往生集 2.31

2.31

宋江公望。釣臺人。官諫議。蔬食清修。述菩提文念佛方便文。以勸道俗。有子早亡。託夢云。大人修道。功業已成。冥府有金字額。題云。嚴州府江公望。身居言責。志慕苦空。躬事熏修。心無愛染。動靜不違佛法。語默時契宗風。名已脫乎閻浮。身必歸於淨土。宣和末知廣德軍。一旦無疾。面西端坐而化。

Jiang Gongwang of the Song was a native of Diaotai. He served as a policy remonstrator (jianyidafu). Maintaining a vegetarian diet and pure practice, he wrote an 'Essay on Bodhi' and an 'Essay on Skillful Means of Buddhamanasikāra' to exhort both monastics and laity. He had a son who died young, who appeared to him in a dream, saying: 'Father, you have cultivated the Way and your meritorious karma is already accomplished. In the underworld there is a plaque with gold letters reading: "Jiang Gongwang of Yanzhou Prefecture, holding the duty of remonstrance, has set his mind on admiring suffering and emptiness; personally engaging in cultivation, his mind is free of attachments. In motion and stillness he does not contravene the Buddhadharma; in speech and silence he constantly accords with the ancestral lineage. His name is already removed from Jambudvīpa, and his person will surely return to the Pure Land."' At the end of the Xuanhe reign era, while serving as administrator of the Military Commission of Guangde, one day without any illness, he sat upright facing west and passed away.