樂邦遺稿 2.115

2.115

《百家詩選》曰「呂本中，字居仁，靖康年擢第，歷官及中書舍人，落職奉祠。公平生緣詩以窮、耽禪而病，清癯之甚若不勝衣者，所居一室蕭然裕如也。公每以前路資糧為念，因賦詩寄劉器之曰：病知前路資糧少，老覺平生事業非，無數青山隔江海，與誰同往却同歸？至紹興丙寅夏六日，公無病忽加趺而逝。考其修蘊，定知稇載而去矣。」然紀錄家謂公稇載而去，余謂畢竟載歸何處也？

The Baijia shixuan says: "Lü Benzhong, courtesy name Juren, passed the examinations in the Jingkang era, and through his official career reached Secretariat Drafter (zhongshu sheren). Later he was stripped of his post and held a temple-sinecurist office. Throughout his life, the gentleman was impoverished on account of poetry and fell ill through indulgence in Chan; he was so gaunt as if he could barely support his robes, yet the single room he dwelled in was desolate and self-sufficient. The gentleman constantly bore in mind provisions for the road ahead, and so composed a poem sent to Liu Qizhi, which said: 'Illness teaches me that provisions for the road ahead are scant; / In old age I realize that my lifelong endeavors were in vain. / Countless blue mountains are divided by rivers and seas; / With whom shall I go forth, and with whom return?' In the summer of the bingyin year of Shaoxing, on the sixth day, the gentleman, without illness, suddenly crossed his legs in full lotus posture and expired. Examining his cultivation and accumulation, one definitely knows that he departed with loaded wagons." Yet while chroniclers say that the gentleman departed with loaded wagons, I say: in the end, whereto was his cartload returned?