宏智禪師廣錄 3.107

3.107

When I was previously serving as transport commissioner in Huainan, I dreamt that a monk guided me to the foundations of an ancient monastery. There were more than ten gigantic pillars, and its placard boldly read: ‘Xi Prefecture,’ brilliant with gold and green. I awoke and thought it extraordinary; I once told others, but no one could divine its meaning. A few months later, the abbot of Puzhao was sued by the assembly and ended up in prison. I was born in Si, and having traveled back and forth as an official for more than twenty years, I took pity on the disorder and redundancy of the Chan assemblies, and thus wished to revive them. His followers ran to the gates of powerful nobles, who all intervened on his behalf, but my resolve could not be shaken in the end. At that time, Xuefeng Liao was residing at Changlu with fifteen hundred bhikṣus. Today’s Zhengjue of Tiantong was dwelling as the head monk, and the assembly pushed him forward. I then earnestly invited him to diligently practice the ancestral way without fear. Those near and far took refuge in him, and the threshold was packed with shoes. Later when we met, I asked about his native place, and he said he was a person of Xi Prefecture. Suddenly I realized that my former dream matched like two halves of a tally. None who heard of it failed to bow their heads in praise, and all said that this affair must be recorded. Yet whenever I held the brush, I felt sluggish; now I have been living in retirement above the Qing River for two years. Superior Huici came from Tiantong by way of Xuefeng, carrying letters from the two elders with diligent and sincere greetings, and produced Tiantong’s critiques of the ancient worthies' turning points. Thereupon I recorded the general outline of the dream affair and wrote it at the end. Not only can it sharpen the stream of Chan, but it also constitutes a great event in the monastic groves. Written on the twenty-second day of the eleventh month in the fourth year of Shaoxing [1134] by Layman Xianglin, Xiang Ziyin.