義淨

《宋高僧傳》卷一本傳：「釋義淨字文明，姓張氏，范陽人也」〔T50n2061 0710b08〕。其志起於十五：「年十有五，便萌其志，欲遊西域，仰法顯之雅操，慕玄奘之高風」〔T50n2061 0710b10〕。所仰慕者二人，皆前代西行之人；而他自己動身，已在二十二年之後。

His Life in the first scroll of the Song Lives of Eminent Monks: "Yijing, styled Wenming, of the Zhang clan, was a man of Fanyang" 〔T50n2061 0710b08〕. His resolve began at fifteen: "At fifteen the aspiration first stirred in him to travel to the Western Regions; he looked up to Faxian's fine conduct and admired Xuanzang's lofty air" 〔T50n2061 0710b10〕. The two he looked to had both gone west before him; he himself did not set out until twenty-two years later.

「咸亨二年，年三十有七，方遂發足。初至番禺，得同志數十人，及將登舶，餘皆退罷」〔T50n2061 0710b12〕；「淨奮勵孤行，備歷艱險」〔T50n2061 0710b14〕。同行數十人止於將登舶之際，登舶的是一個人。二十五年後乃還：「經二十五年，歷三十餘國，以天后證聖元年乙未仲夏，還至河洛」〔T50n2061 0710b17〕，「得梵本經律論近四百部，合五十萬頌」〔T50n2061 0710b19〕；「天后親迎于上東門外」〔T50n2061 0710b20〕。

"In the second year of Xianheng, aged thirty-seven, he at last set out. He came first to Panyu and gathered several dozen of like mind; but when the time came to board the ship, all the rest drew back" 〔T50n2061 0710b12〕; "Yijing braced himself and went alone, and passed through every hardship and danger" 〔T50n2061 0710b14〕. The several dozen companions lasted as far as the gangway; one man boarded. Twenty-five years later he returned: "Twenty-five years had passed and he had gone through more than thirty countries when, in midsummer of the first year of Zhengsheng under the Empress, the year yiwei, he came back to the Luo" 〔T50n2061 0710b17〕, "with nearly four hundred Sanskrit texts of sūtra, vinaya and treatise, some five hundred thousand verses in all" 〔T50n2061 0710b19〕; "the Empress met him in person outside the Shangdong gate" 〔T50n2061 0710b20〕.

還後先與人共譯：「初與于闐三藏實叉難陀飜《華嚴經》」〔T50n2061 0710b22〕，「久視之後乃自專譯」〔T50n2061 0710b23〕。本編所收其譯二經，同出庚子至癸卯之譯：「起庚子歲至長安癸卯，於福先寺及雍京西明寺譯《金光明最勝王》、《能斷金剛般若》」〔T50n2061 0710b24〕。自天后久視迄睿宗景雲，「都飜出五十六部，二百三十卷」〔T50n2061 0711a04〕；譯之外又自撰，「又別撰《大唐西域求法高僧傳》、《南海寄歸內法傳》」〔T50n2061 0711a05〕等五部。

On his return he first translated in company: "At first, with the Khotanese Tripiṭaka master Śikṣānanda, he translated the Huayan Sūtra" 〔T50n2061 0710b22〕, and "after the Jiushi era he translated on his own" 〔T50n2061 0710b23〕. The two scriptures of his rendering collected in this edition come from the same stretch of years, from gengzi to guimao: "From the year gengzi to guimao of the Chang'an era, at Fuxian Monastery and at Ximing Monastery in the western capital, he translated the Golden Light, Most Victorious King and the Diamond Cutter" 〔T50n2061 0710b24〕. From the Empress's Jiushi era down to Ruizong's Jingyun, "he brought out in all fifty-six works in two hundred thirty scrolls" 〔T50n2061 0711a04〕; and besides translating he wrote: "he further composed on his own the Lives of Eminent Monks Who Sought the Dharma in the Western Regions under the Great Tang and the Record of the Inner Law Sent Home from the Southern Sea" 〔T50n2061 0711a05〕, five works in all.

其學有所偏至：「淨雖遍飜三藏，而偏攻律部」〔T50n2061 0711a10〕；「凡所行事皆尚急護。漉囊滌穢，特異常倫」〔T50n2061 0711a11〕。所譯遍三藏，而所守在戒；漉水囊之細事，本傳特為記之。傳末繫其卒：「先天二年卒，春秋七十九，法臘五十九」〔T50n2061 0711a13〕。先天二年＝713，以春秋七十九逆推，生年 635，與本編〈年代依據〉所繫 635–713 相符。

His learning leaned one way: "Though Yijing translated throughout the three baskets, his particular attack was on the vinaya division" 〔T50n2061 0711a10〕; "In all he did he set store by close guarding; in straining water and washing away impurity he was singular beyond the common run" 〔T50n2061 0711a11〕. What he translated ranged over the whole canon; what he kept was the discipline — and the small matter of the water-strainer is the thing his Life stops to record. At its close the Life fixes his death: "He died in the second year of Xiantian, aged seventy-nine, with fifty-nine years since ordination" 〔T50n2061 0711a13〕. The second year of Xiantian is 713; reckoning back seventy-nine years gives 635 as his birth, which agrees with the 635–713 set out under 年代依據 in this entry.