北山錄 6.4.8

6.4.8

謂之神道碑也。 天子曰陵。 諸侯士大夫曰墳。 庶人曰[塚-豖+(一/豖)]。 墓誌不出典禮。 今僧立塔記。 蓋擬其事也）啟埏道非國望不為也（於墳前作隧路也。 此皆國望之士。 又有哀誅哀𠕋碑誌。 非大士不可也。 古者僧無賜紫衣師號。 自憲宗元和十一年方有賜紫。 然先有賜諡號者也）周隋之後。 競尚僭擬。 其有高華輪奐。 蔽乎前聖者也（近見有禪伯未終。 自令刻青石建大塔。 繞以浮雲。 合以花座。 四王守御。 八龍肩杖。 竟以王難歸俗不得居之也）或自力於生前。 或遺言於歿後。 不愴冤魂之酷。 但馳嗇斂之費。 誤莫大焉。 昔曾子之病革矣。 猶命去大夫之簀示不欲僭也（革急也。 簀床上策也。 革音殛）晏平仲謂管氏（謂非面言評論之也）既死矣。 豈在我哉。 焚之沈之瘞之埋之露之（西國葬法有四。 一水漂。 二火焚。 三土埋。 四施陀林。 五分律云。 尸應埋之也）衣薪而棄諸溝壑（古之葬也。 厚衣以薪。 葬之中野。 不封不樹。 聖人易之以棺槨。 蓋取諸大過也。 考工記陶令造瓦棺。 夏后聖用堲。 火燒熟曰堲。 殷人以梓木之棺替木。 又以木槨替土堲也）袞文納諸石椁。 唯所遇焉。 而屋愚之子（莊子唯在屋不出而愚也）不知道林之墳不高。 而戴逵歎焉。 邵伯之樹不大。 而詩人詠焉（卲伯奭。 每於甘棠之下治獄去。 後周人懷其德。 不忍伐其樹。 故詩云。 蔽第甘棠。 勿剪勿伐。 卲伯所苃）唯務僭侈。 遂令榛莽之間壘壘。 若丘坻曾無展敬者。 狐兔虺蜴宅其趾。 烏梟鴿雀孚其上。 樵童牧兒登而嘯歌。 行路者不知為誰。 吾在廬山。 講罷景餘。 每尋林谷。 見則訊其德行。 無一可與歸者。 由是業之著隱而逾亮。 德之寡炳而逾昧。 誠可悲也（毘奈耶雜事三十三說。 本勝比丘生前多瞋。 歿後置塔。 劫卑德羅漢誤禮之。 優波離告之。 乃令五百人毀之也）仲尼曰。 君子之道。 闇然而日彰。 小人之道。 灼然而日亡。 詩曰。 潛雖伏矣。 亦孔之昭。 近世握管記者。 鮮聞道德。 藝行卓邁為高僧。 多其聚徒。 結納延譽為高僧（因今人非疑古人是也。 李致即中於福感寺請指骨。 舍利獲之。 遂著碑書。 十僧稱為高僧。 上石□之甚也。 皆瑣細庸鄙之流。 實誤前德也）或世寡賢良。 或搜覈不精也。 夫財食足以聚徒。 諂侫足以結納。 矯飾足以延譽哉。 此其欲傳於後裔者。 適足以誘濫也。 夫有居鄉為鄉豪重。 在邑為邑尹重。 居州為州尊重。 十室之門十室請舍。 十聚之家十聚請饋。 而或未足言也。 當稱彼重者。 何人焉何故焉（仲尼云。 鄉人皆好之必察焉。 鄉人皆惡之必察焉）其或小人便侫也。 求矛也。 則振達矣。 君子廉毅也德義也。 則淪胥矣（小人道長。 則君子道消也）而後生美其濫進修。 芬芳之譽。 匪計日月。 求合於權利。 忘辱殆己。 狡謀奇慮。 必取其合。 既合矣。 稱某歸依。 某以為黨以為援。 以為捷徑之路倍百直。 誚彼簡朴。 不能進取者也（所謂詭情賊智也）梁寶唱撰名僧傳。 慧皎刪而改之曰。 高僧以為名者實之賓也。 若實行潛光。 高而不名。 寡德適時。 名而不高。 名而不高非所紀也。 而皎公可謂釋氏之良史也。 異說云。 將死之人。 寂無所見。 是謂至道。 不由險畏。 若覩佛來。 以相為魔。 心之取矣。 其何免哉。 譏者曰。 是夫也（此乃匹夫之見爾）未曰司契者也。 夫死者形離神越。 樂消苦會。 適長昬之域。 蹈無畔之鄉。 不矚聖儀。 悲焉莫救（莫無也）故西域臨終之人。 錚然金奏。 不俟於春容矣（西國臨終。 必令擊鐘。 云苦趣滅也。 今此土亦然也。 春容徐徐聲也）異彼澄想去亂而魂有所歸矣。 又以幡繫像。 手令其執之。 示往生之相也。

[... it is called a spirit-way stele. For the Son of Heaven it is called a tumulus (ling); for feudatories and grand masters it is called a grave (fen); for commoners it is called a mound (zhong). Tomb epitaphs did not originate from the canonical rites. When monks nowadays erect pagoda inscriptions, they are merely copying such practices.) To open a tomb road was not done unless one was the hope of the state (that is, constructing an underground approach road before the grave; these were all men who were the hope of the state. Furthermore, there are eulogies, elegiac decrees, stelae, and epitaphs; none may have them unless they are Great Beings. Anciently, monks were not granted purple robes or master titles; it was only from the eleventh year of the Yuanhe era under Xianzong that purple robes were granted, though posthumous titles were granted earlier). After the Zhou and Sui dynasties, people vied with one another in arrogant mimicry. There were those whose towering splendor, magnificent and grand, overshadowed the former sages (recently, a Chan elder, before his demise, himself ordered the carving of blue stone to build a great pagoda, encircled by floating clouds, joined with a lotus throne, guarded by the Four Heavenly Kings, and supported on the shoulders of eight dragons; yet in the end, because of royal misfortune, he was returned to the laity and could not occupy it). Some exerted themselves during their lifetime, while others left instructions after their death; without grieving over the cruelty to aggrieved souls, they only rushed into the expense of parsimonious exactions—no error could be greater than this! Anciently, when Zengzi’s illness became grave, he still ordered the removal of the grand master’s mat to show he did not wish to overstep his station (ge means critical; the ze was a bamboo mat upon the bed; ge is pronounced ji). Yan Pingzhong said of Guan Zhong (this means he evaluated him, not speaking to his face), 'Once one is dead, how can it concern oneself? Burn him, sink him, inter him, bury him, or expose him (in the Western Regions there are four methods