樂邦遺稿 2.93

2.93

昔閩地有張聖者，幼時甞牧牛於竹林中，偶見二道人著碁。張看之，不覺終局。道人憫張久而飢，折與苦笋一莖。張食之，初甜後苦，乃棄其餘。洎還家，子孫已四世矣。從此不食烟火之物，而能作頌，斷人死生禍福等事。由此人稱之為張聖者。後為僧遊方，至興化軍。時陳康伯未第，往求頌，但書「羊毛筆」三字，康伯不曉其意。繼中秋選將過省，復詣求頌，仍寫前三字與之，自此一舉成名。初作尉某處（失其縣名），差往漳州漳甫驗事，手吏具路程。次日早飯羊毛筆菴，康伯問其處，吏答：「昔有一道人居此，頗有高行，善繫羊毛筆。每日只賣二十管，得錢六伯，以養道眾；餘時杜門而已。後坐亡，人敬之，以漆飾，其身尚在，由此得名羊毛筆菴。」康伯至彼，頂拜之餘問道人死之日，乃康伯生之辰，於此始悟前身是羊毛筆菴主也，張聖者所寫真不謬矣。康伯遂題石紀其事，仍給俸置田廣菴宇，延接方來，至今不絕。康伯，淳熙中官至左丞相。

In the past, in the Min region, there was the Holy Man Zhang. In his youth, he once grazed oxen in a bamboo grove and happened to see two Daoists playing chess. Zhang watched them, unawares, until the match ended. The Daoists took pity on Zhang because it had taken so long and he was hungry, so they snapped off a bitter bamboo shoot and gave it to him. Zhang ate it; at first it was sweet, but afterward it was bitter, so he discarded the rest. When he returned home, his descendants were already four generations removed. From then on he ate no cooked food, but was able to compose verses and determine people's life and death, misfortune and fortune, and other such matters. Because of this, people called him the Holy Man Zhang. Later, he became a monk and traveled about, arriving at Xinghua commandery. At that time, Chen Kangbo had not yet passed the examinations and went to request a verse. [The Holy Man] only wrote the three characters 'Goat's-hair Brush.' Kangbo did not understand what it meant. Subsequently, when the autumn provincial examination was about to be held, he went again to request a verse, and [the Holy Man] wrote the same three characters as before and gave them to him. From this time on, he gained fame in a single attempt. When he first served as a commandant in a certain place (the name of the county is lost), he was dispatched to Zhangpu in Zhangzhou to inspect affairs, and the clerk prepared the itinerary. The next morning, they were to have breakfast at the Goat's-hair Brush Hermitage. Kangbo asked about the place, and the clerk replied: 'In the past, a Daoist lived here who possessed quite lofty conduct and was skilled at binding goat's-hair brushes. Every day he sold only twenty brushes, obtaining six hundred coins to support the assembly of practitioners; the rest of the time he simply kept his door closed. Later he passed away while sitting. People revered him, coated his body with lacquer, and his physical form is still preserved. Because of this, it was named the Goat's-hair Brush Hermitage.' When Kangbo arrived there, after bowing at its crown, he inquired about the day the Daoist died: it was the very day Kangbo was born. At this he first realized that his previous life was the master of the Goat's-hair Brush Hermitage, and what the Holy Man Zhang had written was truly not mistaken. Kangbo then inscribed a stone to record this matter, and moreover donated his stipend to purchase land to expand the hermitage's buildings and welcome those who came from all directions, which continues to this day without interruption. During the Chunxi era, Kangbo's official career reached the post of Left Grand Councilor.