"The Gosho Zenshu is NOT an excellent compilation of Nichiren's writings. NO ONE in any scholastic circles uses it because it is so sectarian and unreliable. It also recklessly mixes forged letters with authentic letters of Nichiren, so there is no way of knowing which is which. In fact, the Gosho Zenshu has a disclaimer in the preface, which says, "This collection includes virtually all the writings that have since of old been treated as Gosho, WHETHER THEIR AUTHENTICITY HAS BEEN CONFIRMED OR NOT."
"Answer: In the case of Kumārajīva, there is actual proof [attesting to the validity of his translations]. But no such proof exists in the case of Pu-k’ung."
The Tripitaka Master Pu-k’ung’s translation of The Rules of Rituals Based on the Lotus Sutra indicates that the Lotus Sutra does in fact contain mudras and mantras. Similarly, the translation of the Benevolent Kings Sutra by Kumārajīva contains no mudras or mantras, but a later translation of the same sutra by Pu-k’ung does contain mudras and mantras."
“Thus it came about that the translation of the Lotus Sutra made by the Tripitaka Master Kumārajīva in particular spread easily throughout China. And that is why, when the Great Teacher Kompon [Dengyō] of Enryaku-ji attacked the teachings of the other schools, he refuted them by saying, ‘We have proof in the fact that the tongue of the Tripitaka Master Kumārajīva, the translator of the Lotus Sutra, was not consumed by the flames. The sutras that you rely upon are all in error.’
"Eventually Kumārajīva died and was cremated, and his impure body was completely reduced to ashes. Only his tongue remained, resting atop a blue lotus that had sprung up in the midst of the flames. It sent out shining rays of five-colored light that made the night as bright as day and in the daytime outshone the rays of the sun. This, then, is why the sutras translated by all the other scholars came to be held in little esteem, while those translated by Kumārajīva, particularly his translation of the Lotus Sutra, spread rapidly throughout China."
Question: That tells us about the translators who lived at the time of Kumārajīva or before. But what about later translators such as Shan-wu-wei or Pu-k’ung?
Answer: Even in the case of translators who lived after Kumārajīva, if their tongues burned up when they were cremated, it means that there are errors in their work. The Dharma Characteristics school in earlier times enjoyed a great popularity in Japan. But the Great Teacher Dengyō attacked it, pointing out that, though the tongue of Kumārajīva was not consumed by the flames, those of Hsüan-tsang and Tz’u-en burned along with their bodies. Emperor Kammu, impressed by his argument, transferred his allegiance to the Tendai Lotus school.
In the third and ninth volumes of the Nirvana Sutra, we find the Buddha predicting that when his teachings are transmitted from India to other countries many errors will be introduced into them, and the chances for people to gain enlightenment through them will be reduced. Therefore, the Great Teacher Miao-lo remarks: “Whether or not the teachings are grasped correctly depends upon the persons who transmit them. It is not determined by the sage’s original pronouncements.”
He is saying that no matter how the people of today may follow the teachings of the sutras in hopes of a better life in the hereafter, if the sutras they follow are in error, then they can never attain enlightenment. But that is not to be attributed to any fault of the Buddha."
“When the Buddhist sutras and teachings were brought from India to China, the manner of translation depended upon the inclination of the particular translator, and there were no fixed translations for the sutras and treatises. Hence the Tripitaka Master Kumārajīva of the Later Ch’in dynasty always used to say: ‘When I examine the Buddhist teachings as they exist in China, I find that in many cases they differ from the Sanskrit originals. If the sutra translations that I have produced are free from error, then, after I am dead and cremated, my body, since it is impure, will no doubt be consumed by the flames, but my tongue alone will not be burned.’ And when he was finally cremated, his body was reduced to a pile of bones, but his tongue alone remained, resting on top of a blue lotus blossom and emitting a brilliant light that outshone the rays of the sun. What a wonderful thing!
“Thus it came about that the translation of the Lotus Sutra made by the Tripitaka Master Kumārajīva in particular spread easily throughout China. And that is why, when the Great Teacher Kompon [Dengyō] of Enryaku-ji attacked the teachings of the other schools, he refuted them by saying, ‘We have proof in the fact that the tongue of the Tripitaka Master Kumārajīva, the translator of the Lotus Sutra, was not consumed by the flames. The sutras that you rely upon are all in error.’
“Again, in the Nirvana Sutra the Buddha says that, when his teachings are transmitted to other countries, many errors are bound to be introduced into them. Even if among sutra passages we were to find the Lotus Sutra characterized as useless, or Shakyamuni Buddha described as a Buddha lost in the region of darkness, we should inquire very carefully to see whether the text that makes such statements belongs to the provisional teachings or the true teaching, to the Mahayana or the Hinayana, whether it was preached in the earlier or the later part of the Buddha’s life, and who the translator was."
This is not simply an opinion of my own. On Questions about the Practical Aspect of Precepts10 states, “Fading in later ages, illuminating former ages.” By “illuminating former ages,” it means that Kumārajīva’s wisdom threw light on the translations done by the men who lived from the Later Han to the Later Ch’in dynasties. By “fading in later ages,” it means that the translators who came after Kumārajīva such as Shan-wu-wei, Chin-kang-chih, and Pu-k’ung, because they had Kumārajīva’s wisdom to illuminate them, were somewhat cleverer than the earlier ones.
Practical Aspect of Precepts also says, “All the men who came after him [Kumārajīva] had to rely on his works.”
Thus, although Mind Aspiring for Enlightenment may be the work of Nāgārjuna, the word “only” in the passage I have discussed earlier represents a private opinion inserted in the text by Pu-k’ung. And even more erroneous is the statement that follows, namely, that such doctrines are not to be found in the other types of teachings."
"In addition, there are the tastes and intentions of the translators to be considered. Some favor detailed treatment and frown on conciseness; others prefer concise treatment and dislike abundant detail. For example, Hsüan-tsang favored detailed discussion, and so when he translated the Wisdom Sutra, which was in forty volumes in the original, into Chinese, his translation came to six hundred volumes. The Tripitaka Master Kumārajīva, on the other hand, preferred conciseness, and so his translation of Great Perfection of Wisdom, a thousand volumes in the original, was reduced in translation to a hundred volumes. It is thus very difficult to decide which sutra, the Lotus or the Mahāvairochana, is superior simply on the basis of which describes mudras and mantras.
Kumārajīva’s translation of the Lotus Sutra does not consider mudras and mantras to be of prime importance [and hence omits mention of them]. But The Rules of Rituals Based on the Lotus Sutra, translated by the Tripitaka Master Pu-k’ung, includes a discussion of mudras and mantras. Kumārajīva’s translation of the Benevolent Kings Sutra makes no mention of mudras and mantras, but Pu-k’ung’s translation of the same sutra has added a discussion of these matters. Thus we know that such differences are due to the taste and intention of the translator."
"It should be noted, however, that there was a total of 187 translators who carried out the task of transmitting the sutras from India to the land of China. With the exception of one man, the Tripitaka Master Kumārajīva, all the other 186, when they produced their translations, added water to the milk of the teachings and mixed poison with the medicine. But the various teachers and half-baked scholars, failing to understand this fact, do not realize that even if they were to recite the entire body of sutras or commit to memory all the twelve divisions of the scriptures, they would still find it difficult to escape the sufferings of birth and death."
Nichiren taught and warned about faulty translations and self-serving translators in India and China. Nikk0 too in his Twenty Six Articles. Nichiren also spoke of the particular depravity of the Japanese. There is no doubt that Nichiren Shoshu and Soka Gakkai translations, in particular, are faked in order to promote their heterodox doctrines.
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