元康

「釋元康，不詳姓氏。貞觀中遊學京邑，有彭亨之譽」〔T50n2061 0727b16〕。其先居山野，「恒務持誦《觀音》，求加慧解」〔T50n2061 0727b18〕，而以《三論》之文荷之于背——本傳所記其為學之相，是一個把三論背在背上走路的人。

"Shi Yuankang — his surname is not known. In the Zhenguan years he travelled to study in the capital, and had a swelling reputation there" 〔T50n2061 0727b16〕. Earlier he had lived in the hills and wilds, "constantly holding to the recitation of the Guanyin scripture and seeking added understanding" 〔T50n2061 0727b18〕, and carried the text of the Three Treatises on his back. The figure the biography draws is of a man walking with the Three Treatises on his back.

帝聞之，喜曰：「何代無其人」〔T50n2061 0727c04〕，「詔入安國寺講此《三論》。遂造疏，解中觀之理」〔T50n2061 0727c04〕，別撰《玄樞》兩卷總明《中》《百》《門》之宗旨。所造之疏即本編肇論一帙所取之《肇論疏》〔T45n1859〕——僧肇三十一年之作，賴此疏而有唐人之讀法；本編二者並取，注家之判與論主之文分列不混。

The emperor heard of it and said with pleasure, "What age is without its man?" 〔T50n2061 0727c04〕; "by edict he was brought into Anguo monastery to lecture on these Three Treatises, and he thereupon composed a commentary setting out the principle of the Madhyamaka" 〔T50n2061 0727c04〕, writing separately the Xuanshu in two fascicles to set forth in full the purport of the Middle, the Hundred and the Gates. That commentary is the one this edition's Zhao lun takes up 〔T45n1859〕 — through it Sengzhao's work of thirty-one years has a Tang reading; this edition carries both, keeping the commentator's rulings and the author's own text in separate columns.

「後不測其終」〔T50n2061 0727c06〕——本傳於其卒不著一語。本籍所錄之起年出於現代權威檔而非經傳，與本編「引據唯經與古德」之律不一；本編於此誌其實，傳文不繫年。

"How he ended cannot be determined" 〔T50n2061 0727c06〕 — of his death the life says nothing. The starting year entered in this registry comes from a modern authority file and not from the scriptures or the old biographies, which does not sit with this edition's rule that citation runs to scripture and the ancient masters only; the fact is recorded here, and this life fixes no year.