北山錄 5.2.11

5.2.11

徒號書生。 安知稽古）冠芙蓉則盡老聖之風（俾貪命米。 豈尚清虛。 唯讀竈經寧窮道德）。 執鐶杖則盡釋氏之道（只憑一毳。 便過浮生。 不勵進修。 安知討習）而則有揭其短長。 望厓而信。 望厓而沮。 沮未必喪其賢。 信未必得其人（唯人難知自知亦難）且仲尼採數千年賢智所行之事為禮樂。 使一士百年之內行之。 固不究也（仲尼以天縱之才生。 魯襄公二十二年。 十八歲往西周問禮。 門徒三千。 達者七十二。 魯哀公十一年。 自衛返魯。 修春秋。 述易道。 刪詩書。 定禮樂。 而古之賢哲明窮一經。 鬚鬢皓首莫得其涯也。 故云仰之彌高。 鑽之彌堅）況善惡不相遠。 攻一是則亦一非隨焉。 故陳司敗以諱國惡為黨（陳司敗問夫子昭公知禮乎。 子曰。 知禮。 曰君娶於吳為同姓豈知禮。 司敗曰。 吾聞君子不黨。 君子亦有黨乎。 以諱國惡為是黨君知禮非也。 若不黨為是則彰國惡為非也）季康子以問晝寢為忤。 而忠不必恭。 恭不必孝。 孝不必義。 今釋氏子統億世所行之善。 而欲使一身一世行之。 固不可也。 遂有智而無節（有慧解而無節操也）質而篤道（撲鈍而純直者）勤體被物。 尚行專已。 但可嘉其所能矜其所不能。 非構廈則𭫲梠期之（𭫲椽也。 梠桷端連綿木）將無廢也（雖非梁棟之才。 亦可小用也）驥稱其德不稱其力。 鳳稱其瑞不稱其鷙。 夫何備哉（鷙搏擊也）賓曰。 虐周之際。 靜靄剖心（靄諫周武。 極言抗旨。 不遂乃入山。 遍割身肉。 以腸桂樹。 剖心而卒。 卒後骨坐不侄）靈裕縗絰。 慧遠奔喪（北遠也。 奔竄山林避道喪也）普曠簪笏（曠樊川郿人。 值周武沙汰置通道觀選俊才三百學士。 曠應召仍剃髮㡌以烏紗。 斷決如流。 至教興出家也）孰為賢乎。 主人曰。 彼各任其能也。 靜靄以不克荷負。 殺身動俗。 雖無當時之益。 而實彰君之罪也。 其若尸諫謀與後悔懷沙之恨。 不其怨乎（衛靈公。 常寵彌子瑕。 史鰌數諫不納。 及死令家人陳尸於窓下。 君必臨喪。 若問云大夫生欲進蘧伯玉退彌子瑕不遂。 所以死不成喪。 君果問。 遂納其事令遷尸於堂位。 屈原諫楚懷王不納。 遂懷沙沈汨羅江而死。 靄事同之也）靈裕以吾教運鍾百六（百六四千六百一十七歲為一元。 一百六歲曰陽九之厄。 出文選三國名臣讚）苴杖而斬（若喪考妣之服）無喪而服去國而亡故也（建德二年癸巳滅法。 甲午興。 丁酉君薨。 辛丑國滅也）慧遠法嗣在已避世圖存。 數不終否。 必授以泰。 但己存而法亡。 於我如不亡也（教興重演故也）普曠以哀樂俯仰與時推移。 為鳶能天。 為魚能淵。 晦恥和光。 潛伺興替。 貌雖改而氣不可奪也。 古者殷亡。 而三人異志。 仲尼皆曰仁乎（微子啟紂庶兄。 先奔周以存宗廟之計。 箕子紂之諸父。 囚國佯狂比干諫而剖心。 雖殊行而同稱仁）賓曰。 萬德歸仁。 仁無不死。 為無為者俟河之清（修行期道何年乃證）曷若咀味靈英浸澤雲腴輕舉神丹下可躋年高者上昇免為一凾之腐骨。 實長生之良算也。 今而何謂端居待化歟。 主人曰。 長生由乎仙骨。 仙骨者吾教謂之宿植德本。 自非累世陶冶塵滓修鍊精魂。 寧可率由枯蕪燋石而詎能度世耶。 故長桑漸乎仙階。 扁鵲救世為名。 莊周遷於桐柏。 蓋功未備而不登于雲天。 克遐其壽矣。 若階由宿學。 何不志於釋氏乎。 夫黃帝乘蒼龍。 列子之御風。 王喬之飛舄（軒轅乘龍仙於鼎湖。 列御寇乘風而行出。 莊子王喬為葉令化舄為鳧而乘之也）彼宿有仙骨焉。 於其人也。 猶介之有龜。 羽之有鶴。 宿稟氣運之所壽也。 非龜之介。 非鶴之羽。 雖同其族。 莫得其方也（如黿鼉之屬。 又如眾禽之類）若使傚而得成者。 仲尼之門。 德行之儔。 生無不貴。

[They] are vainly called scholars, yet how do they know how to examine antiquity?) Wear a lotus cap, and one is said to fully embody the style of the Lao Sage; (Causing them to crave life-sustaining grain, how could they esteem purity and voidness? Merely reading the *Zaojing* [Kitchen God Scripture], how could they ever fathom the Dao and virtue?) hold a ringed staff, and one is said to fully embody the Way of the Śākya clan. (Relying merely on a single monastic robe, they pass through a fleeting life; not exerting themselves in advance and cultivation, how do they know to investigate and practice?) Yet people expose their shortcomings and strengths, trusting after a mere glance from the precipice or being disheartened after a mere glance from the precipice. Those disheartened do not necessarily lose their worthiness, and those trusting do not necessarily obtain the right person. (Only humans are difficult to know; knowing oneself is also difficult.) Furthermore, Zhongni [Confucius] gathered the deeds practiced by worthy and wise men over several thousand years to make rites and music; yet were one scholar made to practice them within a single century, he surely could not master them all. (Zhongni was born with heaven-endowed talent in the twenty-second year of Duke Xiang of Lu. At age eighteen he went to the Western Zhou to inquire about rites. He had three thousand disciples, seventy-two of whom were accomplished. In the eleventh year of Duke Ai of Lu, he returned from Wei to Lu, edited the *Spring and Autumn Annals*, expounded the way of the *Changes*, weeded the *Odes* and *Documents*, and established rites and music. Yet when ancient sages and worthies spent their days mastering a single classic, their temples turned white and grey without ever reaching its bounds. Hence it is said: 'Looking up to it, it is ever higher; drilling into it, it is ever firmer.') How much more so when good and bad are not far apart: when one attacks one [side as] right, a wrong follows it as well. Therefore, the Minister of Crime of Chen considered concealing the state's wrongdoing to be partisanship; (The Minister of Crime of Chen asked the Master whether Duke Zhao knew the rites. The Master said: 'He knew the rites.' [The Minister] said: 'The lord took a wife from Wu, who was of the same surname; how could he