廬山記 3.14

3.14

宗炳字少文。南陽涅陽人。祖承宜都太守父繇之湘鄉令。炳博學善琴書圖畫。尤精玄言。宋武帝之在荊州也。召為主簿。不起。問其故。答曰。棲丘飲谷。三十餘年矣。入廬山築室。與遠公同社。後兄臧為南平太守。逼與俱還。乃於江陵三湖立宅。後辟參軍太尉掾。俱不就。乃勅南郡長。給吏役。數致餼賚。南陽王義季親至其室。命之角巾布衣引見。不拜。王曰。屈先生以重祿。可乎。對曰。祿如腐草。衰盛幾何。雅好山水。往輒忘歸。甞西陟荊巫。南登衡岳。晚年盡圖之於室曰。吾老矣。名山不可再覩。唯澄懷觀道。臥以遊之。撫琴動操。欲令眾山皆響。元嘉二十四年癸未終。春秋六十九。

Zong Bing, styled Shaowen, was a man of Nieyang in Nanyang. His grandfather Cheng was the Grand Administrator of Yidu, and his father Youzhi was the Magistrate of Xiangxiang. Bing was widely learned and skilled in the zither, calligraphy, and painting, and was especially proficient in Dark Learning (xuanxue). When Emperor Wu of the Song was in Jingzhou, he summoned him to be a master of records; he would not rise [to the post]. When asked for the reason, he replied: 'I have perched on hills and drank from valleys for more than thirty years.' He entered Lushan, built a chamber, and joined the society with Master Yuan. Later, his elder brother Zang became the Grand Administrator of Nanping and pressed him to return together, so he built a residence at Sanhu in Jiangling. Later he was summoned as an aide and a clerk to the Grand Commander, neither of which he accepted. [The court] then ordered the Magistrate of Nanjun to provide him with labor and repeatedly deliver supplies of food and gifts. King Yiji of Nanyang went in person to his chamber and ordered him to be received in a cornered cap and cloth garments; [Bing] did not bow. The King said: 'May we condescend you with a heavy salary?' He replied: 'Salary is like rotting grass; how long does decline and prosperity last?' He had an elegant fondness for landscapes; whenever he went out, he forgot to return. He once ascended Jing and Wu in the west and climbed Mount Heng in the south. In his late years, he painted them all in his chamber, saying: 'I am old; the famous mountains cannot be seen again. I can only purify my mind to contemplate the Way and travel through them reclining.' Plucking the zither and playing a tune, he wished to make all the mountains echo. He died in the twenty-fourth year of Yuanjia, the year guimi, at the age of sixty-nine.