弘明集 10.107

10.107

辱告。惠示勅旨答臣下審神滅論。甚哉理之大也。斯寧寸管之所見。言性之可聞而隨類儻遇。怡然蒙釋奉戴周旋。以次以誦。法師德邁當今。聲標萬古。知十之談每會。起予之富必酬。想闡弘聖旨煥然雲消耶。弟子學慚聚螢識非通見。何能仰贊洪輝宣揚妙範者歟。但論者執一惑之情。修一往之轍。固不可以語大方。焉知致遠必泥哉。夫幽明之理皎然不差。因果相起義無獨立。形滅自可以草為儔。神明常隨緣而在。所以左氏有彭生豕。見尚書則祖考來格。禮云。若樂九變人鬼可得禮矣。結草之報豈其遂滅。元規所夢何得無神。神明不滅著之金口。丘尼所說彌有多據。若文雖五千詩乃三百。得其理者自可一言而蔽。故不復煩求廣證。夫三聖雖有明教百家常置弘理。而尚使狂簡斐然成章。攻乎屢作。今皇明體照幽寂識洞內外。以前聖之久遠感異端之妄興。霈然爰發。乃垂眷翰。使闡提一悟遂獲果通閻浮執惑豁然洗滯。況復搢紳之士為益因其弘哉。弟子餐道無紀。法師許其一簣。遂能班逮神藻。使得豫沐清風。載歡載舞無以自譬。戢銘兼深彌其多矣。弟子王僧恕頓首和南。

I was humbled by your letter, which kindly conveyed the imperial decree responding to the ministers' inquiry on the treatise on the extinction of the spirit. How immense indeed is this principle! How could it be something seen through a tiny tube? While nature and the Dao can be heard of according to one's kind when an opportunity happens to arise, I was cheerfully enlightened and, upholding it with reverence, read and recited it repeatedly. The Dharma Master's virtue surpasses the present age, and his fame is marked for ten thousand generations. Whenever topics of understanding ten [from hearing one] are discussed, you invariably comprehend them; whenever the richness of stimulating someone arises, you surely repay it. I presume that your expounding and propagating of the imperial intention has brilliantly dispelled all doubts like dispersing clouds. As for your disciple, my learning falls short of gathering fireflies, and my understanding is not comprehensive; how could I look up and praise the vast radiance or proclaim the sublime model? It is only that the author of that treatise clung to a single deluded feeling and pursued an ingrained rut; indeed, one cannot speak to him of the great boundless realm—how could he know that going far will surely lead to being mired? The principle of the hidden and manifest worlds is brilliantly clear and without error: cause and effect arise mutually, their meaning never existing in isolation. When corporeal form is extinguished, it may well be likened to grasses, yet the spirit always abides along with conditions. For this reason, in Zuo's Commentary Pengsheng appears as a boar; in the Book of Documents, the ancestral spirits arrive. The Book of Rites states: 'When music undergoes nine transformations, the human ghosts can be honored with rites.' How could the retribution of tying grasses be completely annihilated? And as for what Yuangui dreamed, how could there be no spirit? That the spirit is not extinguished was set forth by the Golden Mouth; what Confucius spoke of has even more proof. Though [Laozi's] text consists of five thousand words and the Odes count three hundred, one who grasps their principle can encompass them in a single phrase. Therefore, there is no need to trouble oneself with seeking extensive proofs. Although the three sages left clear teachings and the hundred schools consistently established broad principles, those who are rash and careless nevertheless composed their patterned writings, and contentious attacks have repeatedly arisen. Today, the August Brilliance personally illuminates the profound and tranquil, his insight penetrating both internal and external. Feeling that the former sages are long past and moved by the erratic rise of heterodox views, he poured forth [his thoughts] and bestowed his gracious writings, causing icchantikas to awaken once and for all and attain the fruit, and thoroughly clearing and washing away the clingings and delusions of Jambudvīpa. How much more so then will the benefit to scholar-officials be broad and immense! Your disciple has partaken of the Dao for years without number; the Dharma Master granted him the effort of a single basketful, so that the divine writings were bestowed upon me, allowing me to be refreshed by the pure breeze. I rejoice and dance beyond comparison; my gratitude and engraving it upon my heart run doubly deep and increasingly profound. Disciple Wang Sengshu bows his head in veneration.