The Translator's Own Colophon
Here fascicle sixty — the very last of the entire sixty-fascicle Buddhāvataṃsaka-sūtra — comes to its close. Immediately following, the translation itself carries its own historical postscript: the Sanskrit original of the Avataṃsaka-sūtra comprises, in total, one hundred thousand verses; in ages past, the monk Zhi Faling obtained thirty-six thousand of these verses from the kingdom of Khotan. In the fourteenth year of the Yixi era of the Jin dynasty, in the year corresponding to Chunhuo, on the tenth day of the third month, at the Daochang Monastery established by Xie Shi, Minister of Works of Yangzhou, the Indian meditation master Buddhabhadra was invited; holding the Sanskrit text in his own hand, he translated it from Sanskrit into the language of Jin, while the śramaṇa monk Shi Faye personally took down the translation by brush. At that time, Meng Yi, Governor of Wu Commandery, and Chu Shudu, General of the Right Guard, served as the lay patrons of this work — and the translation was completed and issued by the tenth day of the sixth month, in the second year of the Yuanxi era.
How, When, and by Whom This Translation Was Made
## 大方廣佛華嚴經卷第六十
華嚴經梵本凡十萬偈，昔道人支法領，從于闐國得此三萬六千偈，以晉義熙十四年歲次鶉火三月十日，於揚州司空謝石所立道場寺，請天竺禪師佛度跋陀羅，手執梵文譯梵為晉，沙門釋法業親從筆受。時吳郡內史孟顗、右衛將軍褚叔度為檀越，至元熙二年六月十日出訖。
[Fascicle sixty of the Buddhāvataṃsaka-sūtra concludes — the final fascicle of this entire translation.]
The Sanskrit original of the Avataṃsaka-sūtra comprises, in total, one hundred thousand verses. In ages past, the monk Zhi Faling obtained thirty-six thousand of these verses from the kingdom of Khotan. In the fourteenth year of the Yixi era of the Jin dynasty, in the year corresponding to Chunhuo, on the tenth day of the third month, at the Daochang Monastery established by Xie Shi, Minister of Works of Yangzhou, the Indian meditation master Buddhabhadra was invited; holding the Sanskrit text in his own hand, he translated it from Sanskrit into the language of Jin, while the śramaṇa monk Shi Faye personally took down the translation by brush. At that time, Meng Yi, Governor of Wu Commandery, and Chu Shudu, General of the Right Guard, served as the lay patrons of this work — and the translation was completed and issued by the tenth day of the sixth month, in the second year of the Yuanxi era.
This closing colophon is itself an invaluable historical record, rarely preserved with such precision for a translation of this age: it names the Sanskrit source (thirty-six thousand of an original one hundred thousand verses, brought specifically from Khotan, a major Central Asian center of Buddhist manuscript transmission along the Silk Road), the exact monastery, the two officials who sponsored the work as lay patrons, the scribe who wrote down Buddhabhadra's own oral rendering, and precise beginning and completion dates spanning the fourteenth year of Yixi (418 CE) to the second year of Yuanxi (420 CE) — a translation project of some two years. Fazang, writing centuries later, would have known this very colophon as part of the received text, and its survival here confirms that Ru-Yi's own translation has followed the integral scope of Buddhabhadra's Chinese Avataṃsaka from its very first line through this, its very last.
入法界品 — Entering the Dharma-Realm — Is Now Complete
Four hundred and fifty-four parts, spanning Sudhana's pilgrimage through one hundred and ten cities and fifty-three good friends — from Mañjuśrī's first teaching to Maitreya's tower of Vairocana's own vision, and at last to Samantabhadra himself — this entire final chapter of the Buddhāvataṃsaka-sūtra, translated in full, without abbreviation, stands complete.