Jing De Chuan Deng Lu (景德傳燈錄) · Volume 1

翰林學士朝散大夫行左司諫知制誥同修國史判史館事柱國南陽郡開國侯食邑一千百戶賜紫金魚袋臣楊億撰

(The following are the titles of one person, not of several:) Hanlin Academician, Grand Master for Court Audiences, Acting Left Remonstrator, Drafter of Edicts, Co-compiler of the National History, Administrator of the Historiography Office, Pillar of the State, Marquis of Nanyang with the rank of founding marquis, holding a fief of one thousand one hundred households, bestowed the purple-and-gold fish pouch, written by your servant Yang Yi.

昔釋迦文。以受然燈之夙記當賢劫之次補。降神演化四十九年。開權實頓漸之門。垂半滿偏圓之教。隨機悟理。爰有三乘之差。接物利生。乃度無邊之眾。其悲濟廣大矣。其軌式備具矣。而雙林入滅。獨顧於飲光。屈㫬相傳。首從於達磨。不立文字直指心源。不踐楷梯徑登佛地。逮五葉而始盛。分千燈而益繁。達寶所者蓋多。轉法輪者非一。蓋大雄付囑之旨。正眼流通之道。教外別行不可思議者也。

In the past, Shakyamuni Buddha, having long before received the prediction from Dipamkara Buddha, was to succeed in turn to the Buddha's seat in the Auspicious Eon. He descended in spirit and taught in the world for forty-nine years, opening the doors of provisional and real, sudden and gradual teachings, and setting forth the teachings of partial and full, one-sided and complete. People awakened to the true principle according to their capacities, and so there arose the differences among the three vehicles of the Hearers, the Solitary Realizers and the Bodhisattvas (short for bodhisattva, one who seeks awakening and also liberates beings); he drew in beings and benefited the sentient, and so delivered countless multitudes. His compassionate salvation was vast and his rules and norms were complete. Yet when he entered extinction between the twin sala trees, he entrusted the true Dharma only to Kasyapa. Bending and stretching, it was transmitted in succession, beginning with Bodhidharma. It established no written words and pointed directly to the source of the mind; it did not tread on steps but ascended straight to the Buddha ground. Only when it reached the fifth generation did it begin to flourish, and divided into a thousand lamps it multiplied still more. Those who reached the place of treasure were many, and those who turned the Dharma wheel were not just one. This is indeed the original purport of the Great Hero's entrustment, the path by which the Eye of the True Dharma flows on, the inconceivable matter of a separate transmission outside the teachings.

聖宋啟運人靈幽贊

When the Great Song founded the dynasty, humans and spirits gave secret help.

太祖以神武戡亂。而崇淨剎。闢度門。

The Founding Emperor pacified the turmoil with divine martial power and, at the same time, honored pure monasteries and opened the gate of ordaining people.

太宗以欽明御辯。而述秘詮。暢真諦。

The Second Emperor ruled with sagely brilliance and eloquence, composed profound commentaries, and expounded the true principles.

皇上睿文繼志而序聖教繹宗風。煥雲章於義天。振金聲於覺苑。蓮藏之言密契。竺乾之緒克昌。殖眾善者滋多。傳了義者間出。圓頓之化流於區域。有東吳僧道原者。冥心禪悅。索隱空宗。披弈世之祖圖。採諸方之語錄。次序其源派。錯綜其辭句。由七佛以至大法眼之嗣。凡五十二世。一千七百一人。成三十卷。目之曰景德傳燈錄。詣闕奉進冀於流佈。

