A Record and Inscription for the Blue-Stone Stupa (靑石塔) at Gaecheon Temple (開天寺)開天寺靑石塔記銘
宗室廣陵侯沔。軒裳中。有出塵之想。淡如也。方外之交。有高僧某者。就豐歲縣之南壤。得古寺曰開天。方創而新之也。侯爲之檀越。尤有力焉。師之高弟弟子玄規見之。乃嘆曰。師所樹立如此。吾居其門。無一事有所措焉。則亦一恥也。於是遂立梵所謂窣堵波者。悉用靑石爲之。展轉盤互。凡十有三級。旣成。遂報於侯。且曰。髡所腐亦土毛。若恬安汨沒。無分寸之效。而溘先朝露。則其若國恩何。用是思有以奉福朝家者。今營此區區一石浮圖。旣辦矣。第待爲文者銘之。爲不朽之圖耳。侯聞其言。嘉其所守惇固有不可欺者。書抵隴西李春卿。託以記銘。予雖不能文。義不欲蓋人之善。且重違侯請。敢受而銘之。時皇上卽祚之元年某月日也。銘曰。
Myeon, the Marquis of Gwangneung (廣陵侯沔), of the royal house, is one who among officials has thoughts beyond the dust and is plain and pure. Among his friendships beyond the world there was a certain high monk who went to the land south of Pungse county (豐歲縣) and got an old temple called Gaecheon and was just building and renewing it. The Marquis became his donor and put out the more effort for him.
Hyeongyu (玄規), the monk's high disciple, saw this and sighed, saying: 「What my master has set up is like this, and I, who am of his school, have laid my hand to not one thing: this too is a shame.」 And so he set up at last what in Sanskrit is called a stupa (窣堵波), making it all of blue stone. Rolling and turning and coiling, it came to thirteen stories in all.
When it was finished he reported it at last to the Marquis and said besides: 「What a monk will let rot is likewise the hair of the earth. If I were to settle comfortably into my own affairs and, with not the least merit to show, vanish before the morning dew, what then of the country's kindness to me? For this I thought to offer up blessing for the state. Now I have built this one paltry stone stupa and have already finished it, and I only wait for a man of letters to make an inscription (銘) and so make it a plan that shall not rot.」
The Marquis heard his words and thought it fine that what he held to was deep and firm and had in it something not to be deceived; and he wrote a letter and sent it to Yi Chungyeong of Nongseo (隴西李春卿), asking for a record and an inscription. Though I am not good at writing, I would not in right dealing cover over another man's goodness, and it was hard besides to go against the Marquis's asking twice over, and so I make bold to accept and compose the inscription. The time is a certain day of a certain month in the first year since His Majesty came to the throne. The inscription says:
2Inscription
雙林滅度。是我大雄。若云已滅。一切皆空。雖塔全身。何有於中。是滅非滅。究竟無漏。百億化身。於何不覩。然則是塔。亦佛所住。佛從何來。塔復何物。見塔忘塔。寶塔乃出。由是塔故。得見諸佛。
He who passed into extinction in the Twin Groves (雙林) — this is our Great Hero (大雄). If it be said that he is extinguished already, then all things are empty. Though his whole body was laid in a stupa, what is there within it? This extinction is not extinction, and in the end there is no outflow. His hundred million bodies of transformation — where should one not see them? If it be so, then this stupa too is a place where the Buddha dwells. Whence does the Buddha come, and what thing again is the stupa? If one looks at the stupa and forgets the stupa, then the jeweled stupa comes forth at once. And because of this stupa we come to behold all the Buddhas.