畺良耶舍

《高僧傳》起首即以義譯繫其名：「畺良耶舍，此云時稱，西域人」〔T50n2059 0343c11〕。所學不偏一門——「性剛直，寡嗜欲，善誦《阿毘曇》，博涉律部」〔T50n2059 0343c11〕；然三藏雖兼，用功之所在只有一處：「雖三藏兼明，而以禪門專業」〔T50n2059 0343c13〕。其定力之相，傳中記得極簡而極重：「每一遊觀，或七日不起，常以三昧正受，傳化諸國」〔T50n2059 0343c13〕。

The Lives of Eminent Monks opens by giving his name with its sense: "Jiangliangyeshe, rendered in Chinese as Shicheng, 'Time-Renown'; a man of the Western Regions" 〔T50n2059 0343c11〕. His learning did not lean to one gate — "By nature firm and straight, of few appetites; he recited the Abhidharma well and ranged widely in the Vinaya section" 〔T50n2059 0343c11〕 — yet though he held all three baskets, his working ground was one only: "Though clear in all three baskets, he took the gate of meditation as his sole vocation" 〔T50n2059 0343c13〕. The mark of that concentration the Life records very briefly and very heavily: "Whenever he entered contemplation he might not rise for seven days; he made the right reception of samādhi his constant state, and by it carried the teaching through the several kingdoms" 〔T50n2059 0343c13〕.

其入宋在元嘉初年，「遠冒沙河，萃于京邑，太祖文皇深加歎異」〔T50n2059 0343c15〕。所譯止二經而皆是觀門：「沙門僧含請譯《藥王藥上觀》及《無量壽觀》，含即筆受」〔T50n2059 0343c17〕。傳者於此處記下譯出之由，語極斬截：「以此二經是轉障之祕術，淨土之洪因，故沈吟嗟味，流通宋國」〔T50n2059 0343c18〕——所以流通，不因文辭之美，而因這是轉障與生淨土的實下手處。此後他不留京邑，「元嘉十九年，西遊岷蜀，處處弘道，禪學成群」〔T50n2059 0343c21〕，終於江陵。

He came into the Song in the opening years of Yuanjia, "braving the sand-river from afar and gathering at the capital, where Emperor Wen, Taizu of the Song, marvelled greatly at him" 〔T50n2059 0343c15〕. What he translated was two scriptures only, and both are gates of contemplation: "The śramaṇa Senghan asked him to translate the Contemplation of Bhaiṣajyarāja and Bhaiṣajyasamudgata and the Contemplation of Amitāyus, and Han took them down himself" 〔T50n2059 0343c17〕. Here the biographer sets down why they were brought out, and the words are flat and decisive: "Because these two scriptures are the secret art for turning back obstruction and the great cause of the Pure Land, he dwelt on them, savoured them, and put them into circulation through the land of Song" 〔T50n2059 0343c18〕 — circulated, that is, not for the beauty of their diction but because here is where the turning of obstruction and the birth in the Pure Land are actually taken in hand. He did not stay at the capital afterward: "In the nineteenth year of Yuanjia he journeyed west into Min and Shu, spreading the Way wherever he went, and students of meditation gathered about him in numbers" 〔T50n2059 0343c21〕. He died at Jiangling.