鐔津文集 19.6

19.6

師自東來。始居處無常。晚居餘杭之佛日山。退老于靈峯永安精舍。默視其迹。雖或出處不定。然其所履之道高妙幽遠。而末路學者器近不能曉悟。而師終亦不肯少低其韻。以撫循其機。因而嘆曰。吾安能圓鑿以就方柄哉。聞聖賢所謂得志則行其道。否則行其言而已。言之行猶足為萬世法。使天下後世學者。識度修明遠邪見而游正途。則奚必目擊而授之謂從己出耶。因卻關著書。以考正其祖宗所以來之之迹。為十二卷。輔教編三卷。又列定祖圖一面。書成携之京師。因內翰王公素獻之　仁宗皇帝。又為書以先之。上讀其書。至臣固為道不為名為法不為身。歎愛久之。旌以明教大師之號。賜其書入藏。書既送中書時。魏國韓公琦覽之。以示歐陽文忠公。修公以文章自任以師表天下。又以護宗不喜吾教。及見其文。乃謂魏公曰。不意僧中有此郎也。黎明當一識之。師聞因往見之。文忠與語終日。遂大稱賞其學瞻道明。由是師之聲德益振寰宇。事竟遂買舟東下。終老于山林。師雖古今內外之書無所不讀。至於所著書。乃廣明外教皇極中庸之道。安危治亂之略。王霸刑名賞罰之權。而終導之歸於無為寂默之道。當世聞人少見其比肩焉。而痛以內教自律其身。端以儉素誠德為宿歸之地。而慕梁惠約之為人也。其所蘊至道淵密。然以其所學較其所為。而未見少差焉。所著書觀當世士大夫。不顧名實而是己非他也（謂以儒而嫉佛）乃作輔教編。學者亡孝背義。循養其所欲也。乃作孝論。尚綺飾辭章而不知道本也。乃作壇經贊。苟合自輕而不自上以德也。乃題遠公影堂文。志其所慕。以風末世之華侈也。乃作山茨堂序。因風俗山川之勝欲拋擲才力以收其景趣也。乃作武林山志。其明聖賢出處之際。性命道德之原。典雅詳正。汪洋浩渺。尤為博贍。總號之為論原。其如詩書序贊記傳表啟銘誌題述評辯。是是非非。所謂太山之毫芒耳。及後終於湖山而火化。不壞者六物。天下聞其風莫不東首而長想。嗚呼師雲行鳥飛於天地之間。視萬乘之尊。其勢霄壤之遼也。顧王公貴人雲泥之異也。一旦以其所為之書。獻之天子。為之動容。天下靡然嚮風。而使其乃宗乃祖吾佛無上妙道。明白於萬世。而卒酬其抱道輔教之志。非其自信修誠之效歟。後之學者讀其書。必有掩卷而三嘆者也嗚呼。

