Preface Written to Send Off Head Seat Chan (璨) on His Return to His Own Temple送璨首座還本寺序
夫浮屠有一入靑山。草喫泉吸。竟一生不迹紅塵者。是誠髠首被緇者之所職然也。然以大道觀之。此亦孤立獨行。守一世之細節耳。又安足導哉。達人則不爾。能與物推移。而不染於物。能與世舒卷。而不滯於世。故不傷高行。而其慈液之及人也亦周矣。吾師之行乎世。遵此道也。赴經筵於王宮帝殿不辭也。受檀施於相門俟邸不拒也。亦與吾輩入詩社參酒場。遊戲自在。無可無不可。眞可謂達者也。然久於京輦。不能無桑下之戀。則世之人不可戶曉。焉知不以師爲不能無眷眷於人間世耶。今也得名藍於山水淸幽之地。手一筇頂一笠。飄飄若閑雲之返岫。則汩汩如我輩。得無羨乎心耶。雖然。僕亦老矣。亦豈不能豁然長往。陪杖屨於白雲靑嶂之側耶。餞席有賦詩以寵者。老居士以序也。
Among monks there are those who, having once entered the blue mountains, chew the herbs and drink from the spring and all their lives set no foot in the red dust; and this is indeed the very office of one who shaves his head and wears the black robe. Yet looked at by the great Way, this too is only standing alone and walking alone, keeping one age's small point of integrity; and how should it be enough to lead others?
With one who has gone through, it is not so. He can shift along with things and yet not be stained by things; he can unroll and roll up with the world and yet not be blocked by the world. Therefore, without injuring his lofty conduct, the water of his compassion reaches men widely as well.
Our master, in his walking in the world, follows this Way. He does not decline to go up to the royal palace or to the lecture seat (經筵) in the halls of the court; he does not refuse the alms of the gates of ministers and the houses of nobles; and he joins our poem societies too and comes to our drinking parties, at ease in his play, with nothing that he must do and nothing that he must not. He may truly be called one who has gone through.
Yet one who stays long in the capital cannot be without the longing for the ground beneath the mulberry tree; and since the people of the world cannot be made to understand house by house, how is one to know that they will not take the master for one who cannot be without his clinging to the world of men? Now he has got a famed temple in a place where the hills and the waters are clear and secluded, and with one staff in his hand and one rush hat on his head he goes fluttering off, like an idle cloud returning to its mountain cave; and can such as we, sunk in our toil, be without envy in our hearts? Even so, I too am old. And how should I not yet break clear away and go for good, to attend his staff and sandals beside the white clouds and the blue peaks? There were those at the farewell feast who made poems to grace it, and this old layman writes the preface.