know the rites?' The Minister of Crime said: 'I have heard that a gentleman is not partisan. Can a gentleman also be partisan?' Regarding the concealment of the state's wrongdoing as right, taking sides with the lord's knowledge of rites was wrong. If not being partisan was right, then publicizing the state's wrongdoing was wrong.) Ji Kangzi considered asking about sleeping in the daytime to be an affront. And being loyal does not necessarily mean being respectful, being respectful does not necessarily mean being filial, and being filial does not necessarily mean being righteous. Now, the sons of Śākya encompass the goodness practiced over a hundred million generations, yet to wish one person in a single lifetime to practice it all is certainly impossible. Consequently, there are those who possess wisdom but lack discipline, (Those who have insightful understanding but lack disciplined conduct.) those who are plain yet devoted to the Way, (Those who are simple and blunt yet pure and straightforward.) those who labor their bodies to shelter other beings, and those who esteem conduct while concentrating solely on themselves. One can only praise what they are capable of and sympathize with what they are not capable of. If not fit to construct a grand mansion, rafters and eaves may still be expected of them; (The *qie* is a rafter; the *lu* is the continuous timber at the end of the rafters.) they need not be discarded. (Although they lack the talent of main pillars and beams, they can still be used for small purposes.) The steed is praised for its virtue, not for its strength; the phoenix is praised for its auspiciousness, not for its ferocity. How could anyone be complete in everything? (Ferocity refers to striking and seizing.) The guest said: "At the time of the tyrannical Zhou, Jing'ai sliced open his own heart; (Ai remonstrated with Emperor Wu of the Zhou, speaking forcefully against the imperial decree. Having failed, he entered the mountains, slashed his flesh all over, hung his intestines on a cassia tree, sliced open his heart, and died. After death, his bones sat upright without collapsing.) Lingyu donned mourning hemp; Huiyuan fled into hiding; (This is Northern Yuan. He fled into mountain forests to avoid the destruction of the Way.) and Pukuang wore the hairpin and tablet. (Kuang was a man from Mei in Fanchuan. Encountering the purge by Emperor Wu of the Zhou and the establishment of the Tongdao Guan, for which three hundred scholars of outstanding talent were selected, Kuang answered the summons, still shaven-headed but wearing a black gauze cap. His judgments flowed like water. When the teaching flourished again, he resumed his monkhood.) Who among them was the worthy one?" The host said: "Each of them took responsibility according to his own abilities. Jing'ai, unable to shoulder the burden, took his own life to move the mundane world; although there was no benefit at that moment, it truly made manifest the sovereign's crime. Was that not like remonstrating by corpse, grieving over remorse, or the resentment of embracing sand—was it not a grievance? (Duke Ling of Wei was constantly doting on Mizi Xia. Shi Qiu remonstrated numerous times without success. When about to die, he ordered his family to place his corpse beneath the window, saying: 'The lord will surely attend the mourning. If he asks, say that during his lifetime the Grand Master wished to promote Qu Boyu and dismiss Mizi Xia, but failed, so in death the funeral rites are incomplete.' The lord indeed asked, accepted his plea, and ordered the corpse moved to the hall. Qu Yuan remonstrated with King Huai of Chu without success, whereupon he embraced sand and drowned in the Miluo River. Ai's deed was identical to these.) Lingyu, because the fortune of our teaching encountered the crisis of the one-hundred-and-six, (In