Memorial declining investiture as Royal Preceptor, first time初度讓封王師表
沙門臣某言。伏蒙聖慈今月十一日特差降某官。奉傳國書一道。將冊臣爲王師者。禪棲僻陋。忽迎使者之華。聖訓丁寧。將致師哉之禮。顧僭踰之已甚。豈冒昧以敢當。守以力辭。期於頷可。。伏念臣性靈至淺。戒行素虧。早業宗乘。心未傳於祖髓。歷持名寺。口徒費於土毛。每緣國主之眷恩。至躡僧門之峻品。虛蒙雨露。無補涓埃。掛想山林。常有拂衣之志。貪恩輦轂。尙稽飛錫之遊。豈意宸衷。遹導舊典。過錄朽殘之質。欲崇體貌之儀。自顧孱資。福本微於盈眥。如當大任。禍可畏於生胎。玆益爲憂。罔知所措。況疾病老而彌劇。故身體日以益衰。雖欲勉從。實難耐處。伏望聖上陛下。廓乾坤之度。廻日月之明。知臣非矯飾之詞。諒臣實誠心之請。追還成命。更擇異能。世不乏人。當有彌天之德。臣能安分。免貽代匠之譏。臣無任祈天俟命戰灼兢懼之至。今因使廻。謹附表陳讓以聞。臣某云云。
The sramana (沙門), your servant So-and-so, speaks. By your holy affection, on the eleventh day of this month, prostrate I have been visited with your sending especially an official of such-and-such an office to bear and deliver one copy of the state's writing, and with your being about to invest your servant as Royal Preceptor.
In the remote and shabby quarters of a meditation hall I suddenly met the brilliance of an envoy, and your holy instruction being earnest, you are about to extend to me the rites due a preceptor. Looking back, it goes beyond my portion already to excess; how should I blindly make bold and dare to bear it? Holding fast to declining with all my strength, I look for your nod of consent.
Prostrate, I consider that your servant's inborn stuff is shallow to the utmost and his keeping of the precepts wanting from the first. I learned the Buddha's law early, yet in my heart I never received the transmitted marrow of the patriarchs; and I took charge of famed temples one after another, yet with my mouth I only ate in vain into the produce of the land. Again and again, leaning upon the grace of the sovereign's regard, I came to tread the high ranks of the monastic order. In vain was I visited with grace like rain and dew, and I have added nothing so much as a drop of water or a mote of dust.
Hanging my heart upon the mountains and woods, I always had a mind to shake out my robe and go; yet coveting the grace of the place where the sovereign dwells, I have still put off the step that flings the staff forward and departs. How could I have thought that the sovereign's heart would follow the old law and draw me on, taking up and employing far too much a stuff rotten and left over, and meaning to exalt the ceremony that treats me with honor?
Looking back myself upon a frail stuff, my blessings are from the first too few even to fill the eye; and if I were to take up a great charge, it would be fit to fear that calamity should grow as in the womb. This troubles me the more, and I do not know what to do. How much more when illness grows worse the older one gets, and so the body decays more day by day. Though I would strive to comply, truly it is hard to endure and stay.
Prostrate I hope that Your Majesty the Holy Sovereign will widen a measure like heaven and earth and turn upon me a brightness like the sun and moon, and will know that your servant's words are not made up and weigh that your servant's request is truly a sincere heart. Withdraw the command already made, and choose instead one of uncommon ability. The world does not want for men, and there will surely be one whose virtue fills the heavens; and your servant, at ease in his portion, will leave behind no mockery of having stood in for the carpenter.
Your servant cannot contain the fearful and trembling heart with which he prays to heaven and awaits the command. Now, by the envoy on his way back, I reverently attach a memorial and send up my declining. Your servant So-and-so, and so forth.
Interlinear notes 1
中謝
Here the words of thanks (中謝) are inserted.