佛祖歷代通載 19.78

19.78

淨慈北磵居簡禪師弔其塔。文曰。孟子稱大丈夫者。富貴不能淫。貧賤不能移。威武不能屈。公寄命螻蟻。試身雷霆。不奉明詔。以改德士。威武果能屈乎。黥而流之。為道州徒。九死之濱過午不食。詠歌至化若出金石。貧賤果能移乎。削名刑籍。復還舊物。賜官分祿簡在帝心。曰往欽哉。去汝黥涅。公念先帝不敢毀除。帝曰。此翁至老倔彊。富貴果能淫乎。方林靈素假道士服禍基播遷。易緇於黃。天下從之。不則竊負而逃。槁死林壑。公則効忠比干。尚冀其萬分之一。如以抔土隄龍門之濤瀾。聖恩寬洪不即誅戮。鄉使群起而拒。吾知公獨不拒也。非至仁其孰能與於此哉。蒙後公而生。觀公所成就。奇偉峭絕。真大丈夫事。再拜右繞辭而弔之曰。黥可息乎。身據鼎耳兮。息之則殞。黥可去乎。恩如春風兮。去之不忍。一念之忍。迄于蒙塵。黍離闕庭。塗炭生靈。髮天下僧。又安足云邈哉。道州隻影問津一笑生還。天清地寧眾蠖斯屈。老臂獨信。隱若敵國。賢於長城。蠢爾靈素。不正典刑。雖百粉兮痛奚以平。九里清陰蛻骼是舍。草枯自春光奮不夜。後世何知。婆娑其下。其顙有泚兮。其容則赭。油然而興起兮。如聞伯夷之風者。

Chan Master Beijian Jujian of Jingci mourned at his stūpa. The eulogy read: “Mencius said of the great man that ‘riches and honor cannot corrupt him, poverty and low station cannot swerve him, and awe and force cannot bend him.’ You, Venerable Sir, entrusted your life like an ant and tested your body against thunderbolts. You would not follow the imperial decree to become a ‘Gentleman of Virtue.’ Could awe and force truly bend you? You were branded and exiled, becoming a convict in Daozhou. On the brink of nine deaths, you took no food past noon; your chanting of the supreme transformation rang out like metal and stone. Could poverty and low station truly swerve you? Your name was erased from the penal registers, and your former things were restored to you. Offices and stipends were conferred upon you, noted in the emperor’s heart. He said, ‘Go forth with reverence! Remove your branded tattooing.’ You thought of the late emperor and did not dare alter it. The Emperor remarked, ‘This old man is stubborn to the very end.’ Could riches and honor truly corrupt you? At the time, Lin Lingsu, cloaked in Daoist robes, planted the root of disaster and widespread disruption. Replacing black robes with yellow, all under heaven complied with it; otherwise they fled carrying what they could, dying of exposure in forests and ravines. You, however, showed the loyalty of Bigan, still hoping for one chance in ten thousand, as if using a handful of earth to dyke the surging billows of the Dragon Gate. The imperial grace was broad and vast, not putting you to death at once. If in former times the masses had risen together to resist, I know that you alone would not have failed to resist. Who could take part in this if not one of consummate benevolence? Born after you, I look upon what you accomplished: magnificent, towering, and sheer—truly the deeds of a great man!” Bowing twice and circumambulating to the right, he made his farewell and mourned him, saying: “Could the branding be removed? When one's body rests upon the cauldron's rim, removing it would mean death. Could the branding be discarded? The imperial grace was like a spring breeze, yet to discard it you could not bear. An instant's endurance led to the imperial court fleeing in exile. The palace fell into desolation, and the living beings were cast into misery. If the monks of the whole realm were forced to grow their hair, how could that be worth speaking of? How far away! A solitary shadow at Daozhou, asking the way to the ferry, returning alive with a smile. Heaven was clear and earth was tranquil; the many inchworms crouched low. Your old arm alone was extended: looming like a rival state, more virtuous than the Great Wall. Stupid Lingsu, escaping the proper penal code—though powdered a hundred times, how could the pain be pacified? In the nine-li clear shade, your shed skeleton finds rest; the withered grass of itself awakens spring, its light never darkening. What will later generations know? Wandering beneath it, their foreheads will sweat, and their faces will flush red. Spontaneously rising in spirit, it will be like hearing the wind of Boyi.”