the one-hundred-and-six, 4,617 years make one cycle, and 106 years are called the adversity of Yang Nine; this comes from the *Appraisals of Famous Ministers of the Three Kingdoms* in the *Wen Xuan*.) carried a hazel staff and wore unhemmed sackcloth, (Mourning garments as if for deceased parents.) donning mourning when there was no funeral, leaving the state and going into exile for this reason. (In the second year of Jiande, the *guisi* year, the Dharma was destroyed; in the *jiawu* year it flourished; in the *dingyou* year the sovereign died; in the *xinchou* year the state fell.) Huiyuan, possessing the Dharma lineage within himself, retreated from the world to seek preservation; the cycle could not end in stagnation, but would surely be replaced by peace. So long as he himself survived while the Dharma perished, to me it was as if it had not perished. (This was because the teaching flourished and was expounded anew.) Pukuang, shifting with the times through joy and sorrow, rising and sinking, could be a kite reaching the heavens or a fish plumbing the deeps; concealing humiliation and blending his radiance, he secretly watched for rise and fall. Though his outward appearance altered, his spirit could not be subdued. In ancient times when Yin fell, three men had different intentions, yet Zhongni called them all benevolent, did he not?" (Weizi Qi was the elder half-brother of Zhou. He first fled to the Zhou to preserve the ancestral temple. Jizi was Zhou's paternal uncle; imprisoned in the state, he feigned madness. Bigan remonstrated and had his heart cut out. Though their actions differed, they were equally called benevolent.) The guest said: "The myriad virtues return to benevolence, yet the benevolent are never exempt from death. Those who practice wuwei wait for the Yellow River to run clear; (When cultivating practice and hoping for the Way, in what year will it ever be realized?) how could that compare to savoring numinous blossoms, soaking in cloud-fat, and soaring lightly with the divine elixir—at least extending one's years below, or ascending aloft above, escaping the fate of becoming rotten bones in a single coffin? This is truly a fine calculation for long life! Why now do you speak of sitting upright and awaiting transformation?" The host said: "Long life depends on immortal bones; what our teaching calls 'having planted roots of virtue in past lives' is what immortal bones are. Unless one has refined worldly defilements and cultivated the subtle spirit over successive lifetimes, how could one casually rely on withered weeds and scorched stones to transcend the world? Thus, Changsang gradually ascended the stairs of immortality, while Bian Que became famous for saving the world; Zhuang Zhou was transferred to Mount Tongbai: their meritorious cultivation was not yet complete, so they did not ascend to the cloudy heavens, yet they were able to prolong their lifespans. If attaining the stages stems from past learning, why not set one's mind upon the Śākya clan? Huangdi mounted the azure dragon, Liezi rode the wind, and Wang Qiao flew upon his shoes; (Xuan Yuan mounted a dragon and became an immortal at Dinghu. Lie Yukou's riding the wind appears in *Zhuangzi*. Wang Qiao was the magistrate of Ye; he transformed his shoes into wild ducks and rode them.) they possessed immortal bones from past lives. In human beings, this is like the shell to a turtle or the feathers to a crane: it is a longevity endowed by past qi and destiny. Without the shell of a turtle or the feathers of a crane, even if of the same class, none can acquire their ways. (Like the kind of softshell turtles and alligators, or the class of myriad birds.) If one could succeed simply by imitating them, then among Zhongni's disciples and those of virtuous conduct, in life there would be none who were not noble.