鐔津文集 9.15

9.15

On [such] a month and [such] a day, the śramaṇa [Qisong] respectfully composes this letter, sent and offered to the Head of the Department, Academician and Vice Minister, His Excellency. As I am an obscure and uncouth person of no account, it is fortunate that Your Excellency has pitied and cared for me for a long time. In the past, through the late Vice Minister Lord Lang, I once rashly brought my poor writings to your attention, and you condescended to praise them, saying: 'Not only is he versed in the Emptiness school, but his literary style is also lofty.' Having presumed to receive this great boon, I have felt grateful and cherished it for eight years now. I thought to myself that since I am sequestered in deep mountains and desolate valleys, even if I wished to meet the imposing presence of a great gentleman, it would certainly be impossible. However, whenever I wished to establish a good deed or promote a good word to repay Your Excellency’s abundant virtue of compassion, so as to amplify Your Excellency’s auspicious conditions for promoting good to the fullest, I have constantly harbored this in my heart. Recently, I composed the Guang yuanjiao, which was arranged in three fascicles entitled the Compilation Assisting the Teaching (Fujiao bian). People of Wu carved the printing blocks, striving to propagate it. I dare to take this opportunity to approach Your Excellency’s attendants to fulfill my modest wish. In general, this book was written specifically because worldly Confucians do not realize that the Buddha is a great sage whose Way greatly aids living beings throughout the realm and whose teachings secretly assist the moral instruction of the state; thus it was made to instruct those in doubt and resolve their derision. Furthermore, our Buddha constantly entrusted his Dharma to kings and great ministers; and sage rulers and worthy officials are indeed that on which the loss or gain of our teaching depends. Now, wishing to rescue this Dharma from its decline and uphold this teaching from its stagnation, I have sought Your Excellency with this discourse, which is indeed fitting. I humbly reflect that Your Excellency, with lofty talent and great learning, placed first in the worthy examinations; with weighty virtue and renowned ability, you serve as a pure minister of the court. Resplendent, you bear the hopes of the realm for a grand chancellor, and moreover possess profound understanding and far-reaching vision without being confined by worldly teachings. Loftily transcendent, you have paid special attention to the wondrous principles of Buddhism, probing the true mysteries of the sages' nature and destiny. It is fitting that Buddhists should rely upon you with their Way. If Your Excellency in your benevolence and discernment considers that my worry is for the Way and not for my person, and that I act for the Dharma and not for fame, and pardons the penalty for my presumption, using this book to praise it before sages and worthies and propagate it among gentlemen, so that throughout the realm the mind to do good is not thwarted and the state does not lose the assistance to its moral education, then this will not merely be my good fortune, but our Buddha’s Dharma will also find that to which it is transmitted (or, 'entrusted'). Respectfully, through Senior Erudite Cui, I present one set of three fascicles of the Compilation Assisting the Teaching to your attendants. Having presumptuously disturbed Your Excellency’s compassion, I am overwhelmed with fear and trepidation. I say no more. [I], so-and-so, respectfully state [this].