This Sutra was translated by two Honorable Elders from Indian Kasyapa Matanga and Dharmaratna in Han Dynasty. Master Hsuan Hua told us a long story of how the sutra came into being. 本经是一部既概括简短，而又十分重要的经典。读者试想：汉明帝自从永平三年某夜梦见“金人”以后，为什么对此便念念不忘？后来经过大臣们四年多郑重其事地历史查考和研究分析以后，确认在西方印度有佛出世，并留有与中国儒、道之教有所不同的教理。因而明帝特地组织了一个具有十八人之多的探访团，西去印度求法；结果在中印度的地方，遇到了二位神通广大的高僧迦叶摩腾和竺法兰。请问读者：佛经种类数量浩大：真是汗牛充栋，为什么这两位神异高僧，会首先选择这部《佛说四十二章经》把它传到中国来呢？
In 62 C.E., Emperor Ming of Han (r. 58-75 C.E.) had a dream. He dreamt of a golden man who had a halo of light which shone forth from the crown of his head and streamed out through space into the palace where the emperor was sitting. The next day he questioned his officials about the dream, and an astrologer name Fu-yi said to the emperor, “I have heard that in India there was a Holy One whom people called ‘Buddha’. Your dream, Your Majesty, certainly was of the Buddha.” Master Hsuan Hua told us a vivid story of how this Sutra came into being.
A scholar named Wang-dzun also spoke to the emperor. “In the Jou Dynasty, there was a book written, which was called Records of Strange Events. In that book it was stated: The Buddha was born in the Jou Dynasty, during the twenty-sixth year of the reign of King Jau (c. 1025 B.C.). At that time, the creeks and rivers overflowed their banks, the entire Earth quaked, and a five-colored light pierced the heavens.”
At that time, there was an astrologer, also a diviner, named Su-yu. He consulted the yi-jing and got the hexagram jyan (乾), nine in the fifth place, “flying dragon in the heavens,” and he knew that it meant a great sage had been born in the West, in India. That sage would transmit a teaching which, after a thousand years, would be transmitted to China. That is what the astrologer Su-yu divined.
At that time, King Jau of Jou ordered that the details of the event be carved in stone as a record and then buried at a certain spot south of the city to await the predicted event–that a thousand years hence the Buddhadharma would actually be transmitted to China. Later, in the Jou Dynasty, during the reign of King Mu, there was a massive earthquake that moved heaven and earth. A white rainbow with twelve rays arched through the sun.
At that time,there was another astrologer, by the name of Hu-to, who also used the Yi-jing for divination, and he announced that “A great sage from the West has entered still quiescence. In India, during the Jou Dynasty of Junggwo, in the twenty-sixth year of the reign of King Jau, this great sage came into the world, and now he has entered Nirvana.” And so, although the Buddha entered the world and went off to extinction at a place very far from Junggwo, the people of Junggwo knew about those events. The Buddha’s appearance in the world was not a chance occurrence.
From the time of King Jau of Jou to the time of Emperor Ming of the later Han Dynasty was about a thousand years, and so when the Emperor Ming of Han had the dream about the Buddha, he commanded Tzai-yin, Chin-jing, Wang-dzun, and others to go to India to seek the Buddhadharma. In India, they met Kashyapa Matanga and Gobharana, and these two gentlemen returned to China with Tzai-yin, Chin-jing, and Wang-dzun, arriving in Loyang in the tenth year of the Yung Ping reign period (69 A.D.). They came on white horses, carrying with them the sutras.
Thereupon, the Emperor of Han established White Horse Monastery. There they translated The Sutra of Forty-two Sections, Spoken by the Buddha, making it the first Sutra transmitted to China.
At that time Dauism flourished in China. When Buddhism arrived in China, the Dauist masters became jealous. By the fourteenth year of the Yung Ping reign period they had had enough. On New Year’s Day they met with the emperor and told him that Buddhism was false, that it was a barbarian religion, not of Junggwo, and therefore it should not be permitted to spread through China. “You should abolish Buddhism,” they urged. “If you will not abolish it, then you should at least have a contest in order to compare Buddhism with Dauism.” How did they suggest the contest be held? They suggested that the texts spoken by the Buddha and those written by the Dauists be put together in a pile and burned. Whichever texts did not burn would be the true ones.
