鉴真六次东渡行迹（701年 — 763年 · 武周长安元年至唐广德元年）

鉴真俗姓淳于，扬州江阳县人。十四岁随父入大云寺，见佛像而感动，求为僧；适逢武周长安元年诏天下诸州度僧，遂从智满禅师出家为沙弥。

Born to the Chunyu family of Jiangyang County, Yangzhou, Jianzhen entered Dayun Temple with his father at fourteen and, moved by the Buddha images, asked to become a monk. In 701 an imperial decree allowed ordinations, and he became a novice under Chan master Zhiman.

《唐大和上东征传》：“大和上年十四，随父入寺，见佛像感动心，因请父求出家。”The Eastern Expedition of the Great Tang Master: "At fourteen he went to the temple with his father, was moved by the Buddha images, and asked his father to let him leave home."

神龙元年从道岸律师受菩萨戒；景龙元年游学东都洛阳，旋入长安，次年三月二十八日于实际寺登坛受具足戒。此后遍学三藏，归淮南后专讲戒律，成为江淮一带的授戒大师。

After taking the bodhisattva precepts from Vinaya master Dao'an in 705, Jianzhen travelled to Luoyang and then Chang'an, where he received full ordination at Shiji Temple in 708. Returning to Huainan, he became the leading teacher of monastic discipline in the Yangtze–Huai region.

日本僧荣叡、普照留学唐土已十年，为本国求传戒之师，是年冬至扬州大明寺礼请。众僧以沧海难渡默然无应，鉴真慨然许诺，祥彦、思托等二十一人愿随行。

The Japanese monks Eiei and Fusho, ten years into their studies in Tang China, came to Daming Temple seeking a master to transmit the precepts to Japan. When the assembly fell silent at the danger of the sea, Jianzhen declared he would go himself, and twenty-one disciples vowed to follow.

《唐大和上东征传》：“为是法事也，何惜身命？诸人不去，我即去耳。”The Eastern Expedition of the Great Tang Master: "This is for the Dharma; why begrudge one's life? If no one else will go, I will go myself."

天宝二载，因同行僧如海诬告其“与海贼连”，首次谋渡未能成行；同年十二月再度出海，至狼沟浦遇风舟破，又在桑石山触礁，饥渴数日后获救，由明州官府安置于鄮县阿育王寺。次年应越、杭、湖、宣诸州之请巡游讲律授戒。

A false accusation of collusion with pirates halted the first attempt in 743. That winter the party sailed again but was wrecked at Langgou Bay and again on the rocks of Sangshi Island; rescued after days without food or water, they were lodged by the Mingzhou authorities at King Ashoka Temple, from where Jianzhen lectured across Yue, Hang, Hu and Xuan prefectures.

越州僧告官，荣叡被捕。鉴真遣弟子往福州买舟，自率三十余人取道天台，冒雪越岭至国清寺，再经临海、黄岩向温州。至黄岩禅林寺，扬州弟子灵祐等恐师父遇险，联名告官，江东道采访使派人追及，押还扬州，东渡再次受阻。

After Eiei was arrested on a monk's complaint, Jianzhen sent disciples to buy a ship in Fuzhou and led some thirty followers south through snow to Guoqing Temple on Mount Tiantai. Near Huangyan, however, officials alerted by his own anxious disciples in Yangzhou caught up with him and escorted him home.

天宝七载六月自扬州崇福寺再发，在舟山一带候风数月；十月出海后遭遇大风，漂流十四日，饮水断绝，终在振州（今海南三亚）靠岸，振州别驾冯崇债遣兵迎入州城。

Setting out again from Yangzhou in 748, the party waited months for wind near the Zhoushan islands. Once at sea a storm drove them south for fourteen days without fresh water until they landed at Zhenzhou on Hainan, where the local official welcomed them with an armed escort.

《唐大和上东征传》：“沸浪一透，如上高山；怒涛再至，似入深谷。”The Eastern Expedition of the Great Tang Master: "One surge lifted us as if onto a high mountain; the next swell plunged us as if into a deep valley."

在振州住一年修造佛殿，经万安州至崖州，为遭火焚毁的寺院重建佛殿、讲堂；随后渡海至雷州，经梧州等地北上桂州，都督冯古璞出城迎礼，鉴真留住一年，登坛授戒。

Jianzhen spent a year on Hainan rebuilding temples at Zhenzhou and Yazhou, then crossed to Leizhou and travelled north via Wuzhou to Guizhou (Guilin), where the governor Feng Gupu welcomed him and he stayed a year conferring the precepts.

应南海郡大都督卢奂之请东下广州，途经端州时荣叡圆寂于龙兴寺。在广州住大云寺登坛授戒，书中记下珠江上各国商船云集的盛况。

Invited by the governor-general Lu Huan, Jianzhen sailed down to Guangzhou; on the way his Japanese companion Eiei died at Duanzhou. In Guangzhou he conferred the precepts at Dayun Temple, and his biographer recorded the crowds of foreign merchant ships on the Pearl River.

