朗和尚

朗和尚之名，在藏中只出現在一篇序裡。〈天台法華䟽序〉記：「及其滅後一百餘載，至唐天寶中歲在戊子，有東陽郡清泰寺朗和尚」〔T34n1718 0001a24〕——智者滅後一百餘年，天寶戊子（748），一位清泰寺的和尚。名唯一字，姓氏、生卒、師承，序皆不及。

The name of the Reverend Lang occurs in the canon in a single preface. The Preface to the Tiantai Commentary on the Lotus records: "and more than a hundred years after his passing, in the Tianbao years of the Tang, in the wuzi year, there was the Reverend Lang of Qingtai monastery in Dongyang commandery" 〔T34n1718 0001a24〕 — a hundred-odd years after the Great Master's death, in the wuzi year of Tianbao (748), a monk of Qingtai monastery. One character for a name; of surname, dates and teachers the preface says nothing.

他所做的事，序記得很清楚。講授之次，他見此記文勢時有不次：「或文續義斷，或文後義前」〔T34n1718 0001a29〕，或長行前開其章，或從後直述其義。聽徒頻勸請，他再三籌量，事不獲已，乃專念大師求加可否，因夢所感，方始條倫。而序自陳其所治之界限：所治者為次序條理，「非苟求同異輒有增減於其間」〔T34n1718 0001b07〕——不增不減一字，只理其次。

What he did the preface states plainly. While lecturing he found the flow of this record at times out of sequence: "the text ran on while the sense broke off, or the sense came before the text" 〔T34n1718 0001a29〕, or the prose opened its section first, or the sense was stated directly from behind. His listeners pressed him repeatedly; weighing the matter again and again and unable to decline, he fixed his mind on the Great Master to seek his assent, and, moved by what came in a dream, began to set the text in order. And the preface states the limit of what he touched: what he set in order was sequence, and he did "not add to or subtract from the text in the pursuit of agreement or difference" 〔T34n1718 0001b07〕 — not a word added or taken away, only the order set right.

本編所讀之《法華文句》〔T34n1718〕，即此天寶戊子治定之本。故其人雖不入僧傳，而讀者手上這一部書的次第出於他手——本編登錄他，正為此一事；藏中不繫其生卒，本編如實標不詳，不代為補。

The Words and Phrases of the Lotus 〔T34n1718〕 that this edition reads is that recension, set in order in the wuzi year of Tianbao. So although he has no place in the biographies of monks, the sequence of the book in the reader's hands came from his hand — and that is why this registry enters him. The canon gives no dates, and this edition marks them honestly as unknown rather than supplying them.