彌勒

彌勒是菩薩，藏中無其僧傳，其行事唯見於他人之傳。真諦所譯《婆藪槃豆法師傳》記無著小乘空觀已得而意猶未安，乃乘神通「往兜率多天諮問彌勒菩薩」〔T50n2049 0188c05〕；彌勒為說大乘空觀，無著還閻浮提如說思惟乃悟，並以此得名。此為漢傳所記彌勒與人間法脈相接之始。

Maitreya is a bodhisattva; the canon contains no monastic biography of him, and his acts appear only within the lives of others. Paramārtha's translation of the Life of Master Vasubandhu records that Asaṅga, having attained the lesser-vehicle contemplation of emptiness yet still unsettled in mind, went by spiritual power "to the Tuṣita heaven to inquire of the bodhisattva Maitreya" 〔T50n2049 0188c05〕; Maitreya taught him the great-vehicle contemplation of emptiness, and Asaṅga, returning to Jambudvīpa and contemplating as taught, awoke — and took his name from it. This is where the Chinese record has Maitreya first join the human lineage of the Dharma.

其後無著發願，願大師下閻浮提解說大乘令眾生信解；「彌勒即如其願於夜時下閻浮提」，放大光明廣集有緣，「於說法堂誦出十七地經。隨所誦出隨解其義」〔T50n2049 0188c15〕，「經四月夜解十七地經方竟」〔T50n2049 0188c17〕。同堂聽法而「唯無著法師得近彌勒菩薩」〔T50n2049 0188c18〕，餘人但得遙聞。本編所譯《瑜伽師地論》本地分十七地，漢傳所繫之源即在此夜說。

Asaṅga then vowed, asking the great master to descend to Jambudvīpa and expound the Great Vehicle so that beings might come to faith; "Maitreya did as he had asked and descended to Jambudvīpa by night," sending forth great light and gathering those with the connection, and "in the Dharma hall recited forth the Sūtra of the Seventeen Grounds, explaining the meaning as he recited" 〔T50n2049 0188c15〕; "after four months of nights the exposition of the Sūtra of the Seventeen Grounds was complete" 〔T50n2049 0188c17〕. They heard in one hall, yet "only Master Asaṅga was able to come near the bodhisattva Maitreya" 〔T50n2049 0188c18〕, the rest hearing only from afar. The Seventeen Grounds of the Basic Section of the Yogācārabhūmi rendered in this edition are traced by the Chinese tradition to that night's teaching.

歸屬之事，古德所判不一而本編並錄不判：窺基判《莊嚴論》「頌文彌勤所說，長行釋者世親所為」〔T43n1830 0352b12–13〕（「彌勤」字形依大正原文照錄，即彌勒），而《大乘莊嚴經論》卷端題作「無著菩薩造」〔T31n1604 0590b03〕。此類頌本歸彌勒、長行歸他師之判，是漢傳論典歸屬之常式，本編於各帙依其卷端與古德所判分別誌之，不代為統一。生卒之年不繫，本欄所標世紀但為排序之權，非考定之年。

On attribution the ancients did not judge alike, and this edition records without adjudicating: Kuiji judged of the Mahāyānasūtrālaṃkāra that "the verse text was spoken by Maitreya, while the prose explanation was made by Vasubandhu" 〔T43n1830 0352b12–13〕 (the graph 彌勤 is transcribed as it stands in the Taishō text, i.e. Maitreya), whereas the head of the Mahāyānasūtrālaṃkāra itself reads "composed by the bodhisattva Asaṅga" 〔T31n1604 0590b03〕. Assigning the verses to Maitreya and the prose to another master is a standard pattern of attribution in the Chinese treatise corpus; this edition notes it per text according to that text's own heading and the ancients' judgments, and does not unify them on their behalf. No dates are given; the century in this entry serves ordering only and is no established date.