Malananta摩羅難陀
1Malananta comes from Jin to Baekje and a monastery is raised at Hansan
釋摩羅難陀．胡僧也。神異感通。莫測階位。約志遊方。不滯一隅。按古記本從竺乾入于中國。附材傳身。徵烟召侶。乘危駕險。任歷艱辛。有緣則隨。無遠不履。當百濟第十四枕流王。即位九年九月。從晉乃來。王出郊迎之。邀致宮中。敬奉供養。稟受其說。上好下化。大弘佛事。共贊奉行。如置郵而傳命。二年春剏寺於漢山。度僧十人。尊法師故也。由是百濟次高麗而興佛教焉。逆數至摩騰入後漢二百八十有年矣。耆老記云。句高麗始祖朱蒙娶高麗女。生二子。曰避流恩祖。二人同志。南走至漢山開國。今廣州是也。本以百家渡河故名百濟。後於公州扶餘郡。前後相次而立都。三韓東南隅海內有倭國。即日本國也。倭之東北有毛人國。其國東北有文身國。其國東二千餘里有大漢國。其國東二萬里有扶桑國。宋時有天竺五僧。遊行至此。始行佛法此皆海中在。惟日本國僧。往往渡海而來。餘皆未詳。夫三韓者。馬韓．卞韓．辰韓．是也。寶藏經云。東北方有震旦國。或云支那。此云多思惟。謂此國人思百端故。即大唐國也。然則三韓在閻浮提東北邊。非海島矣。佛涅槃後六百餘年乃興。中有聖住山。名室梨母怛梨〔唐言三印山〕峻峯高聳。觀世音菩薩宮殿在彼山頂。即月岳也。此處聖住未易殫書。然百濟乃馬韓之謂矣。宋僧傳云。難陀得如幻三昧。入水不濡。投火無灼。能變金石。化現無窮。時當建中。年代相拒而不同。恐非一人之跡也
The monk Malananta (摩羅難陀) was a monk of the Western Regions. His marvellous power of feeling and reaching through was such that no one could make out his stage. He bound his purpose to travelling about and did not linger in any one corner. By the old records he came first from India into China; he trusted himself to timber and carried his body over, watched for smoke and called to companions, rode over danger and crossed the steep places, and took every hardship upon himself. Where there was a bond he followed it, and there was nowhere he did not tread because it was far.
In the ninth month of the first year since King Chimnyu, the fourteenth of Baekje, ascended the throne, he came from Jin. The king went out to the outskirts to meet him, brought him into the palace, honoured him and made offerings to him, and received his words. What was liked above was taken up below: the works of the Buddha were greatly spread, and all praised them together and upheld and practised them, as when post stations are set up and a command is carried along. In the spring of the second year a monastery was raised at Hansan (漢山) and ten men were made monks, because the master of the Law was honoured. By this Baekje, after Goguryeo, raised up the teaching of the Buddha. Counting back to Moteng's entering the Later Han, it is two hundred and eighty years.
The Girogi (耆老記) says: Jumong, the founder of Goguryeo, took a woman of Goguryeo to wife and she bore him two sons, called Biryu and Eunjo. The two were of one mind and ran south, and they came to Hansan and opened a country there, which is the Gwangju (廣州) of today. Because they first crossed the water with a hundred households, they named it Baekje. Later they had their capitals one after another at Gongju and in Buyeo prefecture.
In the sea off the southeast corner of the Three Han there is the country of Wa, which is the country of Japan. Northeast of Wa is the country of the Hairy People (毛人國), and northeast of that country is the country of the Tattooed (文身國), and more than two thousand li east of that country is the country of Great Han (大漢國), and twenty thousand li east of that country is the country of the Mulberry Sunrise (扶桑國). In the time of Song five monks of India travelled and reached this place, and the Law of the Buddha was first practised there. All these lie in the midst of the sea. Only the monks of the country of Japan cross the sea and come now and then; of the rest nothing is known in detail.
Now the Three Han are Mahan, Byeonhan and Jinhan. The Treasure Store (寶藏經) says that in the northeast quarter there is the country of Zhendan (震旦國), also called Zhina (支那), and that in the language here it is Duosiwei (多思惟), because the people of this country think in a hundred ways; and this is the great country of Tang. If so, the Three Han lie on the northeast edge of Jambudvipa and are not islands in the sea. They rose more than six hundred years after the Buddha entered nirvana. Among them is Mount Seongju (聖住山), whose name is Sillimodalli (室梨母怛梨)〔in the language of Tang, the Mountain of the Three Seals (三印山)〕. Its steep peak rises high, and the palace of the bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara is on the top of that mountain, which is Mount Worak (月岳). What holy ones have dwelt in this place is not easily written out in full. But Baekje is what is meant by Mahan.
The Song Lives of Eminent Monks says that Nanta gained the samadhi of illusion (如幻三昧), so that he went into water and was not wetted and was thrown into fire and was not burned, and that he could change metal and stone and appeared in endless transformations; and the time falls in the Jianzhong (建中) years. The years stand far apart and do not agree, so it seems these are not the traces of one man.
Interlinear notes 1
即位九年九月
The source text has 即位九年九月, the ninth month of the ninth year of the reign, but this puts things back to front, since the monastery at Hansan is raised “in the spring of the second year.” It is read here as the first year, following the Samguk sagi, which has him come in the ninth month of King Chimnyu’s first year. — translator
2In praise — take the time, and the work is twice as strong
贊曰：世之流民。性多𢤱戾。王命有所不從。國令有所不順。一旦聞所未聞。見所未見。即皆革面遷善。修真面內。以順機宜故也。傳所謂出其言善。則千里之外應者。豈非是耶。然攝機之道。要在乘時。故事半古人。功必倍之。
In praise it is said:
The wandering people of this world are for the most part fierce and crooked in nature: there are the king's commands they will not follow and the country's orders they will not obey. Yet in one morning they heard what they had not heard and saw what they had not seen, and then they all changed their faces and moved toward the good, and cultivated the true and turned inward — because it was matched aptly to their capacity. What the Commentary (傳) calls, "If the words one sends out are good, then men answer from a thousand li away" — is this not just that?
But the road of laying hold of men's capacity lies in riding the time. So the work is half that of the men of old, and the merit is bound to be twice as much.