釋氏稽古略 4.243

4.243

There was an eminent monk of Qiantang named Daoqian, who became known to Duke Su Wenzhong (Shi) through his poetry. The Duke bestowed on him the appellation Canliaozi. Whenever they exchanged and harmonized poetic lines and lyrics in their correspondence, he always addressed him as Canliao. Later, when Prime Minister Lü Gongzhu memorialized the throne to grant him the master's name Miaozong, then in subsequent letters he addressed him as Master Miaozong. Many of their stone inscriptions remain preserved across Jiangsu and Zhejiang. Now we record them briefly: When the Duke left Qiantang, he took leave of him with a lyric metre, which ran: "Sentient winds roll the tide in from ten thousand li; / Sentientless, they escort the tide away. / Asking the landing at Xixing on the Qiantang River: / How many times in the slanting sunlight? / There is no need to brood upon it: / Looking up and down through past and present, past men are no more. / Who is like old Dongpo, / With white hair, forgetting worldly cunning? / Remember the western shore of West Lake: / Just where the evening mountains are at their loveliest, / In the empty azure and misty haze. / Reckoning the mutual rapport among poets, / Few are like me and you. / Agreeing on a future year to return east by the sea route: / May Master Xie's elegant aspiration not be breached. / On the road of Xizhou, / One should not turn one's head and wet one's robes for my sake." Chan Master Ying of Zhongwen commented in praise: "Alas! Present-day youths inevitably address masters of the Way by their personal names, demonstrating their negligence and disrespect; how could they know that Lord Wenzhong was so respectful even toward a mere poetry monk, not to mention toward those of towering virtue and the Way?" Ying was the dharma heir of Chan Master Dahui Gao (Universal Lamp).