四明尊者教行錄 5.138

5.138

四明尊者，道德淵源固未易窺測，而學者仰止高風，雖片言隻字，得之者如獲珙寶。至有甘棠勿敗之比。此帖流落人間，世不多見。而楷公得之，罔敢失墜。因求跋于二三宗匠，用託不朽。噫日新之銘，非即之湯盤則不知。大思之銘，非即之周量則不著。師資心傳之妙，亦可想見於此矣。異世相遇若旦暮，然是亦聖教中一段奇事，神而明之存乎其人，又豈止神物護持而已。述齋薛澄清卿敬跋。紹熙壬子四月五日。

As for the Venerable Siming, the deep spring of his virtue and the Way was certainly not easy to fathom, yet students look up to his lofty style; even those who obtain a single word or slip of paper cherish it as if acquiring a precious jade. It even reaches the comparison of 'do not harm the sweet pear tree.' This letter drifted into the secular world, rarely seen by contemporaries. Yet Master Kai obtained it and dared not let it be lost. He thereupon sought colophons from two or three masters of the lineage, so as to entrust it to immortality. Ah! The inscription on daily renewal cannot be known unless one approaches King Tang's basin; the inscription on profound thought cannot be revealed unless one approaches the Zhou vessel. The wonder of the mind-to-mind transmission between teacher and disciple can also be imagined from this. Meeting across different generations as though face to face from morning to evening—this is also a marvelous event within the sacred teachings. That its spiritual brilliance resides in the person—how could it be merely the protection of spiritual beings? Xue Chengqing, of the Studio of Recital, reverently adds this colophon. Fifth day of the fourth month in the renzi year of the Shaoxi era [1192].