龍樹

漢傳之《龍樹菩薩傳》舊題姚秦鳩摩羅什譯，藏中並存二本〔T50n2047a、T50n2047b〕，文有詳略而事同，此處依甲本，異者不強為一。傳起首即記其種姓與天資：「龍樹菩薩者。出南天竺梵志種也。天聰奇悟事不再告」〔T50n2047a 0184a19〕；「弱冠馳名獨步諸國」〔T50n2047a 0184a22〕。他所學不止於內典，天文地理、圖緯祕讖乃至諸道術無不悉綜——這是一個世間學問已到盡頭的人。

The Chinese Life of the Bodhisattva Nāgārjuna, traditionally ascribed to Kumārajīva of the Yao-Qin, survives in the canon in two recensions 〔T50n2047a, T50n2047b〕, differing in fullness but agreeing in substance; the account here follows the first, and where they differ neither is forced into the other. The Life opens with his caste and his gifts: "The bodhisattva Nāgārjuna came of a brahmin lineage of South India; heaven-keen and rare in understanding, he needed not be told a thing twice" 〔T50n2047a 0184a19〕; "Before he had come of age his fame ran ahead of him and he walked alone among the kingdoms" 〔T50n2047a 0184a22〕. His learning did not stop at Buddhist texts but ran through astronomy, geography, prognosticatory lore, and every occult art — a man who had reached the end of worldly knowing.

轉折不在論辯，而在一場幾乎喪命的荒唐。他與三友求得隱身之術，出入王宮侵淩宮人；事發，力士揮刀空斬，三人立死，「唯有龍樹斂身屏氣依王頭側」〔T50n2047a 0184b20〕而得免。就在刀鋒七尺之外，他看見了：「是時始悟欲為苦本眾禍之根。敗德危身皆由此起」〔T50n2047a 0184b21〕。既脫，即如誓入山，「既出入山詣一佛塔出家受戒。九十日中誦三藏盡」〔T50n2047a 0184b23〕。

The turn came not through argument but through a near-fatal folly. He and three companions obtained the art of invisibility and used it to enter the royal harem; when the intrusion was discovered, guards slashed the empty air and the three fell dead, "and only Nāgārjuna, drawing in his body and holding his breath, stood close beside the king's own head" 〔T50n2047a 0184b20〕 and so survived. There, seven feet from the blades, he saw it: "In that moment he awoke to this — that desire is the root of suffering and the source of every calamity; that the ruin of virtue and the endangering of the person both arise from here" 〔T50n2047a 0184b21〕. Once free he went to the mountains as he had vowed: "Having got out he entered the mountains, came to a stūpa, went forth and received the precepts, and within ninety days had recited the whole Tripiṭaka" 〔T50n2047a 0184b23〕.

三藏誦盡而更求異經不得，遂起邪慢，欲自立教戒。傳於此處記其得救：「大龍菩薩見其如是惜而愍之。即接之入海」〔T50n2047a 0184c08〕，於龍宮七寶藏中授以方等深奧經典。九十日讀之，「龍樹既得諸經一相深入無生二忍具足」〔T50n2047a 0184c15〕。此後還南天竺，「大弘佛法摧伏外道」〔T50n2047a 0184c17〕，所造之中即有「中論五百偈。令摩訶衍教大行於天竺」〔T50n2047a 0184c19〕。本編所譯之《中論》《十二門論》《大智度論》，其源皆在此。

Having recited the whole canon and finding no further scriptures, he fell into arrogance and set about founding a discipline of his own. Here the Life records his rescue: "The bodhisattva Mahānāga, seeing him thus, held him dear and pitied him, and took him into the sea" 〔T50n2047a 0184c08〕, where in the dragon palace's seven-jewelled treasury he was given the profound scriptures of the extended teaching. Reading them for ninety days, "Nāgārjuna, having received these scriptures, entered deeply into the single mark and became complete in the two forbearances of non-arising" 〔T50n2047a 0184c15〕. He returned then to South India and "greatly spread the Buddha's Dharma and overcame the outsider paths" 〔T50n2047a 0184c17〕; and among what he composed was the "Middle Treatise in five hundred verses, which caused the teaching of the Great Vehicle to travel widely through India" 〔T50n2047a 0184c19〕. The Middle Treatise, the Twelve Gate Treatise, and the Great Perfection of Wisdom Treatise rendered in this edition all have their source here.