His Majesty the present Emperor, with wise literary virtue, continued the aspirations of his predecessors, wrote prefaces for the sacred teaching and elaborated the tradition of the school. His cloudlike writings shine in the heaven of principle, and his golden voice resounds in the garden of awakening. The lotus-treasury teachings are secretly in accord with the mind, and the Dharma lineage of India has flourished. Those who cultivate many good deeds grow ever more numerous, and those who transmit the definitive meaning appear from time to time. The perfect and sudden teaching has spread throughout the land. There was a monk of eastern Wu, Daoyuan, who immersed himself in the joy of meditation and explored the subtleties of emptiness. He read through the charts of the patriarchs of successive generations, collected sayings from all quarters, arranged their lines of origin and branches, and compiled their words. From the Seven Buddhas down to the heirs of Great Master Fayan, in fifty-two generations and one thousand seven hundred and one persons, he made thirty fascicles and titled it the Jingde Record of the Transmission of the Lamp, and sent it to the palace to be presented, hoping that it might be circulated.

皇上為佛法之外護。嘉釋子之勤業。載懷重慎。思致悠久。乃詔翰林學士左司諫知制誥臣楊億。兵部員外郎知制誥臣李維。太常丞臣王曙等。同加刊削。俾之裁定。臣等昧三學之旨迷五性之方。乏臨川翻譯之能。懵毘邪語默之要。恭承嚴命。不敢牢讓。竊用探索匪遑寧居。考其論譔之意。蓋以真空為本。將以述曩聖入道之因。標昔人契理之說。機緣交激。若拄於箭鋒。智藏發光。旁資於鞭影。誘道後學。敷暢玄猷。而捃摭之來。徵引所出。糟粕多在。油素可尋。其有大士。示徒。以一音而開演。含靈聳聽。乃千聖之證明。屬概舉之是資。取少分而斯可。若乃別加潤色失其指歸。既非華竺之殊言。頗近錯雕之傷寶。如此之類悉仍其舊。況又事資紀實。必由於善敘。言以行遠。非可以無文。其有標錄事緣。縷詳軌跡。或辭條之紛糾。或言筌之猥俗。並從刊削。俾之綸貫。至有儒臣居士之問答。爵位姓氏之著明。校歲歷以愆殊。約史籍而差謬。鹹用刪去。以資傳信。自非啟投針之玄趣。馳激電之迅機。開示妙明之真心。祖述苦空之深理。即何以契傳燈之喻。施刮膜之功。若乃但述感應之徵符。專敘參遊之轍跡。此已標於僧史。亦奚取於禪詮。聊存世系之名。庶紀師承之自然而舊錄所載。或掇粗而遺精。別集具存。當尋文而補闕。率加採擷。爰從附益。逮於序論之作。或非古德之文。問廁編聯徒增楦釀(楦釀二字出唐張燕公文集。謂冗長也)亦用簡別多所屏去。汔茲周歲方遂終篇。臣等性識媿於冥煩。學問慚於涉獵。天機素淺。文力無餘。妙道在人。雖刳心而斯久。玄言絕俗。固牆面以居多。濫膺推擇之私。靡著發揮之効。已克終於紬繹。將仰奉於清間。莫副宸襟空塵睿覽。謹上。

