Xing suspected he might have omissions or errors, so he tested Yaśas by having him memorize羌 registers and medicinal prescriptions of more than forty sheets each. After three days, he held the text to check it, and not a single character was wrong. The assembly marveled at his powerful memory. Thereupon, in the tenth year of Hongshi, the wushen year, he translated the Dharmaguptaka-vinaya (Four-Part Vinaya) and the Dīrgha-āgama. After fifteen years, in the guichou year, it was finally completed. The monk Zhu Fonian of Liangzhou translated it into the language of Qin, and Daohan received it with brush. When the translation was completed and the assembly adjourned, Xing offered Yaśas ten thousand bolts of cloth and silk, all of which he refused. Fonian and Daohan received one thousand bolts of cloth and silk each, and five hundred monks of eminent virtue were all lavishly bestowed with donations. Later, Yaśas returned to Kashmīr; it is not known where he ended his life. (The Preface to the Four-Part Vinaya states: In the renchen year, the monk Zhi Faling of the Jin state crossed the flowing sands westward on a long journey aimed at India. Passing through Khotan, he met Buddhayaśas, a Tripiṭaka monk who embodied the Mahāyāna of the Dharmaguptaka school, whose talent and character were widely known, and who was thoroughly practiced in the sūtras and vinaya. He could recite the Tripiṭaka and the Mahāyāna with fluency. He then collected numerous sūtras in that country at a monastery, and returned, arriving in the Qin state in the wushen year. The Qin sovereign Yao Xing was delighted, and in that same year requested him to produce the vinaya collection. At that time, more than three hundred monks who maintained the vinaya were assembled at Zhong Monastery in Chang'an to produce it, employing Faling's disciple Huibian as translator. The renchen year was the seventh year of Qin's Jianchu era; the wushen year was the tenth year of Hongshi. Another account says that Yaśas and Fonian compared the Indic text brought by Faling before translating it. The various accounts differ slightly; it is not clear which is correct. Furthermore, according to Sengzhao's Preface to the Dīrgha-āgama and the Gaoseng zhuan, both say that the Four-Part Vinaya was produced in the twelfth year of Hongshi; this may refer to the time when the text was completed.)
*Kṣema-sūtra*, one fascicle (Arrived in Guangzhou during the Long'an era of the Eastern Jin, and was translated at Baisha Monastery for the upasikā Zhang Puming; this properly belongs to the Jin catalogue, but is appended here to Qin following the Gaoseng zhuan and the Lidai sanbao ji).
*Sūtra on the Skill-in-Means Chapter on the Delightful Adornment with Necklaces*, one fascicle (Also named *Sūtra on the Dialogue of the Bodhisattva Transforming the Female Body*, the third translation, sharing the same original text with Dharmarakṣa's *Sūtra on Accordance with Expedient Means*, etc. Li Kuo's catalogue says it was translated by Kumārajīva; following the sūtra records which state it was produced by Yaśas, it is moved and catalogued here).
*Śāriputrābhidharma-śāstra*, twenty-two fascicles (Some omit the word "lun", or have twenty or thirty fascicles; produced together with Dharmagupta at Shiyang Monastery, with a preface composed by the monk Daobiao; seen in Sengyou's and Baochang's two catalogues and the Gaoseng zhuan).
The above three works in thirty-four fascicles (The first work in one fascicle is missing; the latter two works in twenty-three fascicles are extant).
Śramaṇa Dharmayaśas, in Qin: Facheng (The translation in the Gaoseng zhuan as Faming deviates in meaning).
A man of the kingdom of Kashmīr. In his youth he was fond of learning, and at the age of fourteen he became known to Puṇyatāra. When grown, his frame and spirit were lofty and bright, and he possessed exceptional divine wisdom. He extensively studied the sūtras and vinaya, understanding and awakening beyond the ordinary. He cultivated his thought in the eight dhyānas and let his mind roam through the seven factors of awakening. People of the time compared him to Fu-tou-po-tuo (Buddhadeva). He traveled alone through mountains and marshes, not avoiding tigers or wild bulls; dwelling alone in contemplation, days and nights would pass without his moving. Once under a tree, he repeatedly reproached himself: "I am nearing thirty years of age and have not yet attained the fruit; how remiss I am!" Thereupon, for days on end he neither slept nor ate, practicing with intense rigor to repent of his past transgressions. He then saw in a dream King Virūpākṣa, who said to him, "A śramaṇa should survey the quarters to propagate the teachings, harboring the vast salvation [of beings] in his mind. Why hold to petty restraint and merely cultivate yourself alone? The Way relies on manifold conditions and must await the ripening of the time. If one forcefully seeks beyond one's measure, one will die without realization." Awakening, he reflected on this and wished to travel to distant lands to transmit the Way. Subsequently, he passed through various countries, braving perils and hazards. In the middle of the Long'an era of the Jin, he first arrived in Guangzhou and stayed at Baisha Monastery. Yaśas was skilled in reciting the Vibhāṣā-vinaya, so everyone called him the "Great Vibhāṣā." At that time, there was an upāsikā named Zhang