佛祖歷代通載 21.69

21.69

（八）　是年八月。故光祿大夫太保贈太傅儀同三司文貞劉公薨翰林學士嘉議大夫知制誥兼修國史王磐。奉勅譔神道碑銘并序。其文曰耕莘非求進之地。而伊尹阿衡。釣渭非巧宦之途太公同載。漢張良志從赤松。而高祖得之以輔成帝業。唐李泌幼好仙術而肅宗用之以佐定中興。蓋天下之士。惟自重者。可與有為。而輕進者必非令器。是以古之明王。取士不以悅媚易親者為可佳。而以閒遠高潔難致者為可貴。聖天子之用太保劉公。其審是道歟。公以高潔之資。慕空寂之教。輕富貴如浮雲等功名於夢幻。曷曾有一毫榮利之念動於心乎。聖天子邂逅一見。即挽而留之待以腹心。契如魚水深謀密畫雖耆宿貴近。不得預聞者。悉與公參決焉。此其精誠胥會。志意交孚。與夫渭濱之同載商巴之阿衡。蓋異世而同符矣。公諱秉忠字仲晦。瑞州劉李村人。先世仕遼多顯貴。金初曾大父嘗任邢州節度副使。秩滿身還鄉里。留其家於邢。故自公大父以下。遂為邢人焉。大父諱澤。資性倜儻。為鄉閈所重。父諱潤。仕本朝歷邢州錄事鉅鹿內丘兩縣提領。俱有惠愛。公風骨秀異志氣英爽不羈。家貧。年十七為刑臺節度使府令史。以養其親。幹敏精潔。諸老吏咸服其能。一日因按讀事。有不愜意。投筆歎曰。吾家奕世衣冠。今吾乃汩沒為刀筆吏乎。丈夫不得志於世間。當求出世間事耳。即棄去隱於武安山岩谷間。草衣木食以求其志。天寧寺虛照禪師聞之。遣其徒招致。與披剃為僧。仍以公知經書工翰墨。命掌書記。後遊雲中。住南堂寺值海雲禪師。被召北覲。過雲中聞公博學多藝能。求相見。既見約公俱行。公不可。海雲固要之。不得已遂行。既至謁今上於潛邸。一見應對稱旨。自是屢承顧問。及海雲南還。公懇求奔喪。上賜黃金百兩。仍遣使送至邢州。公持服營葬事。起墳於賈村。葬其祖父母父母。服闋被召復還和林。公獻書陳時事所宜者數十條。凡萬餘言。率皆尊主庇民之事。上嘉納之。甲寅歲從上征雲南。己未歲從上伐宋揚𤄷渡濟江圍鄂州。上神武英斷。每臨戰陣前無堅敵。而中心仁愛。公嘗讚之。以天地好生為德。佛氏以慈悲濟物為心。方便救護。所全活者。不可勝計。庚申歲春上正位宸極創定朝儀。立官制改元建號。一切所當施設時物之宜。皆公所草定。中統五年秋八月。改至元元年。翰林學士承旨王鄂奏言。書記劉秉忠效忠藩邸積有歲年。參帷幄之密謀。定社稷之大計。忠勤勞績。宜被褒榮。今聖明寓極萬物維新。秉忠猶以野服散號蕭條閒寂。守其初心深所未安。宜與正其衣冠崇以顯秩實遂眾望。上覽奏。欣然嘉納。即日命有司備禮冊授公光祿大夫。位太保參領中書省事。選聘侍講學士竇默次女為夫人賜第於奉先坊。給少府宮籍監。人戶甚眾。公齋居蔬食。終日澹然。與平昔略不少異。至元十一年。扈從至上都。居南屏山之精舍。秋八月壬戌之夜。儼然端坐無疾而薨。享年五十有九。訃聞。上嗟悼不已。語群臣曰。秉忠三十餘年。小心慎密不避艱危。事有可否言無隱情。又其陰陽術數之精。占事知來若合符契。惟朕知之。他人莫得預聞也。遣禮部侍郎趙秉溫護其喪還大都。以冬十月壬申葬斂營葬。一切所須皆出內帑。十二年春正月。詔贈太傅儀同三司下太常議。諡曰文貞。仍命翰林學士王磐撰碑文字。臣磐欽惟國家列聖相承。咸以武功戡定禍亂。龍韜豹略鷹揚虎視。豐功偉績之臣。其當紀名汗簡畫像凌烟者。不為不多。若夫輔佐聖天子。開文明之治。立太平之基。光守成之業者。實惟太傅劉公為稱首。聖天子方在潛邸。士之所以涉遠道冒風霜而至者。往往有所陳訴祈請干慕進用。惟公獨無所求。閒燕之際每承顧問。輒推薦南州人物可備器使者。宜見錄用。由是弓旌之所招。蒲輪之所迓。耆儒碩德奇材異能之士。茅拔茹連致無虛月。逮今三十年閒。揚歷朝省頒布郡縣。贊維新之化。成治安之功者。皆公平昔推薦之餘也。其識度之宏遠。推此一節而論。亦可見其髣髴矣。又自幼好學至老不衰。通曉音律。精算數善推步。仰觀占候。六壬遁甲易經象數邵氏皇極之書。靡不周知。初丁太夫人憂。毀瘠骨立。衣一弊綿裘。三藏不易。及錄事公卒。雖身從天竺之教。而服食貶損容貌哀戚。與循禮典而執通喪者蓋無少異也。晚娶無子。以猶子蘭璋為嗣。弟秉恕今為順天路總管。臣磐謹按中書左丞張文謙所作行狀。次第其行事之實。而系以銘辭。銘曰。大元五葉。聖運隆昌。爰有異人。出佐時康。不坐官府。不趨朝行。褐衣蔬食。禪寂倘佯。謀謨幃幄。罄竭忠良。指陳成敗。開闔陰陽。淵慮婉畫。鬼神莫量。扶日上天。照臨萬方。萬方仰德。百靈効祥。庭陳玉帛。路走梯航。朝儀整肅。濟濟蹌蹌。群賢來集。庶政允臧。大綱一舉。眾目斯張。治定功成。聖眷彌彰。崇資峻秩師表侯王。肇造皇家。元勳是當。良平佐漢。房杜興唐。公不自多。愈隆謙光。見善必舉。有能必揚。陸行滯阻。與為橋梁。川泛艱厄。與為帆槳。寒而求衣。煥之裘裳。饑而求食。飫之腴肪。門庭桃李爛熳芬芳。人感公德。銘刻肝腸。公施於人。過即遺忘。公之仁賢。宜享遐年。胡為一朝。蟬蛻而仙。燕都南原。盧溝北𤲬。佳城欝欝。有墳巋然。地固重泉。松柏參天石爛松枯。芳名永傳。

(8) In the eighth month of this year, the late Glorious Grand Master, Grand Guardian, posthumously presented as Grand Preceptor, with Dignity Equal to the Three Excellencies, Lord Liu Wenzheng, passed away. Wang Pan, Hanlin Academician, Grand Master of Agreeable Consultation, Drafter of Imperial Edicts, and Concurrently Historiographer of the Dynastic History, received an imperial command to compose the spirit-way stele inscription together with its preface. Its text states: Farming in Shen was not a place to seek advancement, yet Yi Yin became a pillar of state; fishing on the Wei was not a path of crafty office-seeking, yet Grand Duke Wang shared the royal carriage. In the Han, Zhang Liang intended to follow Chisong, but Gaozu obtained him to help accomplish the imperial enterprise; in the Tang, Li Mi was fond of immortal arts in his youth, but Suzong used him to assist in securing the dynastic revival. Among the scholars of the world, only those who respect themselves can accomplish great deeds with others, while those who rashly advance are certainly not worthy instruments. Therefore, ancient enlightened kings in recruiting scholars did not take flattering, easily approached men to be commendable, but prized those aloof, lofty, pure, and difficult to enlist. Did the Holy Son of Heaven's