宣揚勝業 Proclaiming the Victorious Work
逐句解 Line by line
Now the countries he passed through were without limit, but the scriptures he sought and took had a number.
⚠ The sentence turns on the contrast and it is the preface's driest joke. 無涯 — without a shore, boundless. 有數 — has a count. The road cannot be measured; the cargo can. That is exactly the position the whole chapter has been in since Guanyin read the ledger — everybody wants the figure, and the figure is the only thing anybody can have.
In all he obtained thirty-five collections of essential Great Vehicle writings, five thousand and forty-eight scrolls by count, translated and set them out across China, and proclaimed the victorious work.
⚠ And there is the number, in the emperor's own document. Five thousand and forty-eight — the figure the Tang monk gave in the throne hall, the figure that made fourteen years eight days short of its own cargo, the figure that put four men in a river. ⚠ The transmitted preface says six hundred and fifty-seven collections, which is what the historical Xuanzang brought back. This edition prints thirty-five, and adds the scroll count, which the real document does not give at all. So the novel has taken a genuine imperial preface and fitted its own arithmetic into it. 大乘 — the Great Vehicle, and the character is shèng for the third time in this passage.
The preface's driest line: the countries he passed through were without a shore, and the scriptures he brought back had a number. The road cannot be measured and the cargo can — which is the position everybody in this chapter has been in since a bodhisattva read a ledger and found it one short.
⚠ And the number in the emperor's own document is the novel's number. Five thousand and forty-eight scrolls: the figure the Tang monk gave in the throne hall, the figure that made fourteen years eight days shorter than its own freight, the figure that dropped four men into a river two chapters ago.
⚠ The real preface says six hundred and fifty-seven collections, which is what the historical Xuanzang brought home, and gives no scroll count at all. This edition writes thirty-five and supplies the total. It is the third number altered in this passage, and every one of the three has been bent to fit the story.