Record of the Reverend Hwan's Bamboo Studio幻上人竹齋記
吾嘗觀人各有嗜。非一揆也。衆人之嗜。特滋味而已。君子之嗜。有異於是。目寓淸賞。有所留意。亦名曰嗜。以是古之賢達有嗜書嗜畫者。有嗜石嗜水嗜竹者。其所謂竹也。往往多爲高人釋子尤所嗜愛者。何哉。蓋相對而觀之也。亦足以虛其心地。圓通無礙。抑又生法師所謂盡是眞如之觀。於是乎存焉。亦於法門。究竟堅固。如竹之四時一色。不移其守。斯可尙已。有幻上人者。性或愛竹。先是。嘗使畫家名手韓某。摹白衣觀音像。其傍所立雙竹。則不令其人畫之。迺就丁學士而安。固乞掃焉。又於丁君。求得墨竹二本。裝成簇子。常寶之。蓋丁公墨竹。妙絶一時故爾。復於松家島普門精舍之側。別立一齋寓焉。皆以竹搆之。因號竹齋。於其宴息偃臥之中。見榱桷棟桴。皆呈竹色。上人以此爲樂。或曰。苟如是。其種而養之。觀玉立蕭洒。天然自態。何有不可。而傳之於墨。已是失眞。復以枯竿死幹。營此區區者耶。曰。夫所謂浮屠者。萍其迹雲其身。遊學無方者也。此竹齋。乃一蘧廬耳。今日在西。明日東北。又何處不辦作一齋耶。畫能隨身。齋因地有。不曰可乎。若種而觀之。安知不有類桑下之戀耶。齋成。固乞予爲記。爲略標之。上人名了幻。字而誰。於沙門可與爲道友者。
I have observed that every man has something he delights in, and that it is not one thing only. What the common run of men delight in is merely what tastes good. What the gentleman delights in is otherwise: he sets his eyes upon a clear prospect and has something on which his mind rests, and this too is called delight. And so among the worthy and accomplished men of old there were those who delighted in writing and delighted in painting, and those who delighted in stones, delighted in water, and delighted in bamboo.
As for what is called bamboo, it is now and then the loftier men and the monks who delight in it and cherish it the more. Why is this? In the main, because, looking upon it, one can empty the ground of one's own mind as well, so that it runs through everywhere without hindrance. And here too lies that seeing eye of the Dharma Master Sheng (生法師), who said, 「All this is the real just as it is.」 And further, to be firm to the end in the Dharma gate is like the bamboo's being of one color through the four seasons and not shifting what it holds to; and this is worthy of honor.
There is one called the Reverend Hwan (幻上人), whose nature loves bamboo greatly. Before this he once had a certain Han (韓), who paints well, make an image of Avalokiteshvara robed in white; but the two bamboos standing beside it he would not have that man paint, and went instead to Scholar Jeong Ian (丁而安) and pressed him to lay them in. He also got from Master Jeong two sheets of bamboo laid in with ink, had them mounted as hanging scrolls, and always held them precious; for Master Jeong's ink bamboo was outstandingly wonderful in its day.
Again, beside the Bomun Retreat (普門精舍) on Songgado (松家島) he raised a separate house and lived there attached to it; and since it was built wholly of bamboo, he named it the bamboo studio, that is, Jukjae (竹齋). Even where he rests and lies down, the rafters and the ridgepole and the beams all show forth the color of bamboo, and the Reverend makes this his delight.
Someone said: 「If it is truly so, what should hinder him from planting and raising them and looking upon the form that is so of itself, standing like jade, clear and cool? What is set down in ink has already lost the real; and now he trims out these trifling things with dried stalks and dead bamboo?」
I said: 「What is called a monk is one who makes his traces duckweed and his body a cloud, and who wanders and studies without choosing where. This Jukjae is no more than a house for a single night's lodging. Today he is in the west, tomorrow he will be in the northeast; and where could he not get himself a house? A painting can follow the body, and a house is there according to the place; shall we not call it right? If he were to plant them and look at them, how should one know there would be no such longing as binds a man to one spot?」
When the house was finished he pressed me to make the record, and so I set this down in rough outline. The Reverend's name is Yohwan (了幻) and his courtesy name Isu (而誰); among monks he is one with whom one may befriend the Way.
Interlinear notes 1
桑下之戀 — an old saying that if a monk lodges three days beneath one mulberry tree, an attachment to that place arises in him. — Translator