employment of Grand Guardian Lord Liu not closely examine this way? With his lofty and pure endowment, the lord yearned for the teaching of emptiness and quietude, regarding wealth and rank as floating clouds and equalizing merit and fame to dreams and illusions; how could the slightest thought of glory and profit ever stir his heart? When the Holy Son of Heaven met him by chance, he immediately held him back to stay and treated him as his confidant, fitting together like fish and water. Deep stratagems and secret plans that even senior elders and noble intimates could not hear were all deliberated and decided with the lord. In this, their sincere devotion met, and their wills mutually trusted each other; alongside sharing the carriage at the banks of the Wei and the pillar of state of the Shang, they were identical matches across different eras. The lord's taboo name was Bingzhong, and his courtesy name was Zhonghui. He was a native of Liuli Village in Ruizhou. His ancestors served the Liao, and many were prominent and noble. In the early Jin, his great-grandfather once served as Vice Military Commissioner of Xingzhou; when his tenure was complete, he returned in person to his native place, leaving his family in Xing. Therefore, from the lord's grandfather downward, they became people of Xing. His grandfather's taboo name was Ze; of an untrammeled nature, he was respected by his hometown. His father's taboo name was Run; serving our dynasty, he held the posts of Record Keeper of Xingzhou and Superintendent of the two counties of Julu and Neiqiu, possessing benevolence and affection in all of them. The lord's disposition was remarkably exceptional, his aspirations valiant and unrestrained. Because his family was poor, at the age of seventeen, he became an office clerk in the Military Commissioner's office in Xingtai to support his parents. Capable, quick, and meticulously neat, the veteran clerks all yielded to his ability. One day, while reviewing official documents, something displeased him. Throwing down his brush, he sighed, saying, "For generations my family has worn the robes and caps of officials; am I now to sink into being a mere clerk of knife and brush? If a real man cannot achieve his ambitions in the worldly realm, he ought to seek supramundane matters!" He immediately abandoned it and hid away in the mountain valleys of Wu'an, wearing grass robes and eating wild fruits to pursue his ambition. Chan Master Xuzhao of Tianning Temple heard of him and sent his disciples to invite him, shaving his head to make him a monk. Furthermore, because the lord was knowledgeable in the classics and skilled in brush and ink, he ordered him to manage secretarial duties. Later, while traveling to Yunzhong, he stayed at Nantang Temple and encountered Chan Master Haiyun, who had been summoned to audience in the north. Passing through Yunzhong and hearing of the lord's erudition and many artistic talents, Haiyun sought to meet him. After they met, he invited the lord to travel together; the lord declined, but Haiyun insisted, so having no choice, he went along. Arriving there, he had an audience with the present Emperor in his princely mansion. At this first meeting, his responses matched the imperial wishes, and from then on, he repeatedly received royal inquiries. When