Name: All Scriptures Phonetic and Semantic Glossary · Volume 1 · Pronunciation and Meaning of the Buddhist Canon: Preface (一切经音义 · 第一 · 一切经音义序)
Author: 慧琳撰

昔者素王設教。著十翼而通陰陽。玄帝談經。演二篇而明道德。豈若能仁出代獨步迦維。會三乘於鷲峯。轉四輪於鹿苑。繇是有半滿之字。敷貫散之花。因緇客而西至。驅白馬以東邁。是知不無不有掩蔽邪徒。即色即空甄明正道。於是慧雲蓄潤。垂靉靆而蔭群氓。法雨含滋。散空濛而霑眾草。斯之功利不可勝言。大矣哉。覺皇之為教也。若乃書之貝葉編諸海藏。結集由飲光之心。文義宣慶喜之口。流傳此土七百餘年。至於文字或難偏傍有誤。書籍之所不載。聲韻之所未聞。或俗體無憑。或梵言存本。不有音義誠難究諸。欲使坐得明師立聞精誼。就學無勞於負笈。請益詎假於摳衣。所以一十二音宣于涅槃奧典。四十二字載乎花嚴真經(十二音是翻梵字之聲勢也。舊云十四音誤也。又有三十四字名為字母。每字以十二音翻之。遂成四百八字。共相乘轉成一十八章名曰悉談。如新涅盤經音義中廣明矣)。故曰無離文字解脫也。暨國朝初有沙門玄應。孤標生知獨運先覺。明唐梵異語。識古今奇字。撰一切經音義一部。凡二十五卷。可以貽諸後進光彼先賢。作彼岸之津梁。涉法門之鍵鑰。次有沙門慧苑。撰新譯華嚴音義二卷。竝編於開元釋教錄。然以後譯經論及先所未音者。至於披讀講解。文謬誼乖得失疑滯。寡聞孤陋莫有微通。多見強識罕能盡究。然而自慠之輩。恥下問而不求。匿好之流。𠫤深知而不答。則聖言有阻能無悲焉。有大興善寺慧琳法師者。姓裴氏。疎勒國人也。則大廣智不空三藏之弟子矣。內精密教。入於總持之門。外究墨流。研乎文字之粹。印度聲明之妙。支那音韻之精。既瓶受於先師。亦泉瀉於後學。鞮譯迴綴參於上首。師掇其闕遺歎其病惑。覽茲群經纂彼詁訓。然則古來音反多以傍紐而為雙聲。始自𦨕虔元無定旨。吳音與秦音莫辯。清韻與濁韻難明。至如武與綿為雙聲。企以智為疊韻。若斯之類蓋所不取。近有元庭堅韻英。及張𭟺考聲切韻。今之所音取則於此。大略以七家字書釋誼(七書謂玉篇。說文。字林。字統。古今正字。文字典說。開元文字音義)七書不該百氏咸討。又訓解之末兼辯六書。庶因此而識彼。聞一以知十。師二十餘載。傍求典籍。備討經論。孜孜不倦。修緝為務。以建中末年剏製。至元和二祀方就。凡一百軸。具釋眾經。始於大般若。終於護命法。總一千三百部。五千七百餘卷。舊兩家音義合而次之。標名為異(兩家謂玄應慧苑等)浩然如海吞眾流以成深。晈兮若鏡照群物以無勌。元和十二年二月三十日。絕筆於西明寺焉。審以頗好文字擇善從之。許為不請之師。自媿未成之器。因啟其卷乃告厥功。謬以微才敘之云爾。

In ancient times, the Sage King established teachings, composing the Ten Wings to penetrate the mysteries of yin and yang, while the Mysterious Emperor expounded the scriptures, unfolding the Two Chapters to illuminate the Way and its Virtue. How could this compare to the Compassionate One, who appeared in this world and walked alone in Kapilavastu? He gathered the Three Vehicles at Vulture Peak and turned the Four Wheels of the Dharma at Deer Park. From this arose the teachings of the full and the partial, spreading the flowers of exposition. Following the Western monks who arrived, driving white horses eastward, we came to understand that "neither existence nor non-existence" dispels the misguided, while "form itself is emptiness" clarifies the right path. Thus, the cloud of wisdom gathered moisture, spreading its dark canopy to shelter all beings, and the rain of Dharma contained nourishment, scattering its mist to moisten every blade of grass. The benefits of this are beyond words. How great indeed is the teaching of the Awakened One.

