僧肇

僧肇之入本籍，唯以一書：《肇論》〔T45n1858〕。其人之事，藏中所記亦簡。《高僧傳》記其從師之始曰「後羅什至姑臧，肇自遠從之」〔T50n2059 0365a19〕，而「什嗟賞無極」〔T50n2059 0365a20〕；其後「及見什諮稟，所悟更多」〔T50n2059 0365a23〕——先有所悟而後從師，從師而悟更多，傳文之序如此。

Sengzhao enters this registry on the strength of one book: the Zhao lun 〔T45n1858〕. Of the man the canon says little. The Biographies of Eminent Monks record how he came to his teacher: "afterwards, when Kumārajīva reached Guzang, Zhao came from afar to follow him" 〔T50n2059 0365a19〕, and "Kumārajīva's admiration was without bound" 〔T50n2059 0365a20〕; and later, "when he came to consult and receive from Kumārajīva, what he understood was more again" 〔T50n2059 0365a23〕 — understanding first, then the teacher, and under the teacher more understanding still. That is the order the life gives.

什適長安，他亦隨返，「姚興命肇與僧叡等入逍遙園，助詳定經論」〔T50n2059 0365a21〕。《出三藏記集》記其時之規模：「於是興使沙門僧肇僧略僧邈等八百餘人諮受什旨更令出大品。」〔T55n2145 0101b19〕——本編般若一軸所據之什譯諸經，出於這樣一個八百餘人的場，而他在其中是詳定之一人。

When Kumārajīva went on to Chang'an, Zhao went back with him, and "Yao Xing ordered Zhao and Sengrui and the others into the Xiaoyao Park to help settle the scriptures and treatises in detail" 〔T50n2059 0365a21〕. The Collection of Records on the Tripiṭaka gives the scale of it: "thereupon Yao Xing set the monks Sengzhao, Sengrue, Sengmiao and more than eight hundred others to take instruction in Kumārajīva's intent, and had the Larger Perfection of Wisdom brought out afresh" 〔T55n2145 0101b19〕. The Kumārajīva translations on which this edition's Prajñā axis rests came out of a hall of that size, and in it he was one of those who settled the text.

「晉義熙十年卒於長安，春秋三十有一矣」〔T50n2059 0366a29〕——三十一歲。生年 384 由此逆推，非傳文直書之年。本編所讀之《肇論》，是一個活了三十一年的人寫的。

"He died at Chang'an in the tenth year of Yixi under the Jin, in his thirty-first year" 〔T50n2059 0366a29〕 — thirty-one. The birth year 384 is reckoned back from that and is not a figure the life states outright. The Zhao lun this edition reads was written by a man who lived thirty-one years.