Haiyun returned south, the lord earnestly asked to attend mourning. The Emperor bestowed a hundred liang of gold upon him and sent an envoy to escort him to Xingzhou. The lord wore mourning dress and managed the burial affairs, raising tombs at Jiacun to bury his grandparents and parents. When the mourning period ended, he was summoned back to Karakorum. The lord presented a memorial setting forth several tens of items appropriate for contemporary affairs, numbering over ten thousand words, all of which concerned revering the sovereign and protecting the people. The Emperor praised and accepted them. In the jiayin year [1254], he followed the Emperor on the expedition against Yunnan. In the jiwei year [1259], he followed the Emperor on the campaign against the Song, sailing across the Yangtze and besieging Ezhou. The Emperor was divinely martial and heroic in judgment; whenever he faced battle lines, no formidable enemy stood before him. Yet within his heart he was benevolent and loving. The lord once praised him, taking the virtue of Heaven and Earth to be the love of life, and the Buddha's mind to be compassion in saving beings; by skillful means of rescue and protection, those whom he saved alive were beyond count. In the spring of the gengshen year [1260], the Emperor ascended the imperial throne, newly established court ceremonies, set up the official bureaucracy, changed the reign era, and founded dynastic titles. All appropriate measures for administrative institutions and material goods were drafted and determined by the lord. In the autumn, the eighth month of the fifth year of Zhongtong [1264], the era was changed to the first year of Zhiyuan. Wang E, Hanlin Academician Recipient of Edicts, memorialized: "The secretary Liu Bingzhong has devoted loyalty to the princely mansion for accumulated years, participating in secret stratagems of the command tent and determining the great policies of the state. His loyal, diligent, and meritorious deeds ought to be honored and glorified. Now the sagacious enlightened ruler occupies the throne and all things are renewed; Bingzhong still wears rustic garments and an informal title, solitary, idle, and quiet, preserving his original mind, which truly leaves men uneasy. It is appropriate to rectify his robes and cap and elevate him with eminent office, thus fulfilling the hopes of the multitude." The Emperor examined the memorial and happily praised and accepted it. On that very day, he ordered the authorities to prepare the ritual patents, conferring upon the lord the rank of Glorious Grand Master, with the position of Grand Guardian, Concurrently Managing the Affairs of the Central Secretariat. The second daughter of Lecturer Academician Dou Mo was selected and betrothed as his wife, and a residence was bestowed in Fengxian Ward, along with households under the Directorate of Palace Records and the Shaofu, which were very numerous. The lord lived austerely on vegetarian food, tranquil throughout the day, completely unchanged from his past habits. In the eleventh year of Zhiyuan [1274], he accompanied the imperial retinue to Shangdu, residing in a meditation retreat on Mount Nanping. On the night of the renxu day in the eighth month of autumn, he sat upright and dignified, passing away without illness at the age of