澄觀

澄觀姓夏侯，越州山陰人。「年甫十一，依寶林寺今應天山霈禪師出家」〔T50n2061 0737a05〕，誦《法華經》；十四遇恩得度。本傳稱其「觀俊朗高逸，弗可以細務拘」〔T50n2061 0737a07〕，遂遍尋名山、旁求祕藏，「梯航既具，壼奧必臻」〔T50n2061 0737a08〕。所歷之學在僧傳中罕見其比：相部律、南山律、關河三論——三論之盛于江表，本傳直斷為「觀之力也」〔T50n2061 0737a11〕；《起信》《涅槃》受於瓦棺寺，海東《起信疏》義受於淮南法藏，天台《止觀》《法華》《維摩》諸疏受於湛然之門；又謁牛頭忠師、徑山欽師、洛陽無名師以「咨決南宗禪法」〔T50n2061 0737a19〕，見慧雲禪師而「了北宗玄理」〔T50n2061 0737a20〕。而終歸之處是華嚴：「却復天竺詵法師門，溫習《華嚴大經》」〔T50n2061 0737a13〕。

Chengguan was of the surname Xiahou, a man of Shanyin in Yuezhou. "At just eleven he left home under the meditation master Pei of Baolin monastery — now Yingtianshan" 〔T50n2061 0737a05〕, reciting the Lotus Sūtra; at fourteen he was ordained by imperial favour. His biography says he was "brilliant and lofty, and could not be bound by petty affairs" 〔T50n2061 0737a07〕, and so he searched out the famed mountains and sought the hidden treasuries on every side — "once ladder and ship were at hand, he was bound to reach the innermost chamber" 〔T50n2061 0737a08〕. Few careers in the biographies range so wide: the Xiangbu Vinaya, the Nanshan Vinaya, the Guanhe tradition of the Three Treatises — that the Three Treatises flourished south of the Yangtze the biography flatly credits to him, "Chengguan's doing" 〔T50n2061 0737a11〕; the Awakening of Faith and the Nirvāṇa at Waguan monastery, the sense of the Korean commentary on the Awakening of Faith under Fazang of Huainan, the Tiantai Calming-and-Contemplation and the commentaries on the Lotus and the Vimalakīrti under Zhanran; and he called on Zhong of Niutou, Qin of Jingshan and the nameless master of Luoyang "to settle the Chan method of the Southern school" 〔T50n2061 0737a19〕, and saw the meditation master Huiyun and "comprehended the profound principle of the Northern school" 〔T50n2061 0737a20〕. But the place he came back to was the Huayan: "he returned to the gate of the Dharma master Shen of Tianzhu monastery to go over the great Huayan Sūtra again" 〔T50n2061 0737a13〕.

大曆十一年誓遊五臺，一一巡禮；復往峨嵋求見普賢，還居大華嚴寺，專行方等懺法。「因慨《華嚴》舊疏，文繁義約」〔T50n2061 0737a29〕，惙然長想：「況文殊主智，普賢主理，二聖合為毘盧遮那」〔T50n2061 0737b01〕，而我既遊普賢之境界、泊妙吉之鄉原，「不疏《毘盧》，有辜二聖矣」〔T50n2061 0737b04〕。發願而後動筆，「起興元元年正月，貞元三年十二月畢功，成二十軸」〔T50n2061 0737b07〕——凡四年。此即本編華嚴考據所主之《大方廣佛華嚴經疏》〔T35n1735〕；其後之《隨疏演義鈔》〔T36n1736〕，本編與疏並取，鏡之兩面。貞元七年入都，與罽賓三藏般若同譯烏荼國王所進之四十卷《華嚴》後分；「觀至，帝頗敦重，延入譯場刊正」〔T50n2061 0737b24〕。

In the eleventh year of Dali he vowed to travel Mount Wutai, making the round of every site; then he went to Emei to seek sight of Samantabhadra, and returning dwelt at the Great Huayan monastery, devoting himself to the Vaipulya rite of repentance. "Grieved that the old commentaries on the Huayan were prolix in wording and thin in sense" 〔T50n2061 0737a29〕, he brooded long: "Mañjuśrī presides over wisdom and Samantabhadra over principle; the two sages joined make Vairocana" 〔T50n2061 0737b01〕 — and having roamed the realm of Samantabhadra and halted in the country of Mañjuśrī, "were I not to comment on Vairocana I should wrong the two sages" 〔T50n2061 0737b04〕. The vow came first and then the brush: "he began in the first month of the first year of Xingyuan and finished the work in the twelfth month of the third year of Zhenyuan, completing twenty rolls" 〔T50n2061 0737b07〕 — four years. That is the Commentary on the Flower Ornament Sūtra 〔T35n1735〕 on which this edition's Huayan apparatus principally draws; the Subcommentary that followed 〔T36n1736〕 this edition takes together with it, the two faces of one mirror. In the seventh year of Zhenyuan he was summoned to the capital and translated, with the Kashmiri Tripiṭaka master Prajñā, the forty-fascicle latter portion of the Huayan presented by the king of Uḍa; "when Chengguan arrived the emperor held him in high regard and drew him into the translation hall to collate and correct" 〔T50n2061 0737b24〕.

門人記其平時行狀，載十願，其中二願與本編所讀之書直相涉：「長講《華嚴大經》」〔T50n2061 0737c17〕與「一生晝夜不臥」〔T50n2061 0737c18〕。其生卒則本傳不着一確語，唯云「以元和年卒，春秋七十餘」〔T50n2061 0737c06〕——元和凡十五年，「七十餘」亦不定其數，故生卒二者皆不可自本傳定；本編如實標不詳，不代為補。華嚴祖位之說出法藏本傳而非其自述，古有異說，本編誌錄不判；其《華嚴》之受學，本傳明繫在天竺詵法師門〔T50n2061 0737a13〕。

His disciple recorded his everyday conduct and set down ten vows, two of which bear directly on the books this edition reads: "to lecture always on the great Huayan Sūtra" 〔T50n2061 0737c17〕 and "never to lie down, day or night, his whole life long" 〔T50n2061 0737c18〕. Of his dates the biography says nothing definite, only that "he died within the Yuanhe period, past seventy years of age" 〔T50n2061 0737c06〕 — Yuanhe ran fifteen years and "past seventy" fixes no figure, so neither birth nor death can be settled from the life itself; this edition marks them honestly as unknown rather than supplying them. The reckoning of the Huayan patriarchate comes from Fazang's biography and not from Chengguan's own word, the old accounts differ, and this edition records without adjudicating; his Huayan learning the biography places expressly at the gate of the Dharma master Shen of Tianzhu monastery 〔T50n2061 0737a13〕.