Source: Shoulengyan hou ji

According to this anonymous note, in 373 CE the regional ruler of Liangzhou, i.e. the regional inspector Zhang Tianxi 張天錫, sponsored the translation of the Shoulengyan jing 首楞嚴 (lit. ‘brought [it] out’ 出) . While the note begins with a discussion of the Shoulengyan jing translation itself, it quickly goes on to list three other translations produced under Zhang’s supervision, and the impression one gets is that they were all executed in relatively quick succession (in any case, no specific dates are given for any of the three): 須賴、 上金光首 [cf. T817, which features an otherwise unknown protagonist by this name --- MR]、 如幻三昧 [cf. T342, ascribed in T to Dhr ---- MR]. The note then goes on to specify that the ‘hu text’ (of the Shoulengyan jing? of all four texts?) was ‘held in the hand’ 手執胡本 by a certain Zhi Shilun 支施崙, a lay devotee of Yuezhi ethnicity. We further read that on the Shoulengyan jing translation project, and perhaps also in the work on the remaining three translations (although there is some ambiguity here), the actual ‘translator’ 譯 was a certain Bo Yan 帛延, introduced as a bilingual member of the Kuchean royal clan. The record adds that the translation activities were attended by three leading officials from the regional administration and by the monks Huichang 慧常 and Jinxing 進行, as well as that Zhang Tianxi himself ‘chose the wording’ 自屬辭.

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T2145 (LV) 49b18-49b29