玄奘之德 The Making of the Monk
當日對眾舉出玄奘法師。這個人自幼為僧，出娘胎，就持齋受戒。他外公見是當朝一路總管殷開山。他父親陳光蕊中狀元，官拜文淵殿大學士。一心不愛榮華，只喜修持寂滅。查得他根源又好，德行又高；千經萬典，無所不通；佛號仙音，無般不會。当日对众举出玄奘法师。这个人自幼为僧，出娘胎，就持斋受戒。他外公见是当朝一路总管殷开山。他父亲陈光蕊中状元，官拜文渊殿大学士。一心不爱荣华，只喜修持寂灭。查得他根源又好，德行又高；千经万典，无所不通；佛号仙音，无般不会。
逐句解 Line by line
That day, before the assembly, they put forward the Dharma Master Xuanzang.
The riddle the verse posed is answered in flat prose: it is Xuanzang.
This man had been a monk from his earliest years; from the moment he left his mother's womb he kept the fast and held the precepts.
為 in 自幼為僧, a monk from childhood, is wéi, to be. 持齋受戒 is to keep the fast and receive the precepts — and the text claims he did both from the moment he left the womb.
His maternal grandfather, as it happened, was Yin Kaishan, a Circuit Commander of the reigning court.
殷開山, Yin Kaishan, back again from the origin verse. 當朝, the reigning court, reads 朝 as cháo; a 一路總管 is a Circuit Area Commander.
His father, Chen Guangrui, had placed first in the examinations and was appointed Grand Academician of the Wenyuan Hall.
中 in 中狀元, to take first place in the examination, is zhòng — the same arrow-finding-its-mark sense the chapter used earlier of a prophecy coming true. Passing the examination is described as scoring a hit. 文淵殿大學士 is Grand Academician of the Wenyuan Hall.
With a single heart he cared nothing for glory and splendor, and delighted only in cultivating the stillness of nirvana.
寂滅 (jì miè) renders nirvāṇa, the stillness beyond birth and death. 一心 and 不愛 take their regular readings, yì, and bú before a fourth tone.
On inquiry his origins were found to be excellent and his virtue and conduct lofty; of the thousand scriptures and myriad canons there was none he did not master; of the Buddha's chants and the immortals' melodies there was no kind he could not perform.
得 in 查得, ascertained by inquiry, is the outcome de. The list of accomplishments is doing work: unimpeachable birth, complete learning, and full command of the liturgical arts. He is not merely a good candidate but the only possible one.
The prose portrait confirms in the plain register what the verse gave in myth: Xuanzang is the perfect man to preside over the Grand Mass. His pedigree is faultless — a grandfather who is an Area Commander, a father who is a first-place graduate and Grand Academician — and his vocation is lifelong and wholehearted, worldly glory set aside for the stillness of nirvana.
The closing run of his attainments, complete mastery of the scriptures and command of both Buddhist chant and the immortals' melodies, marks him as not merely learned but liturgically complete, and quietly signals the syncretic ideal the chapter has just defended in the debate over the Three Teachings.