弘明集 13.33

13.33

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.