His Majesty, as an outer protector of the Buddha Dharma, commended the diligent work of the Buddha's disciples. Taking the matter seriously in his heart and wishing this book to be transmitted far into the future, he issued an edict to the Hanlin Academician, Left Remonstrator and Drafter of Edicts, your servant Yang Yi, the Vice Director of the Ministry of War and Drafter of Edicts, your servant Li Wei, and the Chancellor of the Court of Imperial Sacrifices, your servant Wang Shu, and others, to jointly revise and trim it and have them fix the text. We are still in darkness about the purport of the three trainings of discipline, concentration and wisdom, and are confused about the paths of the five natures; we lack the translating talent of Linchuan (Xie Lingyun) and do not understand the essential meaning of speech and silence in Vaisali (where Vimalakirti dwelled). Respectfully receiving the strict command, we did not dare to decline firmly. In private we pondered it with all our hearts and had no moment of peace. Examining the intention with which this book was composed, it takes true emptiness as its root, in order to record the causes and conditions by which the former sages entered the Way and to set forth the teachings of the predecessors that accorded with principle. Occasions strike one another like arrow points meeting; the treasury of wisdom gives off light, also drawing support from the side-help of the whip's shadow. It guides later students and sets out and expounds profound plans. As for the sources from which it was gathered and where citations come from, the dregs often still remain, and can be traced in the plain silk. Among them, where a great being instructs his followers, speaking with a single voice, and sentient beings listen with their ears attentive, that is the testimony of a thousand sages; this belongs to material that needs only to be summarized, and a small portion is enough. To polish it further would only lose its direction; this is not a difference between Chinese and Sanskrit, and comes very close to the fault of carving a jewel until it is ruined. Material of this sort is kept entirely as it was. Moreover, to record events truthfully one must be good at narration, and for words to travel far they cannot lack literary grace. Where there are lists of deeds and detailed accounts of conduct, and the language is either tangled and confused or crude, we have trimmed all of it so that it flows consistently. As for the question-and-answer exchanges with Confucian ministers and lay practitioners, where their ranks, titles and surnames were set out clearly but the years were found wrong when checked or erroneous when compared with the histories, we have removed them all, so that the text may be trustworthy. If it did not open up the profound purport of needle and mustard seed meeting, the swift opportunities that race like lightning, reveal the wondrously bright true mind, and trace the profound principle of suffering and emptiness, how could it accord with the analogy of transmitting the lamp and carry out the merit of scraping away the film from the eye? As for those that merely record signs of response and miraculous proofs, or narrate only the traces of travels and visits, these have already been noted in the monks' histories, so why take them as explanations of the Chan school? We have kept only the names of the lineages in order to record the master-to-disciple transmission. Where the old record has taken the coarse and left out the fine, the other collections are all extant, and should be used to fill the gaps according to their writings. So we gathered what was needed and added it as we went. As for prefaces and treatises and the like, some were not written by the ancient worthies but were joined in and strung together, and only increased padding (the two characters meaning “padding” come from the collected works of Zhang Yan Gong of the Tang, meaning wordy), and these too we sorted out and removed in great number. Only this year was it finally finished. In temperament and understanding we are ashamed of being dull and trivial, in learning we are ashamed of merely wading through, our natural aptitude has always been shallow, and the strength of our writing has been used up. The wondrous Way depends on the person; although we have sought it with our whole hearts for a long time, profound words that transcend the common mostly leave us facing a wall. We have been chosen to fill a place without merit, and have not brought out any effect. Having at last finished arranging and compiling it, we are about to respectfully present it for His Majesty's inquiry. If it does not accord with the sacred mind, it will only stain the imperial perusal. Respectfully submitted.

重刊景德傳燈錄狀

Petition on the Re-engraving of the Jingde Record of the Transmission of the Lamp

湖州路。道場山。護聖萬歲禪寺。耆舊僧希渭。係慶元路昌國州人氏俗姓董。自幼投禮本路在城觀音禪寺絕照和尚為師。䚯到法名投禮慈谿縣開壽普光禪寺龍源和尚薙髮為僧。仍禮五臺律寺雪涯和尚受具戒。挾策西遊。放包靈隱。後值先師龍源和尚。遷住茲山。隨師參請。迨今有年。每念師恩未由報効。伏覩。從上佛祖景德傳燈錄三十卷。七佛至法眼之嗣。凡五十二世。景德至延祐丙辰。凡三百一十七年。舊板銷朽無存。後學慕之罔及。為此發心重刊。忽得本路天聖禪寺松廬和尚所藏廬山穩庵古冊。最為善本。良愜素志。遂於丙辰年正月初十日。將衣缽估唱得統金一萬二千餘緡。是日命工刊行於世。流通祖道。此錄總計三十六萬七千九百一十七字。至當年臘月一日畢工。隨即印捨三百部於兩浙。安眾名山。方丈蒙堂眾寮各一部。以便湖海辦道禪衲參究。集茲善利。用報四恩。併資三有者。

