西方合論 1.28

1.28

往予携郢中張明教（五教）參訪袁中郎先生，一日出《西方合論》相視，予驚歎其禪土合源，超絕樂邦諸典，從中有未甚了解者，隨請質先生，命明教標註其首。及持歸南中，每欲梓以度世而未就也。歲己未，海虞文學瞿元初（純仁），終後遺法財見施，予即就其靈前，許刻經十卷，薦為往生。適從吳門瑞光臥病，為憶前願，因檢付袁無涯（叔度），重為詮次讎校，而屬吾徒性成董其役，一以報袁先生法施之恩，一以了瞿文學財施之願。至於撰述之精詳，議論之卓越，是在明眼者自得之耳，予復何贅！

In the past, I accompanied Zhang Mingjiao (Wujiao) of Yingzhong to pay respects to Master Yuan Zhonglang. One day he brought out the Comprehensive Treatise on the Western Land to show us. I marvelled that Chan and the Pure Land shared a common source, surpassing the various scriptures of the Land of Joy. Where there was something I did not fully understand, I immediately asked the Master for clarification, and he instructed Mingjiao to write annotations at the head [of the sections]. When I took it back south, I constantly wished to carve it on printing blocks to save the world, but did not manage to finish. In the jiwei year [1619], Qu Yuanchu (Chunren), a literary scholar of Haiyu, passed away and bequeathed Dharma-wealth as a donation; I immediately went before his spirit-tablet and vowed to carve ten fascicles of scriptures to dedicate to his rebirth. It happened that while lying ill at Ruiguang in Wumen, remembering my former vow, I retrieved and entrusted it to Yuan Wuya (Shudu) to rearrange and collate, and directed my disciple Xingcheng to oversee the work—both to repay Master Yuan's kindness in bestowing the Dharma and to fulfill Scholar Qu's vow in bestowing material wealth. As for the refined detail of the compilation and the eminence of its arguments, they are for those with clear eyes to attain for themselves; what need have I to add redundant words?