樂邦遺稿 2.81

2.81

When Li Zonggu, Vice Director of the Bureau of Convoys, served as prefect of Hanzhou, there was a Daoist named Yin Keyuan, who was skilled, experienced, and good at painting. Having caused an accidental fire, he committed a crime punishable by death. Li delayed his trial, and meeting with an amnesty, he obtained pardon; Keyuan was eighty-one years old at the time. He pledged of his own accord that in a future life he would become Li's son to repay his kindness. After Keyuan had been dead for more than twenty years, Li's daughter-in-law dreamed of Keyuan entering her room, and later she indeed gave birth to a son, whose milk name was Shusun. From childhood he was good at painting and delighted in reading Zhuangzi and Laozi, and he again became a Daoist, named Miaoying, serving his mother with filial piety. His portraiture was exquisite. At the time, Dongpo once composed a long poem recording the matter, which broadly said: ‘The remote ancestor of a thousand years guarded the mountain pass; / With a single thought, he returned as the descendant of Laozi. / When will the old karmic affinity of incense and fire end? / The leftover habit of painting remains down to this day.’”