Xiwei, a senior monk of the Huguo Wansui Chan Monastery on Daochang Mountain in Huzhou Circuit, is from Changguo Subprefecture in Qingyuan Circuit, with the lay surname Dong. From childhood he went to pay homage to the Venerable Juezhao of the Guanyin Chan Monastery in the city of that circuit as his teacher. (The four characters “to receive a Dharma name” in the base text appear to be corrupt or missing; the sense should be that he later received his Dharma name.) He also went to the Venerable Longyuan of the Kaishou Puguang Chan Monastery in Cixi County, who shaved his head to make him a monk, and then to the Venerable Xueya of the Wutai Vinaya Monastery to receive the full precepts. Carrying scriptures, he traveled to the west and left his bag of robes at Lingyin. Later he happened to meet his late teacher, the Venerable Longyuan, who had moved to reside on this mountain, and so he followed his teacher and attended him, which has now lasted many years. Whenever he thought of his teacher's kindness, there was no way to repay it. He saw that the thirty fascicles of the Jingde Record of the Transmission of the Lamp of the Buddhas and Patriarchs of old, from the Seven Buddhas to the heirs of Fayan, comprised fifty-two generations in all, and from the Jingde era to the Bingchen year of Yanyou was three hundred and seventeen years in all. The old woodblocks had rotted away and were gone, and later students who admired it had no way to see it. Therefore he resolved to re-engrave it. He suddenly obtained the ancient edition kept by the Venerable Songlu of the Tiansheng Chan Monastery of the same circuit, from Wen'an at Mount Lu, which was the best edition and very much accorded with his long-held wish. So on the tenth day of the first month of the Bingchen year, he sold off his robe and bowl, obtained more than twelve thousand strings of cash, and that very day began carving and printing for distribution, so that the Way of the patriarchs might be handed down. This record totals three hundred and sixty-seven thousand nine hundred and seventeen characters, and was completed on the first day of the twelfth month of that year. He then had three hundred copies printed and distributed in the two Zhejiang regions, placed in famous mountains in various places, one copy each in the abbot's quarters, the meditation hall and the common dormitories, so that Chan monks traveling the rivers and lakes to practice the Way might study it. He gathered these good benefits to repay the four kinds of kindness and to assist beings of the three realms of existence.

大元廷祐三年臘月一日

First day of the twelfth month, third year of Yanyou of the Great Yuan

耆舊僧希渭謹狀

Respectfully submitted by the senior monk Xiwei

小比丘文雅董役

The junior bhikshu (ordained man) Wenya supervised the engraving work

當山住持嗣祖比丘士洵主緣

Shixun, the bhikshu who is abbot of this monastery and holds the patriarchal seat in succession, presided over this undertaking

西來年表

Chronology of the Coming from the West

南齊

Southern Qi

太祖高皇帝姓蕭諱道成受宋禪即位都金陵

Emperor Gao, the Great Ancestor, surnamed Xiao, personal name Daocheng, received the abdication of Liu Song and took the throne, with his capital at Jinling.

後魏

Later Wei

高祖孝文皇帝。諱宏。姓拓跋氏。第六帝。即位改元延興當宋明帝泰始七年辛亥歲。至太和十八年。遷都洛陽。二十年改姓元氏

Emperor Xiaowen, the High Ancestor, personal name Hong, of the Tuoba clan, was the sixth emperor. He took the throne and changed the reign title to Yanxing, in the xinhai year, the seventh year of Taishi of Emperor Ming of Song. In the eighteenth year of Taihe he moved the capital to Luoyang, and in the twentieth year changed the surname to Yuan.

己未

Jiwei

庚申

Gengshen

二年

Year 2

四年

Year 4

辛酉

Xinyou

三年

Year 3

五年

Year 5

壬戌

Renxu

四年帝崩

Year 4, the emperor died.

六年

Year 6

世祖武帝

Emperor Wu, the Shizu

諱賾即位

Personal name Ze, took the throne.

癸亥

Guihai

七年

Year 7