of burial: first, floating in water; second, burning with fire; third, burying in earth; fourth, placing in the śītavana. The Five-Part Vinaya says corpses should be buried in the earth).' Wrap him in firewood and cast him into gullies and ravines (ancient burials wrapped the corpse thickly with firewood and buried it in the open wilds, without raising a mound or planting trees. The sages replaced this with inner and outer coffins, probably drawing from the hexagram Daguo. The Record of Trades states that the Director of Ceramics made earthenware coffins; the sages of the Xia dynasty used baked clay; what is baked through with fire is called ji. The people of Yin replaced the wood with coffins of catalpa, and also replaced the earthenware with wooden outer coffins), or wrap him in embroidered robes and place him in a stone sarcophagus—it is merely according to what one meets with! Yet the ignorant fools in their chambers (Zhuangzi refers to those who remain inside their chambers without going out and are ignorant) do not know that Daolin’s grave was not high, yet Dai Kui sighed [in admiration] at it; the tree of the Earl of Shao was not large, yet the poets sang of it (Shi, the Earl of Shao, whenever he tried legal cases, did so beneath a sweet pear tree and then departed; later, the people of Zhou cherished his virtue and could not bear to fell his tree; hence the Ode says, 'Sheltering is the sweet pear tree; do not lop it, do not fell it, for it was where the Earl of Shao rested'). They attend only to overstepping and extravagance, thereby causing [graves] among the briars and weeds to pile up like mounds and embankments, without ever having anyone pay respects to them. Foxes, hares, vipers, and lizards dwell at their base; crows, owls, pigeons, and sparrows hatch their young atop them; woodcutter boys and cowherd lads climb them to whistle and sing; passersby do not know whose they are. When I was at Mount Lu, during the leisure time after finishing my lectures, I would often seek out the forests and valleys; whenever I saw one, I inquired into their virtuous deeds, yet not a single one was worthy of belonging [to such monuments]. From this we see: when one’s deeds are prominent, their hidden virtues shine all the brighter; when one’s virtues are meager, their outward brilliance becomes all the more obscure. It is truly lamentable! (Fascicle thirty-three of the Vinaya-kṣudrakavastu states: The bhikṣu Mūlasena was full of anger during his lifetime; after his demise a pagoda was erected for him. The arhat Kapphiṇa mistakenly paid homage to it, but Upāli informed him, whereupon he ordered five hundred men to destroy it). Zhongni said: 'The Way of the gentleman is dim, yet daily grows more luminous; the way of the petty man is glaring, yet daily withers away.' The Odes say: 'Although hidden and submerged, it is yet exceedingly manifest.' Those who take up the brush to write records in recent times rarely hear of Dao and virtue, or of outstanding conduct and superior practice as constituting an eminent monk; instead, they mostly regard gathering disciples and making connections to extend one’s fame as constituting an eminent monk (this is because modern people wrongly doubt the correctness of the ancients. Li Zhi, while at Fugan Temple, requested the finger-bone relic and obtained it; he then composed a stele inscription, praising ten monks as eminent monks and carving it deeply upon stone; they were all of the petty, mediocre, and vulgar sort, which truly misled the virtue of former generations). Either the world is bereft of the worthy and good, or their investigations