《唐大和上东征传》：“江中有婆罗门、波斯、昆仑等舶，不知其数；并载香药、珍宝，积载如山。”The Eastern Expedition of the Great Tang Master: "On the river were ships of Brahmans, Persians and Kunlun beyond counting, laden with incense, medicines and treasures piled like mountains."

溯北江至韶州，礼六祖慧能所住法泉寺。普照在此辞别北去，二人执手悲泣。鉴真因连年奔波炎热，眼疾加重，经胡人医治后双目失明。

Travelling up the North River to Shaozhou, Jianzhen visited the temple of the Sixth Patriarch Huineng. Here Fusho took his leave in tears, and Jianzhen, his eyes weakened by years of heat and hardship, went blind after treatment by a foreign physician.

《唐大和上东征传》：“为传戒律，发愿过海，遂不至日本国，本愿不遂。”The Eastern Expedition of the Great Tang Master: "I vowed to cross the sea to transmit the precepts, yet have not reached Japan; my vow is unfulfilled."

越大庾岭北归，经虔州、吉州（弟子祥彦坐化舟中）、江州庐山东林寺、江宁瓦官寺与栖霞寺，返回扬州龙兴寺。天宝十二载十月，日本遣唐大使藤原清河、副使大伴古麻吕、吉备真备及安倍朝衡（阿倍仲麻吕）至延光寺礼请，鉴真再度应允。

Crossing the Dayu Pass, Jianzhen returned north via Qianzhou, Jizhou (where his disciple Xiangyan died aboard the boat), Mount Lu and Jiangning to Yangzhou. In the tenth month of 753 the Japanese embassy of Fujiwara no Kiyokawa, Otomo no Komaro, Kibi no Makibi and Abe no Nakamaro invited him once more, and he agreed.

十月十九日夜潜出龙兴寺，沿江而下至苏州黄泗浦，同行弟子法进、思托等及胡人、昆仑人共二十四人，携舍利、佛像与经律论疏。遣唐大使恐被搜查，众僧一度下船；十一月十日夜，副使大伴古麻吕密纳鉴真一行于己舟，十五日四舟同发。

Slipping out of Longxing Temple by night, Jianzhen went down the Yangtze to Huangsi Bay with twenty-four companions, relics, images and scriptures. Fearing a search, the chief envoy put the monks ashore, but the vice-envoy Otomo no Komaro secretly took them aboard his own ship, and the four ships sailed together.

四舟出海后，第一、第二舟同抵阿儿奈波岛（今冲绳岛）；鉴真所乘的第二舟经益救岛（今屋久岛），于十二月二十日在萨摩国阿多郡秋妻屋浦靠岸。自天宝二载首次谋渡，历时十二年，终于登上日本。

Two of the ships reached Okinawa together; Jianzhen's ship went on past Yakushima and landed at Akitsumaya Bay in Satsuma on the twentieth day of the twelfth month, twelve years after his first attempt.

经太宰府、难波，于天平胜宝六年二月入平城京，安置东大寺，天皇敕命受戒传律一任鉴真。四月于卢舍那大佛殿前立戒坛，圣武太上天皇、光明皇太后、孝谦天皇等登坛受菩萨戒，又为僧众四百四十余人授戒，日本自此有如法授戒之制。

Travelling by way of Dazaifu and Naniwa, Jianzhen entered the capital Heijo-kyo in 754 and was lodged at Todaiji with full authority over ordinations. That spring he raised an ordination platform before the Great Buddha Hall, conferring the precepts on the retired emperor Shomu, the empress dowager and Empress Koken, and on more than 440 monks.

《唐大和上东征传》载天皇敕：“自今以后，受戒传律，一任和上。”Imperial decree recorded in The Eastern Expedition of the Great Tang Master: "From now on, ordination and the transmission of the Vinaya are entrusted entirely to the Master."

天平宝字三年（759 年）在新田部亲王旧宅创建“唐律招提”，后得敕额，即唐招提寺，在此讲授律学。763 年五月六日结跏趺坐，面西而化，享年七十六岁；弟子忍基等事先为其塑像，今仍供奉寺中。

In 759 Jianzhen founded a Vinaya monastery on the former estate of Prince Niitabe, later named Toshodaiji by imperial grant. He died there seated in meditation facing west in 763, aged seventy-six; the portrait statue his disciples made of him is still enshrined at the temple.

《唐大和上东征传》：“是岁五月六日，结跏趺坐，面西化，春秋七十六。”The Eastern Expedition of the Great Tang Master: "On the sixth day of the fifth month he sat cross-legged, facing west, and passed away, aged seventy-six."