If the scriptures are written on palm leaves and compiled into ocean storehouses, the compilation was inspired by the mind of Kashyapa, and the words and meanings were proclaimed by the mouth of Ananda. These texts have been transmitted in this land for over seven hundred years. However, some characters may be difficult to understand or contain errors in their stroke order—things not recorded in ordinary books, sounds not heard in common rhymes. Some use colloquial forms without authority, while others retain the original Sanskrit. Without phonetic glossaries and semantic explanations, it is truly hard to study them. To let one sit and gain a clear teacher, and stand and hear the subtle meaning, to learn without the toil of carrying a book bag, and to seek clarification without the need to bow—these are the benefits. Thus, the twelve sounds are proclaimed in the profound scripture of the Nirvana, and the forty-two letters are recorded in the true sutra of the Avatamsaka. (The twelve sounds represent the phonetic tones of transliterating Sanskrit characters. The old claim of fourteen sounds is mistaken. There are also thirty-four characters known as the "alphabet letters." Each letter is transliterated with twelve sounds, producing 408 characters. These combine cyclically into eighteen chapters called "Siddham," as explained in the phonetic commentary of the new Nirvana Sutra.) Therefore, it is said that liberation is not separate from words and letters.

At the beginning of our dynasty, there was the monk Xuan Ying, who stood out with innate wisdom and took the lead with foresight. He understood the differences between Chinese and Sanskrit words and recognized the ancient and unusual characters of both eras. He compiled a *Phonetic and Semantic Glossary of All Sutras* in twenty-five scrolls. This work can be passed down to later learners, glorifying the former sages—a ferry to the other shore, a key to the Dharma gate. Next came the monk Hui Yuan, who compiled a *Phonetic and Semantic Glossary of the Newly Translated Avatamsaka Sutra* in two scrolls. Both are included in the *Kaiyuan Catalog of Buddhist Teachings*. However, the later translated scriptures, treatises, and those earlier texts that had not yet received phonetic annotations—when people read and expounded them, the texts were often erroneous in meaning, and doubts and uncertainties arose. Those with little learning and narrow views could not even grasp the basics, while those with broad knowledge and strong memory rarely understood everything fully. Moreover, those who were proud were ashamed to ask questions and seek knowledge; those who hoarded their understanding were reluctant to share their deep insights. Thus, the sacred words were obstructed—how could one not feel sorrow?

There was a Dharma Master Hui Lin from the Great Xingshan Temple, whose surname was Pei, originally from Kashgar. He was a disciple of the great Tripitaka Master Amoghavajra. Internally, he was refined in the esoteric teachings, entering the gate of the Dharani; externally, he delved into the world of letters, studying the essence of words. He mastered the subtlety of Indian phonetics and the precision of Chinese rhyme. Having received this knowledge from his teacher like a full vase, he poured it out like a spring for later students. He translated, corrected, and arranged texts, standing among the foremost. His teacher, noting the deficiencies and lamenting the confusions, collected the glosses from all the sutras. However, in ancient times, the method of phonetic spelling (fǎnqiè) often used near-rhyme to create double-initials, starting arbitrarily with no fixed standard. The Wu pronunciation and the Qin pronunciation were not distinguished; clear-toned and muddy-toned vowels were hard to tell apart. For example, "wǔ" and "mián" were paired as double-initials, while "qǐ" and "zhì" were considered rhyming—this kind of error he would not adopt. Recently, there were Yuan Tingjian's *Yun Ying* and Zhang Xuan's *Kao Sheng Qie Yun*. The phonetic annotations in this work follow these standards. Broadly speaking, seven authoritative character dictionaries were used for semantic explanations. (The seven works are: the *Yu Pian*, *Shuo Wen*, *Zi Lin*, *Zi Tong*, *Gu Jin Zheng Zi*, *Wen Zi Dian Shuo*, and *Kai Yuan Wen Zi Yin Yi*.) When these seven works did not cover a term, all other schools of thought were consulted. Furthermore, after the basic explanation, the six categories of Chinese characters (liù shū) were also discussed, hoping that through this knowledge one might understand the unfamiliar and, hearing one thing, grasp ten.

For over twenty years, Master Hui Lin diligently sought out texts and scriptures, studying them tirelessly, focusing on compilation and editing. He began this project in the last years of the Jianzhong period and completed it in the second year of the Yuanhe era. It totals one hundred scrolls, providing detailed explanations for all the sutras. Starting with the *Great Perfection of Wisdom Sutra* and ending with the *Sutra on Protecting Life*, it covers a total of 1,300 texts in 5,700 and more scrolls. It incorporates and sequentially arranges the phonetic glossaries of the two previous masters, marking their distinctive titles. (The "two masters" refer to Xuan Ying and Hui Yuan.) Vast as the ocean, it swallows all streams to form its depth; bright as a mirror, it reflects all things without fatigue. On the thirtieth day of the second month of the twelfth year of the Yuanhe era, he laid down his pen at the Ximing Temple. He examined what was good in my writing and chose to follow it, recognizing me as a teacher "who does not wait to be asked." Ashamed of my own incomplete abilities, I opened his work and recounted his achievement. In my modest capacity, I have composed this preface.

All Scriptures Phonetic and Semantic Glossary (一切經音義)

All Scriptures Phonetic and Semantic Glossary (一切經音義)