were not meticulous. Indeed, wealth and food suffice to gather disciples, flattery and obsequiousness suffice to form connections, and deceitful affectation suffices to spread reputation! If such things are intended to be transmitted to posterity, they merely suffice to encourage disorder. Now, there are those who reside in a village and are esteemed by the village grandees; who dwell in a town and are esteemed by the town magistrate; who dwell in a prefecture and are esteemed by the prefectural governor. Before the doors of ten households, ten households invite them to stay; among families of ten hamlets, ten hamlets invite them to dine—yet this may not even be worth mentioning. One must ask of those who esteem him: what sort of men are they, and for what reason? (Zhongni said: 'When all the villagers love someone, one must examine him; when all the villagers hate someone, one must examine him'). If they are petty, facile, and flatterers, seeking to advance by hook or by crook, then he will rise rapidly to prominence. If they are gentlemen of integrity, resoluteness, virtue, and righteousness, then he will sink into oblivion (when the way of the petty man grows, the way of the gentleman wanes). Yet younger generations admire their promiscuous advancement and cultivate it, yearning for fragrant renown without measuring the days and months; seeking to align with power and profit, forgetting disgrace and endangering themselves, employing cunning schemes and extraordinary calculations, they insist on obtaining favor. Once aligned, they claim, 'So-and-so has taken refuge in me,' and so-and-so takes them as a partisan and as support, viewing it as a shortcut hundredfold more direct [than the straight path], and ridiculing those who are simple, plain, and unable to make aggressive headway (this is what is called deceitful sentiment and thieving intellect). Baochang of the Liang compiled the Biographies of Famous Monks (Ming seng zhuan); Huijiao revised and altered it, titling it Eminent Monks (Gaoseng zhuan), considering that fame is merely the guest of reality. If one’s real practice conceals its light, one is eminent without being famous; if one’s virtue is meager but suits the times, one is famous without being eminent. Those who are famous without being eminent are not what should be recorded. Thus Master Jiao may truly be called an excellent historian of the Śākya clan! A divergent theory states: 'When a dying person sees nothing in absolute stillness, this is called the ultimate Way, not proceeding through dangerous terrors. If one sees a Buddha coming, this is taking signs to be Māra; if the mind grasps at it, how can one escape?' The critic says: This man (this is merely the opinion of an ordinary fellow) cannot yet be called one who grasps the tally. For the dying, form departs and spirit wanders; joy vanishes and suffering converges; they go toward the realm of perpetual darkness, stepping into a borderless country. If they do not behold the holy appearance, they will grieve without salvation (mo means without). Therefore, for dying persons in the Western Regions, the metal chime rings out with a clang, not waiting for a leisurely pace (in the Western Regions, when someone is dying, they must strike the bell, saying that suffering destinies are thereby extinguished; nowadays this land does the same; changrong means a slow and gradual sound). It differs from those who clear their thoughts and dispel confusion so that their spirits have somewhere to return. Furthermore, they tie banners to the image and place them in their hands to hold, indicating the sign of rebirth.