房融

藏中無其本傳，所存唯譯署與一二條記事。本經卷一卷端署「菩薩戒弟子前正諫大夫同中書門下平章事清河房融筆授」〔T19n0945 0106b09–b10〕：居士而受菩薩戒，前宰相而列譯場。《佛祖統紀》於神龍元年下記其所以在廣州：「中書門下平章事房融貶高州。至南海遇印度沙門般剌密諦。遂止制止寺。譯大佛頂首楞嚴經。融為筆受」〔T49n2035 0371b18–b20〕——一次貶謫，成就一部經的筆受。

The canon preserves no biography of him, only the translation attribution and one or two notices. The head of fascicle one of this sūtra reads: "Taken down in writing by the bodhisattva-precept disciple Fang Rong of Qinghe, formerly Grand Master of Remonstrance and Joint Manager of Affairs with the Secretariat-Chancellery" 〔T19n0945 0106b09–b10〕: a layman who had received the bodhisattva precepts, a former chief minister who sat in the translation hall. The Chronicle of the Buddhas and Patriarchs*, under the first year of Shenlong, records why he was in Guangzhou: "Fang Rong, Joint Manager of Affairs with the Secretariat-Chancellery, was demoted to Gaozhou. Reaching the South Sea he met the Indian śramaṇa Pramiti, and so stayed at Zhizhi Monastery, where the* Great Buddha-Crown Śūraṅgama Sūtra was translated, Rong taking it down in writing" 〔T49n2035 0371b18–b20〕. One banishment produced the written text of one sūtra.

後人論此經文字之勝，多歸於他。王隨序云「懿其般剌譯其義，房相筆其文」〔T39n1799 0823a18–a19〕；《佛祖統紀》引蘇軾語：「大乘諸經至楞嚴則委曲精盡勝妙獨出。以房融筆授故也」〔T49n2035 0418a14–a15〕。義出於譯主，文成於筆受——此經漢文之所以為漢文，與他相關。本編照錄此評，不另判。

Later readers who praised the sūtra's Chinese mostly credited him. Wang Sui's preface says: "Admirable that Pramiti rendered its meaning and Minister Fang wrote its text" 〔T39n1799 0823a18–a19〕; the Chronicle quotes Su Shi: "Among the sūtras of the Great Vehicle, when one comes to the Śūraṅgama its intricacy and refinement are exhaustive and its excellence stands alone; this is because Fang Rong took it down in writing" 〔T49n2035 0418a14–a15〕. The meaning came from the translator, the prose from the scribe: that this sūtra's Chinese reads as it does has to do with him. This edition records the judgement as given and adds none of its own.