弘明集 13.33

13.33

嗟乎方外靈藏奢遐誕宕。眾妙淵玄群奧無量。小成不籍大言橫喪。坤德可厚于何不有。驚聽洪壑駭目崇阜。夏典載其掌握。荒經列其戶牖。周既達而未盡。信齊諧之小醜。見鵬鵾而標大。而覩鳥王與魚母。吁乎噫嘻奇傑之事。積籍眇漫焉可稱記。伊皇覽之普綜。足探幽而體異。何近嫌於割王。又碩誣乎火織。況下斯而束教趣堯孔之權餌。常專專而守檢。懼越蹈於所伺。並廢理以證言。莫觸類以取意。徒宏博而繁構。更益猜而致忌。悟飾智之愕物。故收翰而輟思。寄一隅於梗指。俟體信於明識者乎。

Alas! The numinous treasury beyond this realm is expansive, distant, vast, and boundless. Its manifold subtleties are profound and abyssal; its collective arcana are immeasurable. Small accomplishments are not relied upon; boastful talk will perish horizontally. The virtue of Earth may be thick—in what does it not abound? Listening to the great gorge startles the ear; gazing upon the towering peak shocks the eye. The Xia documents recorded what was held in its palm; the remote scriptures arranged what lay within its portals and windows. Though the land of Zhou was comprehensively understood, it had not exhausted it; it truly took the Qi Xie to be petty and vile. Seeing the peng and the kun, it marked them as great, yet gazed upon the king of birds and the mother of fishes. Ah! How sigh-inducing are these extraordinary and heroic matters! Recorded in scriptures stretching endlessly, how could they ever be recounted? Even when an imperial overview comprehensively synthesizes them, it is still sufficient to probe the obscure and grasp the unusual. Why harbor recent doubts about slicing jade, or gravely slander fire-spun cloth? How much more so for those below this who are bound by conventional teachings, rushing after the expedient bait of Yao and Confucius! Constantly single-minded and keeping to restraints, they fear transgressing into what is being scrutinized. They equally discard principle to give testimony in speech, and none, encountering a category, draws its intended meaning. Merely being broadly learned with intricate constructions, they only add to suspicion and invite jealousy. Realizing that embellishing one's intellect astonishes others, I therefore lay down my brush and halt my thoughts, lodging an outline in a single corner, waiting for those of clear discernment to personally give it credence.