On the fifteenth day of the new year, Dauist Master and leader Chu Shan-syin and five hundred other Dauist Masters assembled at the southern gate of White Horse Monastery. They put the Dauist texts and the Buddhist texts together and then prayed to the Old Man of Mount Tai, saying, “Divine Lord, Virtuous One of the Way, please grant us an efficacious response to insure that our Dauist texts will not burn and that the Buddhist sutras will.” At that time, there were many Dauist Masters with spiritual penetrations. They could “mount the fog and ride the clouds.” They could fly through the heavens and hide in the earth. They could vanish into thin air. They used the charms and spells of the Dauist religion to gain spiritual powers.
But when the fire was lit, guess what happened. The Buddhist sutras did not burn. Instead, they emitted light. The shariras of the Buddha emitted a five-colored light as bright as the sun, illumining the whole world. The light shone into empty space and formed a great canopy, which covered over everyone in the great assembly. As soon as the Dauist texts were set on fire, they burned. And those who had been able to “mount the clouds and ride the fog” were no longer able to do so. They had lost their spiritual penetrations. Those who had been able to fly could no longer fly. Those who had been able to hide in the earth could no longer hide in the earth. Those who had been able to vanish could no longer vanish. And at that time, when they spoke their charms, the charms were no longer efficacious. There wasn’t any response. The Dauist texts burned to a crisp and the Dauist Masters, Chu Shan-syin and Fei Jeng-ching, just about died of rage. In the midst of the fury of the Dauist masters, two or three hundred of their disciples shaved their heads on the spot and became Buddhist monks.
And so, the first time Dauism and Buddhism came to grips, the Dauists were defeated. After the book burning, the two venerable ones, Kashyapa Matanga and Gobharana, ascended into space and manifested the eighteen transformations of an Arhat. The upper parts of their bodies emitted
water, the lower parts of their bodies emitted fire; the upper parts of their bodies emitted fire, and the lower parts of their bodies emitted water; they walked about in space; they lay down and went to sleep in space, and so on. Because of those manifestations, the emperor and the people
all came to believe in Buddhism.
And so, this sutra, The Sutra in Forty-two Sections, Spoken by the Buddha, was the first sutra to be translated when Buddhism was transmitted to China. It was compiled after the fashion of the Confucian Analects to suit the Chinese and therefore each section begins with “The Buddha said（佛言）,” which corresponds to the Confucian “The Master said.(子曰）” Although the text is relatively short, its contents encompass the essence of the Buddha’s teachings, making this sutra an optimal entry point to the profound Buddha Dharma. Apart from helping people to establish their own ways of thinking and norms of personal conduct, it guides practitioners in their contemplative practice. This sutra makes use of simple teachings to convey profound principles to promote the ideas of bringing purity to our every thought, giving with joy, and benefiting oneself and others. The first chapter clearly illustrates the sequence we should follow in our spiritual practice, the second and third chapters are mainly written for monastics, while the subsequent chapters thereafter provide general guidelines for all spiritual practitioners.
In the Sutra there are aspects of Theravada and Mahayana; expedient means and ultimate reality; gradual cultivation and sudden enlightenment. Even more importantly, all of the various teachings in the Sutra of Forty-Two Chapters are ultimately one single vehicle pointing to one single goal – enlightenment. 这部经典，佛并不是在一个专门的法会上说的，而是在佛涅槃以后，由他的弟子们，把他一生所说的一些警句，择要系统编集而成。也就是宣化上人所说的：这是一部‘佛的语录’。把佛所说的某一段话称为一章，共选集了四十二段话，编集成了这部《佛说四十二章经》。因此，这部经典实在既不能说单只是小乘佛法，也不能说单只是大乘佛法；而是综合佛一生所说的大小乘全部佛法。
这部经典，实在集结得很好，充分反映了佛说法的全部过程。从小到大，由浅入深。从小乘的须陀洹、斯陀含、阿那含和阿罗汉四果开始，而至申述‘念等本空’：‘念无念念，行无行行，言无言言，修无修修’，‘言语道断，非物所拘’；强调‘真假并观’：‘念非常，观灵觉，即菩提’；以及‘无著得道’：‘不为情欲所惑，不为众邪所娆，精进无为’；进而阐明中道要义：‘处中得道’‘清净安乐’；最后则归结于佛法的根本真理：‘生即有灭’以及‘达世如幻’。通过有生有灭如幻如化的相对真理，而达到真实不虚、如如不动，乃至动静一体的大乘绝对真理。