貞元新定釋教目錄 6.32.2

6.32.2

"[Do you have any] scriptures that could be shown to me?" The meditation master then handed him a birch-bark manuscript of the Nirvāṇa-sūtra. As Dharmakṣema read it through, he was startled into awakening and began to feel ashamed and regretful, considering that his knowledge had been like that of a frog in a well, long blind to the vast expanse. Thereupon he assembled the community to repent of his errors, and ultimately turned exclusively to the study of the Mahāyāna. By the age of twenty, he had recited over two million words of Mahāyāna and Hīnayāna scriptures.

His paternal cousin was skilled at taming and riding elephants, but he killed the king's white-eared great elephant. Enraged, the king executed him and issued an order: "Whoever dares to look upon him shall have three clans exterminated!" None of the relatives dared go, but Dharmakṣema wept and buried him. Enraged, the king wished to execute Dharmakṣema. Dharmakṣema said: "Your Majesty killed him according to the law; I buried him out of kinship. Neither violates great righteousness. Why be angry with me?" The bystanders froze with fear for him, but his demeanor remained composed. The king, marveling at his courage, spared him and provided him with offerings.

Dharmakṣema thoroughly understood spells and arts, which were efficacious wherever directed. In the Western Regions, he was called the "Great Spiritual Spell-Master." Later, he accompanied the king into the mountains. The king, parched with thirst, needed water but could find none. Dharmakṣema secretly incanted a stone and made water gush forth. He then praised the king, saying: "Moved by the great king's benevolence, a spring has emerged even from barren rock!" All who heard of it in neighboring states sighed in admiration at the king's virtue. At that time, the rains were well-timed and harmonious, and the common people sang praises. The king was delighted with his arts and favored him with deep respect. After a while, however, the king's regard gradually cooled, and he treated him more coldly. Resentful, Dharmakṣema said: "I shall take a jar of water, go to the dragon pool, incant the dragon into the jar, and cause a great drought throughout the land. The king will surely beg me to chant a spell; only then will I release the dragon to bring rain, and we shall see how I am treated then!" Carrying the jar, he went to the dragon. Someone secretly informed the king, who in rage sought to arrest Dharmakṣema. Fearing execution, Dharmakṣema fled to Kucha carrying the first section of the Mahānirvāṇa-sūtra in one pothi box, the Bodhisattva-śīla-sūtra (that is, the Bodhisattva-bhūmi), and the Bodhisattva Precept Manual.

In the kingdom of Kucha, most people studied the Hīnayāna and did not believe in the Nirvāṇa[-sūtra]. He then proceeded to Guzang and lodged in an inn. Fearing the loss of the manuscript, he used it as a pillow to sleep on. Someone pulled him down to the ground. Startled, Dharmakṣema thought it was a thief. This happened for three nights. Then he heard a voice in the air say: "This is the treasury of the Tathāgata's liberation; why do you use it as a pillow?" Dharmakṣema, ashamed and enlightened, placed it separately in a high spot. That night, a thief came to steal it but could not lift it. Though he tried to lift it several times, he could not budge it. The next morning, Dharmakṣema took the scripture and left, not finding it heavy. Seeing this, the thief took him for a holy man and came to bow and apologize.

Juqu Mengxun, King of Hexi, heard of Dharmakṣema's renown and summoned him for an audience, treating him with great generosity. Mengxun had long revered the Great Dharma and aimed to propagate it; he requested him to produce the translation of his manuscript. Because he was not yet versed in the local language and had no interpreter, Dharmakṣema feared that his words would deviate from the principle, and did not agree to translate immediately. Thereupon he studied the language for three years, and only then translated the first part in ten fascicles. At that time, the śramaṇas Huisong and Daolang were preeminent in Hexi. Encountering his propagation of the Dharma treasury, they esteemed him deeply; they translated the Indic text while Master Song served as scribe. Several hundred monks and laypersons raised complex difficulties and questions, but Dharmakṣema resolved the obscurities on the spot, never meeting an obstruction. Song, Lang, and others further requested him to translate other scriptures extensively—namely, the Mahāsaṃnipāta, Mahāmegha, Karuṇāpuṇḍarīka, Bodhisattva-bhūmi, and so forth, together with the Nirvāṇa-sūtra, totaling nineteen works.

