求那跋陀羅

《高僧傳》卷三本傳起首云：「求那跋陀羅，此云功德賢，中天竺人，以大乘學，故世號摩訶衍」〔T50n2059 0344a05〕。其學不始於佛法：「幼學五明諸論，天文書算，醫方呪術，靡不該博」〔T50n2059 0344a06〕，轉機在一部論：「後遇見《阿毘曇雜心》，尋讀驚悟，乃深崇佛法焉」〔T50n2059 0344a07〕。然其家不許：「其家世外道，禁絕沙門，乃捨家潛遁，遠求師友」〔T50n2059 0344a09〕。既受具足而博通三藏，復辭小乘之師進學大乘，「大乘師試令探取經匣，即得《大品》、《華嚴》」〔T50n2059 0344a12〕，師嘉而歎曰「汝於大乘有重緣矣」〔T50n2059 0344a13〕。其後奉書父母，勸歸正法曰：「若專守外道，則雖還無益，若歸信三寶，則長相見」〔T50n2059 0344a16〕，「其父感其言至，遂棄邪從正」〔T50n2059 0344a17〕。

The life in the Lives of Eminent Monks, fascicle three, opens: "Guṇabhadra, in our tongue Gongdexian, Merit-Worthy, was a man of central India; because his learning was of the Great Vehicle the age styled him Mahāyāna" 〔T50n2059 0344a05〕. His studies did not begin with the Buddha's Dharma: "as a boy he studied the treatises of the five sciences — astronomy, writing and calculation, medicine, spells — and there was none he did not command" 〔T50n2059 0344a06〕. The turn came through one treatise: "later he came upon the Saṃyuktābhidharmahṛdaya; reading it through, he was startled awake, and thereupon revered the Buddha's Dharma deeply" 〔T50n2059 0344a07〕. His household would not allow it: "his family had followed an outsider path for generations and barred all śramaṇas, so he left home in secret and went far off in search of teachers and friends" 〔T50n2059 0344a09〕. Having taken full ordination and mastered the Tripiṭaka, he left his Hīnayāna teacher to advance in the Great Vehicle; "his Mahāyāna teacher had him draw at random from the scripture chest, and he drew out the Larger Perfection of Wisdom and the Flower Ornament" 〔T50n2059 0344a12〕, at which the teacher approved and sighed, "you have a weighty bond with the Great Vehicle" 〔T50n2059 0344a13〕. Afterwards he wrote to his parents urging them to the right Dharma: "If you hold fast to the outsider path, then though I return it will profit nothing; if you take refuge in the Three Jewels, then we shall see one another long" 〔T50n2059 0344a16〕, and "his father was moved by the earnestness of his words and cast off the false for the right" 〔T50n2059 0344a17〕.

其東來浮海，中途風止而淡水復竭，舉舶憂惶，跋陀曰：「可同心并力念十方佛，稱觀世音，何往不感」〔T50n2059 0344a20〕，乃密誦呪經懇到禮懺，「俄而，信風暴至，密雲降雨，一舶蒙濟」〔T50n2059 0344a21〕。「元嘉十二年至廣州」〔T50n2059 0344a23〕，宋太祖遣信迎接，既至京都而朝野宗仰。眾僧共請出經，於祇洹寺譯《雜阿含》，東安寺出《法鼓》，「後於丹陽郡譯出《勝鬘》、《楞伽經》，徒眾七百餘人，寶雲傳譯，慧觀執筆，往復諮析，妙得本旨」〔T50n2059 0344b03〕——本編所譯《楞伽阿跋多羅寶經》即出於此一譯場。譙王請講《華嚴》，「而跋陀自忖，未善宋言，有懷愧歎」〔T50n2059 0344b11〕，乃旦夕禮懺請觀世音；夢中有白服持劍者為之易首，覺而「旦起，道義皆備領宋言，於是就講」〔T50n2059 0344b16〕。

Coming east by sea, the ship was becalmed midway and the fresh water gave out; the whole vessel was in dread, and Guṇabhadra said, "Let us with one heart and joined strength be mindful of the Buddhas of the ten directions and call on Avalokiteśvara — where then shall we go without response?" 〔T50n2059 0344a20〕. He recited the spell-scripture silently and made earnest repentance, and "presently a fair wind came up in force, dense cloud let down rain, and the whole ship was carried through" 〔T50n2059 0344a21〕. "In the twelfth year of Yuanjia he reached Guangzhou" 〔T50n2059 0344a23〕; Taizu of the Song sent an envoy to receive him, and once at the capital court and country alike revered him. The assembly of monks asked him to bring out scriptures: at Qihuan Monastery he translated the Saṃyukta Āgama, at Dong'an Monastery the Dharma Drum, and "afterwards, in Danyang commandery, he brought out the Śrīmālā and the Laṅkāvatāra, with an assembly of more than seven hundred; Baoyun transmitted the rendering and Huiguan held the brush, and by question and answer back and forth they caught the root intent finely" 〔T50n2059 0344b03〕 — the Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra rendered in this edition comes out of that very translation hall. When the Prince of Qiao asked him to lecture on the Flower Ornament, "Guṇabhadra reckoned with himself that he was not yet good at the Song tongue, and held it in shame and sighing" 〔T50n2059 0344b11〕; so morning and evening he made repentance and called on Avalokiteśvara. In a dream one in white robes bearing a sword exchanged his head for another, and on waking, "when he rose at dawn, the doctrine and the sense were all there in the Song tongue, and he thereupon took up the lecture" 〔T50n2059 0344b16〕.

其後譙王起兵，跋陀諫爭懇切而不能止，遂被逼與俱下。梁山之敗，投身江中而得濟。事定，世祖引見，並檢其在荊之書疏：「初跋陀在荊十載，每與譙王書疏，無不記錄。及軍敗檢簡，無片言及軍事者」〔T50n2059 0344c08〕——十年之書而無一語涉軍，世祖由是明其純謹。帝後閑談，聊戲問其猶念丞相否，答曰「受供十年，何可忘德」〔T50n2059 0344c12〕，且從陛下乞一願：「願為丞相三年燒香」〔T50n2059 0344c13〕。帝悽然慘容，義而許之。譯經之人而不忘施者之德，於危疑之際不諱其恩——本編所奉之《楞伽》，出自這樣一雙手。

Afterwards the Prince of Qiao raised troops; Guṇabhadra remonstrated earnestly and could not stop him, and was compelled to go down with him. At the defeat of Liangshan he threw himself into the river and was carried through. When matters had settled, Shizu received him and had his letters from Jing examined: "Guṇabhadra had been in Jing ten years, and every letter he sent the Prince of Qiao had been kept on record; when the army was defeated and the files were checked, there was not a word in them touching on military affairs" 〔T50n2059 0344c08〕 — ten years of letters and not one line of it, by which Shizu knew his plain uprightness. Later, in idle talk, the emperor asked him half in jest whether he still thought of the chancellor, and he answered, "I received his support for ten years; how should I forget the kindness?" 〔T50n2059 0344c12〕, and begged one favour of His Majesty: "let me burn incense for the chancellor for three years" 〔T50n2059 0344c13〕. The emperor's face changed with sorrow, and holding it right, he consented. A translator who did not forget the giver's kindness, and who in a moment of danger and suspicion would not disown it: the Laṅkāvatāra this edition honours came from such hands.