樂邦遺稿 2.49

2.49

The Record of Yijian says: 'Vice Minister Li, named Mixun, courtesy name Sizhi, was the governor of Linchuan. One day, on the anniversary of his father's death, he went to Shushan to provide a meal for the monks and dined together with the abbot, Elder Xingman. Man was over eighty years old; he gazed intently at Li and said: "Are you not old Xun, sir?" Li did not reply. Man also said: "Old Xun was my fellow disciple; the characters of his name were identical to yours, sir. Ever since you took charge of this land, sir, I have suspected it. Today, observing your speech, laughter, and bearing, their brilliance has not the slightest difference. You, sir, must be his later incarnation." Li inquired into the time of Xun's death, which was the first month of the wuchen year of the Yuanxiu era [1088], the very year Li was born. Li originally had the sobriquet Miyuan; someone in a dream happened to change it to Xun for him, and later he indeed passed the examinations. Li believed it, and upon returning home he named his private resting chamber "Lesser Cloud Hall" and composed a poem to express his thoughts, saying: "For what reason did this old fellow make an error in a single thought, / willing to exchange the cassock for hairpins and topknot? / A fellow practitioner, elder brother Man, is still here; / in a different life he still praises old Xun. / With habit-energies not yet forgotten, I can still make dances; / from such conditions, how could I behold the holding up of the flower? / Instead, I shall take pure karma to seek the way home; / how could living in a lay household compare to being plain and simple?"'