Because the number of chapters in the manuscript of the Nirvāṇa-sūtra was incomplete, Dharmakṣema returned to his home country to search for them. Encountering the death of his mother, he stayed there for over a year. Later, he obtained further manuscripts in Khotan and returned to Guzang, where he continued translating them into four cases. Dharmakṣema first began translating in the first month of the third year of Xuanshi (jiayin) and completed them all by the fifteenth year (bingyin). (Fei Changfang says that it was completed in the tenth year of Xuanshi, but that was when the Nirvāṇa-sūtra was finished, not the other scriptures. According to the colophon of the Upāsakaśīla-sūtra, it was produced in the year bingyin, meaning he was still translating scriptures in the fifteenth year. Dharmakṣema did not die until the third month of the third year of Yihe (guiyou); in the six intervening years he must have translated more scriptures, but since the catalogues do not mention them, the matter remains unclear.)

Dharmakṣema once visited Mengxun and said: "Demons have entered the settlement; there will surely be many pestilences and disasters." Mengxun did not believe it and wished to see it for himself as proof. Dharmakṣema then cast an art upon Mengxun; Mengxun saw it and was terrified. Dharmakṣema said: "One should purify the mind with fasting and drive them away with spiritual spells." He recited spells for three days and then told Mengxun: "The demons have gone north." Soon after, tens of thousands died of pestilence beyond the northern border. Mengxun respected and feared him all the more, treating him with even higher honors.

It happened that Emperor Taiwu of the Wei heard of his arts and dispatched envoys to welcome him, warning Mengxun: "If you do not send Dharmakṣema, we will immediately send troops." Mengxun considered his own state too weak to defy the command; furthermore, he worried that Dharmakṣema was full of arts and might plot against him for the Wei. Hesitant and panicking, he secretly plotted to eliminate him. Earlier, when Dharmakṣema's translation of the Nirvāṇa[-sūtra] was finished in its fascicle count, the foreign śramaṇa Dharmakāma said that the chapters of this scripture were not yet complete. Dharmakṣema had sighed and vowed to search for them again. Taking advantage of his intent to travel, Mengxun pretended to fund his departure and gave him generous gifts of valuables. A few days before setting out, Dharmakṣema wept and said: "My karmic retribution is about to arrive, and all the sages cannot save me. Yet because of my original vow, righteousness does not permit me to halt." After traveling forty li, Mengxun secretly dispatched an assassin to murder him. He was forty-nine years old at the time. The multitude lamented and mourned him. Subsequently, Mengxun's attendants frequently saw ghosts and spirits striking Mengxun with swords in broad daylight. In the fourth month, he fell ill and died. (Mengxun murdered Dharmakṣema in the third month of the third year of Yihe, and in the fourth month of that same year fell ill and died. Truly, karmic retribution is not in vain, following just as a shadow follows a form! Fei Changfang's claim that Dharmakṣema died in the fourth year of Chenghe under Maoqian is incorrect. The third year of Yihe was the second year of Yanhe of the Wei, the year guiyou.)

Earlier, when Dharmakṣema was in Guzang, the śramaṇa Daojin from Zhangye wished to receive the bodhisattva precepts from him. Dharmakṣema said: "First repent your faults." Thereupon Daojin exerted his utmost sincerity for seven days and seven nights. On the morning of the eighth day, he went to Dharmakṣema seeking ordination, but Dharmakṣema suddenly flew into a great rage. Daojin reflected further: "It is only that my karmic obstacles have not yet been eliminated." He then exerted himself for three years, practicing both meditation and repentance. In the midst of absorption, he saw Śākyamuni Buddha together with the great beings conferring the precept methods upon him. That night, over ten people staying in the same quarters all had dreams matching what Daojin had seen. Daojin was about to go to Dharmakṣema to tell him; when he was still ten paces away, Dharmakṣema started up and exclaimed: "Excellent, excellent! You have already invoked the precepts. I shall witness it for you." He then explained the marks of the precepts before the Buddha image in succession. At that time, the śramaṇa Daolang was famed throughout the region west of the Pass. On the night Daojin invoked the precepts, Daolang also shared the dream; he humbly set aside his monastic seniority and asked to become his Dharma brother. Thereupon over a thousand people received the precepts from Daojin, and the transmission of this tradition down to the present day is entirely the legacy of Dharmakṣema.

A separate record states: "The Bodhisattvabhūmi-sūtra was likely transmitted to this land by the Bodhisattva Evale." In the end, it was indeed translated by Dharmakṣema; one wonders whether Dharmakṣema was no ordinary mortal.

Bodhisattva Precept Scripture, in eight fascicles. (The catalogues of Sengyou, Fei Changfang, and others all say this was translated by Dharmakṣema. Because it is another name for the Bodhisattva-bhūmi, it is not listed twice here.)
Ākāśagarbha-sūtra, in five fascicles. (The catalogues of Sengyou, Fei Changfang, and others say this was also translated by Dharmakṣema. Because it is an extract circulating separately from the Ākāśagarbha chapter of the Mahāsaṃnipāta, it is now included in the catalogue of separate offshoots and not retained here.)