佛祖歷代通載 15.27

15.27

宋紹興二年。東坡居士過曹溪。題曰。釋迦以文教。其譯于中國。必託於儒之能言者。然後傳遠。故大乘諸經至首楞嚴。則委曲精盡勝妙獨出。以房融筆授故也。柳子厚南遷始究佛法。作曹溪南嶽諸碑。妙絕古今。而南華今無石刻。長老重辨師。儒釋兼通道學純備。以謂自唐至今頌述祖師者多矣。未有通亮典則如子厚者。蓋推本其言與孟軻氏合。其可不使學者日見而誦之。乃具石請予書其文。

In the second year of the Shaoxing era of the Song (1132 CE), Layman Dongpo passed by Caoxi and inscribed: "Śākya taught through writing; for his translations to enter China, they had to be entrusted to Confucians capable in speech before they could spread far. Thus, among the various Mahāyāna sūtras, when it came to the Śūraṅgama, its nuances were subtle and exhaustive, preeminently marvelous and peerless, because Fang Rong provided the literary brush. When Liu Zihou was demoted south, he began to investigate the Buddhist teachings, composing the various steles of Caoxi and Nanyue, which are supremely marvelous past and present. Yet at Nanhua today, there are no stone carvings. Elder Zhongbian was thoroughly versed in both Confucianism and Buddhism, his moral learning pure and complete. He considered that from the Tang down to the present, many have eulogized the ancestral masters, but none had the clear illumination, canonical precision, and standard of Zihou. Tracing back his words, they accord with Mencius. How could students not be made to see and recite them daily? He thereupon prepared stone and asked me to write out the text."