fifty-nine. When the news of his death was reported, the Emperor grieved incessantly and said to the court officials, "Bingzhong served for more than thirty years, cautious, careful, and secret, not avoiding hardship or peril. When affairs were feasible or not, his speech concealed nothing. Moreover, with his mastery of yinyang and divination, his prognostications of future events were as accurate as tally halves. Only I knew this; no one else was able to hear of it." He sent Zhao Bingwen, Vice Minister of Rites, to escort the funeral back to Dadu. On the renshen day in the tenth month of winter, he was shrouded and buried; everything required was provided from the inner treasury. In the spring, the first month of the twelfth year [1275], an imperial edict posthumously conferred the title of Grand Preceptor, with Dignity Equal to the Three Excellencies, submitted to the Court of Imperial Sacrifices for deliberation, and gave him the posthumous title of Wenzheng. Wang Pan, Academician of the Hanlin Academy, was further commanded to compose the stele text. Your servant Pan respectfully reflects that the successive sagacious sovereigns of our dynasty all settled calamities and disorders by martial virtue. Those ministers of dragon stratagems and leopard tactics, soaring like eagles and glaring like tigers, who achieved magnificent deeds and great merits and whose names should be recorded on bamboo slips and portraits painted in Lingyan Pavilion, are by no means few. But as for assisting the Holy Son of Heaven, opening a civil governance, establishing the foundation of grand peace, and glorifying the enterprise of maintaining the dynastic legacy, truly Grand Preceptor Lord Liu was the foremost. When the Holy Son of Heaven was still in his princely mansion, the scholars who traveled long roads braving wind and frost to arrive mostly had petitions to plead, requests to present, and ambitions to seek advancement. Only the lord alone sought nothing. In moments of leisure, whenever he received imperial inquiries, he always recommended talents from the southern regions suitable for employment who ought to be recorded and used. Therefore, through the summons of bow and banners and the welcome of rushes-padded carriage wheels, elder Confucian scholars, men of great virtue, and individuals of extraordinary talent and exceptional skill were brought in without a single month vacant, like plucked reeds whose roots pull up together. Up to the present period of thirty years, those who have served in court ministries, been distributed across commanderies and counties, assisted in the transforming governance of renewal, and achieved the meritorious peace and order, were all recruited from the lord's past recommendations. Judging from this single matter alone, the vast extent of his discernment and magnanimity can also be glimpsed. Furthermore, from childhood he was fond of learning, which never waned even in old age. He thoroughly understood musical temperament, was refined in mathematics, and skilled in astrological reckoning. He observed celestial phenomena and omens, and the Six Ren, Dunjia, the image and number of the *Classic of Changes*, and the books of Mr. Shao's *Huangji* were all thoroughly familiar to him. Earlier, when mourning for the Grand Lady, he wasted away until his