元曉

「釋元曉，姓薛氏，東海湘州人也」〔T50n2061 0730a07〕。丱䰂之年入法，隨師稟業而「遊處無恒」〔T50n2061 0730a08〕；本傳記其辯才曰勇擊義圍、雄橫文陣，「彼土謂為萬人之敵」〔T50n2061 0730a10〕。

"Wonhyo, of the surname Sŏl, was a man of Sangju by the eastern sea" 〔T50n2061 0730a07〕. He entered the Dharma as a boy, took his training under masters and "moved from place to place without fixed abode" 〔T50n2061 0730a08〕; the life describes his debating thus — charging the ramparts of doctrine, riding across the field of letters — so that "in that land he was called a match for ten thousand" 〔T50n2061 0730a10〕.

他曾與義湘同行入唐：「甞與湘法師入唐，慕奘三藏慈恩之門，厥緣既差，息心遊往」〔T50n2061 0730a11〕——所慕者正是本籍中玄奘、窺基一線，而緣差不果。其後之行事，本傳記得毫不迴護：「發言狂悖，示跡乖疎」〔T50n2061 0730a12〕，同居士入酒肆倡家；而同一段裡又記他製疏講《雜華》、撫琴樂祠宇，總之「任意隨機，都無定檢」〔T50n2061 0730a15〕。狂與疏並不掩其疏之講、論之製；本編照錄本傳之全，不取其一面。

He once set out for Tang China with Ŭisang: "he set out for the Tang with Master Ŭisang, drawn to the school of Xuanzang and Ci'en; the conditions miscarried, and he let go the journey" 〔T50n2061 0730a11〕 — what drew him was the very line of Xuanzang and Kuiji that stands in this registry, and the conditions failed. What he did afterwards the life records without shielding him: "his speech turned wild and his conduct unruly" 〔T50n2061 0730a12〕, and with laymen he entered wine-shops and singing houses; yet the same passage records that he composed commentaries and lectured on the Huayan and played the zither in shrine halls — in sum, "following occasions as he pleased, bound by no fixed rule" 〔T50n2061 0730a15〕. The wildness does not cancel the lecturing or the composing, and this edition reproduces the whole of what the life says rather than one side of it.

其講《金剛三昧經》一事，本傳所記最能見其位：大安得經而曰「速將付元曉講，餘人則否」〔T50n2061 0730b09〕。王請剋日於黃龍寺敷演，而薄徒竊其新疏，延期三日，「重錄成三卷，號為《略疏》」〔T50n2061 0730b15〕——疏被偷去而三日重寫一部。及王臣道俗雲擁法堂，「曉乃宣吐有儀，解紛可則」〔T50n2061 0730b16〕。本編所取其書二部：《起信論疏》〔T44n1844〕與《金剛三昧經論》〔T34n1730〕；藏內不出其生卒之確年，如實標不詳，不代為補。

Where he stood shows best in the affair of the Vajrasamādhi Sūtra: Great An, having the text, said "take it quickly to Wonhyo to expound; no one else" 〔T50n2061 0730b09〕. The king asked that he expound it on a fixed day at Hwangnyong monastery; a mean sort stole the new commentary, the date was put off three days, and "he set it down again in three fascicles, called the Abridged Commentary" 〔T50n2061 0730b15〕 — the commentary stolen, and another written in three days. And when king and ministers, monastics and laity crowded the Dharma hall, "Wonhyo set forth his exposition with due form, untangling confusions in a way that could serve as a rule" 〔T50n2061 0730b16〕. Two of his works are taken up in this edition: the Commentary on the Awakening of Faith 〔T44n1844〕 and the Treatise on the Vajrasamādhi Sūtra 〔T34n1730〕. The canon yields no firm year for his birth or death, and this edition marks them honestly as unknown rather than supplying them.