北山錄 1.3

1.3

Formerly, when I wished to study the inner scriptures, I visited Master of the Law Fanzhen of Nanping. Thereupon I received this record. Nanping said: "In the past I heard my old master say that Secretarial Director Ding passionately loved this book; upon seeing it once he felt he could never get enough of it, even copying out his own exemplar by hand. That the old master's words are reliable and beyond doubt is because the compositions produced by Lord Ding largely derived from it." How fine it is! It takes the ekayāna as the ancestral core and the hundred schools as branches. If one follows its branches, it is like crossing rivers and streams—one finds what is appropriate wherever one goes. Even if one does not reach its source, it is still sufficient to make one broadly learned; how much more so if one eventually penetrates its source! Yet, not long after this book appeared, it was rarely circulated in the world. Those who were able to transmit it were without exception famous in their time, yet those who transmitted it all kept it as a secret treasure to support themselves, unwilling to make it widely known. I have heard that during the Yuanhe era Shenqing's Way was extremely prominent, and he was held in deep respect by the lords and high ministers of the day. Those who followed him as students reached a thousand men. By nature he was fond of composition: of his writings dealing with the scriptures, some abridged and some expanded them, totaling more than a hundred fascicles. Yet this record alone unfolds what he had accumulated, and is particularly praised for its fullness and breadth. Were the students of the world to obtain his books fully and penetrate their source, why worry about not becoming another Shenqing? Shenqing was his name. He was born at the foot of Mount Da'an and later dwelt on the north slope of Mount Changping, which is why it is called the Record of North Mountain. Great Master Weixian first obtained an exemplar from Shu and was going to transmit it to enthusiasts; he invited me to preface its general outline and have it carved. Therefore I have recorded the words of Master of the Law Nanping to serve as this introduction.