阿鋡暮者，秦言趣無也。阿難既出十二部經，又採撮其要逕至道法為四阿鋡暮，與阿毘曇及律並為三藏焉。身獨學士以為至德未墜於地也。有阿羅漢，名婆素跋陀，抄其膏腴以為一部，九品、四十六葉，斥重去複、文約義豐，真可謂經之瓔鬘也。百行美妙，辯是與非，莫不悉載也。優奧深富，行之能事畢矣。有外國沙門，字因提麗，先齎詣前部國，祕之佩身，不以示人。其王彌第，求得諷之，遂得布此。余以壬午之歲八月，東省先師寺廟於鄴寺，令鳩摩羅佛提執梵，佛念、佛護為譯，僧導、曇究、僧叡筆受，至冬十一月乃訖。此歲夏出阿毘曇，冬出此經，一年之中具三藏也，深以自幸。但恨八九之年始遇斯經，恐韋編未絕不終其業耳。若加數年，將無大過也。近勅譯人，直令轉梵為秦，解方言而已，經之文質所不敢易也。又有懸數懸事，皆訪其人為注其下。時復以意消息者，為其章。章注修妬路者，其人注解引經本也。其有直言修妬路者，引經證，非注解也。

The Āgamas, as translated into the Qin language, signify the path to cessation. After Ananda had compiled the twelve divisions of the scriptures, he further extracted the essential teachings leading to the Path and compiled them into the four Āgamas, which together with the Abhidharma and Vinaya formed the three baskets of teachings. Solitary scholars upheld these as the highest virtue that had not fallen to the ground. There was an arhat named Vasubhadra who distilled the cream of these teachings into a single work of nine chapters and forty-six sections, removing redundancy and repetition, keeping the text concise yet rich in meaning—truly it can be called the garland of the scriptures. The hundred practices, wondrous and beautiful, distinguishing right from wrong, are all fully recorded. Profound, deep, and abundant, it completes all that one can accomplish in practice. There was a foreign monk named Indriya who first brought this text to the country of Qianbu, keeping it hidden on his person, not showing it to anyone. Its king, Midi, managed to obtain it for recitation, and thus it was disseminated.

In the year of Renwu, in the eighth month, I traveled east to visit my former teacher's temple at the Ye monastery, where I had Kumārabodhi hold the Sanskrit text, while Fonian and Fohu served as translators, and Sengdao, Tanjiong, and Sengrui wrote it down. It was completed by the winter's eleventh month. That same year, in the summer, the Abhidharma was translated, and in the winter, this scripture—within a single year, the three baskets were all complete. I consider myself deeply fortunate. But I regret that I only encountered this scripture at the age of eighty-eight or eighty-nine, and I fear that before my book-binding threads wear out, I may not finish this work. If I am granted a few more years, perhaps I will have no great fault. Recently, I instructed the translators to simply render the Sanskrit into Qin, resolving the local dialect only—as for the literary quality and substance of the text, I dared not alter it. There were also some obscure numbers and events, which I consulted with knowledgeable people and noted beneath them. Where I occasionally added my own understanding, I placed it as chapter notes. The chapter notes marked as "sūtra" are the annotator's citations from the original scriptures. Where it directly says "sūtra," it is citing the scripture as evidence, not an annotation.

Four Agama Commentary (四阿鋡暮抄解)

Four Agama Commentary (四阿鋡暮抄解)