勅修百丈清規 4.4

4.4

The establishment of the two ranks is to manage affairs for the community, and thereby to uphold the fundamentals, proclaim the Way, and embellish the ancestral teaching. As for managing the storehouses and overseeing the various affairs, there are none among the mundane and supramundane dharmas in which they are not thoroughly versed. Only then can they occupy the position, be called teachers, oversee the community, and manage things; this is the complete embodiment of functions, what is called fulfilling oneself and fulfilling others. In ancient times, the eastern and western ranks would exchange places and trade duties, not holding the seniority or hierarchy of ranks to be beneath them. Nowadays, dividing them into two separate camps is wrong. It has even come to factional fighting, with differing power dynamics between the strong and weak leading to mutual intolerance. Only when the leader invokes the ancestral admonitions to warn them, desiring that there be no contention, must he prudently choose those appointed, ensuring each fits their duty so that people have no ground for complaint.