In my youth, I had the opportunity to attend some lectures sitting humbly in the end row of the hall. I happened to find myself interested in the profound [word missing here in text], which was rich and broad in both letter and meaning and recondite in both the fact involved [as explanatory medium] (shih) and [the underlying] principle (li ).

Because what is stored in one’s memory does not [endure] like mustard-seed kalpa and rock kalpa, one would find it impossible to keep it intact forever. Somehow on the days when there were lectures I just jotted down what I had heard during the day. To give an account of and record what I had heard earlier was like [re]producing a drum sound.

Then, during the third month in the spring of the ninth year of the Yūan-chia era (432 AD) while residing at the Tung-lin (“Eastern Grove”) Monastery (ching-she) on Lu-shan, again I put them in order and rearranged them. In addition, after collecting and consulting various versions, I edited them into one roll.

It is hoped that ‘men of virtue’ with discriminating enlightenment realize [my] follies [possibly committed here]. I hope they may be led to the outside (of) the eternal bondage [of transmigration] by not abandoning the path (Tao) due to human insignificance.