景德傳燈錄 16.31

16.31

Sthavira Xuantai of Nanyue was a person of unknown origin. He was quiet and sparing of words, and never wore silk; the assembly called him Tai of the Cloth Robe. He first met Chan Master Deshan Jian and went up to his hall. Later he visited Chan Master Shishuang Puhui and subsequently entered his room. The hermitage where he lived was east of Mount Heng, named the Seven Treasures Terrace. He vowed never to take disciples; when juniors from the four quarters came to rely on him, he treated them all with the etiquette of friends. He once considered that Mount Heng was severely harmed by mountain folk constantly felling trees and burning slash-and-burn fields; he thereupon composed the "Ballad of Slash-and-burn Mountains", which spread far and wide until it reached the imperial palace. An edict was issued prohibiting it. Thus, that hermitages in the Sacred Mountain were no longer consumed by spreading fires was due to the Master's power. (The Ballad of Slash-and-burn Mountains: / "Children of the slash-and-burn mountain have no understanding, / Year after year cutting down the brows of the green mountains. / Among them the finest scenery of Mount Heng, / Cedar and pine, by sharp axes are felled in their upright boughs. / Divine birds and wild cranes have nothing to rely on; / White clouds draw back as azure smoke flies up. / Apes and monkeys find their paths cut off, cliffs laid bare; / Lingzhi and atractylodes lose their roots, while weeds grow rank. / Year after year, when the cutting ends, they still hoe and plant; / Throughout a thousand autumns it is ultimately hard to [restore] the beginning. / Again they say: 'This year not much was planted; / Next year we will cut the south-facing slope even more.' / If the State's Mount of Longevity is treated even like this, / I wonder how such a principle can be.") When he was about to manifest passing away, no monks arrived at all. He then went out of the gate himself, called a monk inside, and entrusted him to prepare firewood. He also left a verse, which went: