國清百錄 2.106

2.106

Your disciple Zongchi bows in veneration. As the New Year brings the bright spring, I respectfully contemplate your health, ease, dhyāna joy, and Dharma delight. That the assembly gathers in practice and meritorious deeds find their home is entirely due to your luminous guidance. I respectfully recall that in Jiangdu you wished to travel west for a time, first arriving at Hengyue to repay your teacher's kindness, and next proceeding to Zhugong to requite your birthplace. Devoutly receiving this intention, I escorted you to the Great River; Yangzi arrived by the stream and presented your request in full, whereupon permission was granted for you to return to Guan Tao. As the months and years pass and the seasons repeatedly shift, I respectfully hear that your meritorious deeds are complete, beyond praise from afar. Your disciple is most fortunate to have been born into the Buddhist house; what I heard when passing through the courtyard was not merely the Odes and Rites, but serving the Wheel-Turning Monarch truly occurs in the evening of my days. Now, accompanying the imperial carriage, setting out from the capital, stopping at Luoyang, and staying again at Lixia: the rites of burnt offerings and gazing afar originated in the Book of Yu, and the renown of imperial inspection tours flourished in the records of the Ji clan. The Sovereign models himself on antiquity, harmonizing fully with it. Humans and spirits observe the auspicious omens; directing the south-pointing chariot, he attended court at the Eastern Peak, and on an auspicious day, the eleventh of this month, the ancestral sacrifice was concluded. At that time, heaven and earth expanded, the sun and moon shone with greater brilliance, and auspicious vapours and divine radiance illuminated near and far. Magic fungi competed to sprout in mountain valleys, and intertwined trees flourished beside the altars. The mute, deaf, blind, and lame healed spontaneously without physicians; groups helping the aged and leading the young gathered together without prior consultation. Your servant and son has witnessed all of this; it is no empty embellishment. When one thing attains its proper place, ten thousand affairs respond; regarding our most weighty teacher-disciple relationship, how would I dare not inform you? Following the post-horses, I immediately departed the travel lodge; before the bell of the fourth month ends, I will surely arrive in Yangzhou. Now I send to welcome you, hoping that you will travel downstream; before the remainder of spring expires, I fervently hope to pay my respects. In the meantime, please take precious care of your virtue, and I shall attend upon you again. Respectfully bowing in veneration. First month, twentieth day.