Ever since the Master came east, he had at first no fixed dwelling. In his later years he resided at Mount Fori in Yuhang, and retired in old age to the Yong'an Vihāra at Lingfeng. Observing his traces in silence, although his public emergence and withdrawal were not constant, nevertheless the path he walked was lofty, subtle, profound, and far-reaching, while students of the degenerate era had shallow capacities and were incapable of understanding it. Yet the Master in the end was likewise unwilling to lower his tone in the least to accommodate their capacities, and thus sighed, saying: 'How could I round my chisel to fit a square handle? I have heard the sages and worthies say: "If one attains one's ambition, one practices one's Way; if not, one merely puts into practice one's words." If one's words are put into practice, they are still sufficient to serve as a model for ten thousand generations. If they enable students of the world and future generations to cultivate clear discernment, keep far from false views, and roam the correct path, why must one transmit it in person face to face and call it originating from oneself?' Thereupon he closed his gate and composed books to examine and rectify the traces of the patriarchs' lineage as they had come down, making twelve fascicles, along with the Fujiao pian in three fascicles, and also arranged a Dingzu tu on one sheet. When the books were completed, he carried them to the capital, and through Hanlin Academician Wang Su presented them to Emperor Renzong, also composing a letter in advance. When the Emperor read his letter and reached the line, 'Your subject indeed acts for the sake of the Way and not for fame, for the sake of the Dharma and not for his own person,' he sighed in admiration for a long time, conferred upon him the title 'Master Mingjiao,' and bestowed the imperial command that his books be entered into the Canon. After the books were submitted to the Secretariat, Duke Han Qi, the Duke of Wei, perused them and showed them to Ouyang Xiu, Duke Wenzhong. Duke Xiu took literature as his personal mission and served as an exemplar to the realm; moreover, because he defended the Confucian lineage, he did not look favorably upon our teaching. But when he saw the Master's writings, he said to the Duke of Wei: 'I did not expect there to be such an outstanding figure among the monks! At daybreak I must make his acquaintance.' When the Master heard this, he went to visit him. Duke Wenzhong conversed with him all day, and thereupon greatly praised his vast learning and luminous understanding of the Way. From this, the Master's reputation and virtue resonated even more throughout the realm. When his affairs were finished, he hired a boat, traveled down east, and lived out his old age among the mountains and forests. Although there were no books, ancient or modern, internal or external, that the Master had not read, when it came to his own writings, he broadly elucidated the outside teachings—the way of the Great Ultimate and the Doctrine of the Mean, the strategies for security and danger, order and chaos, and the provisional authority of kingly ways, hegemonic rule, penal laws, rewards and punishments—yet in the end he guided them back to the Way of non-action and silent stillness. Among the prominent figures of his day, few were seen to stand shoulder to shoulder with him. Yet he strictly disciplined himself with the internal teachings, uprightly taking frugal simplicity and sincere virtue as his resting place, admiring the character of Huiyue of Liang. The ultimate Way contained within him was profound and secret, yet when one compares his learning with his deeds, not the slightest discrepancy is to be seen. In his writings, observing that the literati of his time disregarded reality and name, affirming themselves and denying others (meaning that they used Confucianism to envy and attack Buddhism), he therefore composed the Fujiao pian. Seeing that students lacked filial piety, turned their backs on righteousness, and indulged their own desires, he therefore composed the Xiaolun. Seeing that they prized ornate rhetoric and knew not the root of the Way, he therefore composed the Tanjing zan. Seeing that they compromised in base conformity, belittled themselves, and did not exalt themselves through virtue, he therefore inscribed the composition for Master Yuan's memorial portrait hall, recording what he admired in order to reform the extravagance and vanity of the final age. Seeing that people, on account of the scenic splendor of custom and mountains and rivers, wished to squander their talents and energies merely to capture their outward charm, he therefore composed the Wulin shan zhi. As for his clarifying the junctures of the sages' and worthies' public emergence and retirement, and the source of human nature, destiny, morality, and virtue, it is elegant, comprehensive, and correct, vast and boundless, and exceedingly broad; he collectively entitled them Lun yuan. As for his poems, letters, prefaces, praises, records, biographies, memorials, communications, inscriptions, epitaphs, colophons, treatises, criticisms, and debates—judging what is right and wrong—they are merely a hair's breadth of Mount Tai. Later, when he passed away by the lake and mountains and was cremated, there were six items that did not perish. When the realm heard of his character, there was none who did not turn their heads eastward with enduring longing. Alas, the Master moved like clouds and flew like birds between heaven and earth; looking upon the majesty of the lord of ten thousand chariots, the disparity in status was as vast as sky and earth; regarding princes and nobles, the difference was as clouds and mud. Yet one morning, presenting the books he had written to the Son of Heaven, he moved his countenance, causing the whole world to follow his sway like grass bending in the wind, and made the unsurpassable wondrous Way of his lineage and ancestors, of our Buddha, manifest for ten thousand generations, at last fulfilling his aspiration to embrace the Way and support the teaching. Is this not the efficacy of his self-confidence and cultivated sincerity? When students of later times read his books, there will surely be those who close the scroll and sigh three times! Alas!