佛祖統紀 33.41

33.41

I comment: In the past, Master Shi, Prince of Yue, Zhenyin, once passed by Jinshan and admired the grandeur of the Water and Land Retreat ritual; he then donated one hundred mu of fields to specifically establish the Water and Land Retreat of the four seasons on Mount Yuebo, as an act of repaying heaven, earth, sovereign, and parents. Furthermore, he personally composed the text of the memorial, had it carved on the stone walls of the hall, and compiled the ritual texts, printing the blocks at the temple. Soon afterwards, Emperor Xiaozong heard of it, praised it, and bestowed an imperial calligraphy plaque for the hall reading 'Water and Land Bodhimaṇḍa of Unhindered Liberation'. Up to now, for a hundred years, the offerings have been maintained with utmost reverent care. One li from Yuebo, there is a Buddhist cloister named Zunjiao. Its master and disciples, vast in number, led three thousand monks and prominent clans to donate wealth and purchase land, completely following the Yuebo method of universal salvation across the four seasons. Prior to this, colleagues at Zunjiao observed that the intention of Prince Yue's memorial text was solely to repay his past career as an official and his service to sovereign and parents; though beautiful, it lacked the intent of making offerings equally across noble and humble, poor and rich. They therefore urged Zhipan to complete a continuation of the new ritual in six rolls, expanding the grandeur of the retreat method, and carving its printing blocks. Furthermore, according to the proper titles and ranks, twenty-six hanging scrolls of painted images were made. Now, as the retreat assembly has been founded, both the ritual texts and the image scrolls are put to proper use. Those in charge of the affairs at the time were the temple monks Chuqian, Qingtie, and the Scholar-Monk Hong; the one who gave the Dharma gift was Zongjing, abbot of Yuebo; and the one who gave the gift of text was Zhipan. We aspire that the monasteries of the ten directions will take this as a model and greatly promote the path of universal salvation.