No. 856-C
No. 856-C
余嘗掩關閱起信論疏記。至因明三支比量之說。若蚊蚋嚙巨石。毫無所入。因扣諸講者。僉曰。此義失傳舊矣。已而挂錫海虞之中峯。一日瞿洞觀居士歸自婁江。言晤三懷座主。論因明義甚悉。余聞之。喜躍不自勝。而筞杖金陵。謁師於古瓦官寺。遂得執卷請益。頗知梗槩。越兩載。飛錫燕山。又聞玉菴座主有因明論解。復就諮詢。益通疑滯。夫二師之于是論。誠可謂開萬古羣蒙。而余也何幸與領金錍之惠。然得失疵美亦互有焉。乃不愧暗鈍。參酌異同。筆削可否。兼之𢹲摭清涼疏鈔宗鏡諸書。集為此解。以備遺忘。亦井蛙自見其天也。密藏開兄。禪悅之暇。偶得目擊。於焉心可。因謀序馮開之太史。以付剞劂。余固止之曰。吾斯之未能信。開兄曰。審爾。又何惜乎傳之繭枲。以就正諸方也。遂梓之如命。
I once retired behind closed doors to study the commentaries and records on the *Awakening of Faith*. When I came to the theory of the three-part syllogism in Buddhist logic, it was like a mosquito trying to bite a boulder—I could make no headway at all. So I asked various lecturers about it, and they all said, "This meaning has been lost for a long time." Later, I took up residence at Zhongfeng in Haishan. One day, layman Qu Dongguan returned from Loujiang and said he had met with Abbot Sanhuai, who explained the principles of Buddhist logic in great detail. When I heard this, I was overjoyed beyond measure. I then traveled with my staff to Jinling and called upon the master at the ancient Waguan Temple. There I was able to hold up my text and seek instruction, gaining a rough understanding of the subject.
Two years later, I journeyed to Yanshan, where I heard that Abbot Yu'an had written a commentary on the *Nyāyamukha*. I again went to consult him, and my lingering doubts were further resolved. These two masters' expositions of this treatise can truly be said to have opened the eyes of countless beings throughout the ages. How fortunate I was to receive the benefit of their golden scalpel-like wisdom! Yet their works each had their strengths and weaknesses, merits and flaws. So, not ashamed of my own dullness, I compared their differences, weighed the right and wrong, and edited accordingly. In addition, I gathered materials from the *Commentary on the Avataṃsaka Sūtra* and the *Records of the Mirror of the Source*, compiling them all into this explanation to guard against forgetfulness—like a frog at the bottom of a well seeing only its own sliver of sky.
When my elder brother, the recluse Mizang, happened to see this work during his leisure from meditative joy, he approved of it in his heart. He then planned to ask Grand Historian Feng Kaizhi to write a preface and have it carved for printing. I tried to stop him, saying, "I am not yet confident in this work." My elder brother replied, "If that is so, then why begrudge passing it on through paper and ink, so that it may be corrected by masters in all directions?" And so, as he requested, it was printed.
萬曆庚寅仲春晦日沙門真界䟦
On the last day of the second month of spring, in the year of Gengyin during the Wanli reign, the monastic Zhen Jie respectfully records this.