佛祖統紀 43.53

43.53

The author remarks: Hong Juefan said that when Vinaya Master Daoxuan wrote monastic history, literary composition was not his forte; when he wrote biographies of Chan masters, it was like inspecting household registers in the dark. Although Monastic Director Ning was widely learned, his discernment was obscure, gathering various stele inscriptions into biographies without a unified style. How perceptive was Juefan's critique! In the past, Shangu saw that the text of the monastic biographies was vulgar and its principles shallow, and wished to redact and revise it, but did not succeed. How regrettable! If there were someone to employ me, could I not fulfill Shangu's aspiration?