bones stood out; wearing a single worn quilted robe, he did not change it for three years. When the Record Keeper died, though he followed the teaching of India, his food and clothing were curtailed and his expression was mourned and sorrowful, completely no different from one who adheres to ritual codes and maintains the full mourning period. Marrying late, he had no sons, so he took his nephew Lanzhang as his heir. His younger brother Bingshu is currently the Commander of the Shuntian Circuit. Your servant Pan respectfully takes the biography composed by Zhang Wenqian, Left Vice Director of the Central Secretariat, arranges the facts of his conduct in sequence, and appends them with the verse inscription. The inscription states: / In the fifth generation of the Great Yuan, / The sagacious fortune flourished and prospered. / There was an extraordinary man, / Who came forth to assist in the era's peace. / He did not sit in government offices, / Nor did he rush into court ranks. / In coarse clothes and with vegetarian food, / He wandered freely in Chan serenity. / Planning strategies in the command tent, / He exhausted his loyalty and goodness. / Pointing out success and defeat, / Opening and closing yinyang. / Deep thoughts and subtle stratagems, / Unfathomable even to ghosts and spirits. / He supported the sun into the heavens, / Shining upon the myriad realms. / The myriad realms looked up to virtue, / A hundred spirits manifested auspicious omens. / Jade and silk were arrayed in the court, / Ladders and boats traveled the roads. / Court ceremonies were orderly and solemn, / Dignified, numerous, and majestic. / The assembled worthy talents gathered, / All governmental affairs were truly fine. / Once the great guideline was raised, / All the eyelets opened. / Governance was settled and merit achieved; / The holy favor was all the more apparent. / With exalted ranks and lofty offices, / A role model for lords and kings. / When initiating the foundation of the royal house, / The foremost merit was his due. / Zhang Liang and Chen Ping assisted the Han; / Fang Xuanling and Du Ruhui raised the Tang. / The lord did not boast of himself, / But all the more exalted humble brilliance. / Seeing goodness, he always promoted it; / Finding ability, he always made it shine. / When land travel was obstructed, / He served as bridge and beam. / When river crossings faced difficulty, / He served as sail and oar. / When cold and seeking clothes, / He brightened them with robes and gowns. / When hungry and seeking food, / He sated them with rich delicacies. / Peaches and plums before his gate / Bloomed in rich profusion and fragrance. / People were moved by the lord's virtue, / Inscribing it deep within their hearts. / What the lord bestowed upon others, / Once passed, was immediately forgotten. / The lord's benevolence and worthiness / Ought to have enjoyed long years. / Why, in a single morning, / Did he shed his earthly form like a cicada and become immortal? / On the southern plain of the capital of Yan, / To the north of Lugou, / The beautiful tomb city is lush and verdant; / A towering tumulus stands. / The ground is secured down to the deep springs, / Pines and cypresses pierce the sky. / Even when stones decay and pines wither, / His fragrant name will be handed down forever.