传播丝绸之路文化的杰出人物

鸠摩罗什，出生于古代西域的龟兹国，是东晋时后秦的一位高僧，译经家。

他7岁随母出家，初学小乘经典。9岁随母赴罽宾（今克什米尔地区）从盘头达多诵读杂藏、阿含等经。12岁与母返龟兹途中，在疏勒驻留年余，修习阿毗昙及六足论，从大乘僧人﹑莎车王子须利耶苏摩诵读《中论》﹑《百论》和《十二门论》，复从佛陀耶舍授读《十诵律》等。后佛陀耶舍一直和他合作翻译佛经。鸠摩罗什为人开朗，秉性坦率，虚己善诱，专以大乘教人，而善于辨析义理，应机领会，独具神解。罗什回龟兹后，广习大乘经论，讲经说法，成为中观大师，名声大震西域，在汉地也有传闻。前秦建元十八年（382），苻坚遣吕光攻伐焉耆，继灭龟兹，劫鸠摩罗什至凉州。三年后，姚苌杀苻坚，灭前秦，吕光遂割据凉州，自立为凉主，鸠摩罗什随吕光滞留凉州近17年。后秦弘始三年（401），姚兴攻伐后凉，亲迎鸠摩罗什入长安，入逍遥园西明阁，以国师礼待，并在长安组织了规模宏大的译场，请鸠摩罗什主持译经事业。此后10多年间，鸠摩罗什悉心从事译经和说法。

鸠摩罗什及其弟子含辛茹苦历经12年，译出佛经共74部，834卷。鸠摩罗什羁留凉国17年，对于中土民情非常熟悉，在语言文字上能运用自如，又加上他原本博学多闻，兼具文学素养，因此，在翻译经典上，自然、生动，契合妙义，在传译的里程上，缔造了一番空前的盛况。

鸠摩罗什是中国历史上伟大的高僧，是中国佛教史乃至思想文化史上一位非常杰出的人物。鸠摩罗什“删去原文繁重”，“不拘原文体制”，“变易原文”，他译出的佛经在内容的表达、词语的应用等方面都达到了前所未有的水平。印度佛教最主要、最重要的经典，鸠摩罗什都通过翻译把它们介绍到了中国，对中国的佛教发展起到了重大的作用。

Kumarajiva， born in Qiuci， was an eminent monk and translator of Buddhist scriptures of Later Qing Kingdom.

Kumarajiva became a monk with his mother at the age of seven and went Jibin （in Kashmir） at the age of nine. He studied Theravada Buddhist scriptures at first read Agama and other scriptures in Jibin. On his way back to Qiuci together with his mother， he stayed in Shule for more than a year， and in this period he studied Mahayana Buddhist scriptures after monks， the prince of Shache Kingdom， and Buddhayeshe. He cooperated with Buddhayeshe in his translation in later years. Kumarajiva was cheerful， frank， modest， and keen on teaching people with Mahayana Buddhism. He was good at analysis and quick to learn and often had his special understanding of the Buddhist scriptures. After he returned to Qiuci， he studied Mahayan Buddhist scripture extensively， preached Buddhism to the people， and became a famous master in west area， even known to people in Central China. In 382， Qiuci Kingdom was conquered by Fu Jian and Kumarajiva was brought to Liangzhou and there he stayed for about 17 years. In 401， he was greeted to Changan by the king himself of Later Qin and treated as kings teacher. He lived in Changan for more than 10 years， leading the large scale translation activities preached to the people.

Kumarajiva and his disciples worked hard for twelve years and 74 Buddhist scriptures including 834 volumes were translated into Chinese. Before coming to Changan， he had stayed in Liangzhou for 17 years and got to be quite familiar with peoples life in Central China and had mastered Chinese language very well. Kumarajiva was an eminent monk and with his extensive knowledge and good mastery of literature， his translation of Buddhist scriptures read natural， interesting， and meaningful. He created a new milestone in the translation of Buddhist scriptures.