Prayer for the fast at the first prime上元齋詞
1To pull the drowning out, and then take up his body and withdraw
年月日。啓請如科儀。臣仰察玄經。乃見道資衆甫。俯稽聖典。則知神應至誠。是以。早詳病病之言。每勵賢賢之行。五音五色。實除耳目之娛。六甲六丁。潛致爪牙之役。願躡輕飛之路。常敲衆妙之門。但屬戎馬生郊。陳蛇奔穴。無苟免而臨難。不得已而用兵。蓋報主恩。慮虧臣節。只誓顯誅寇孼。寧知暗積愆殃。雖軍律克申。而眞科是懼。今以日延和景。月滿初元。遇吸新吐故之辰。懺啄腐呑腥之罪。儼陳醮禮。敬薦齋誠。燈耀九光。燼焚百和。寂寥塵外。幡幢靜設於星壇。髣髴雲中。環佩似傳乎風馭。冀銷妖祲。仰告威靈。伏乞大降玄慈。下從丹懇。萬乘永資於萬壽。百官皆荷於百祥。戰場則荊棘叢生。農壤則麥禾茁茂。凡云蠢動。盡獲昭蘇。然後俾臣援溺功成。奉身以退。沖靈道遂。鼓腹而遊。飽瓊蕊之糇糧。就瑤臺之蹊徑。遇圯上者終諧素志。自有前蹤。入壺中者蓋感專心。寧無後望。旣殊捕影。敢憚勞形。臣無任悔過祈恩虔切惶恐之至。謹辭。
Such a year, such a month, such a day. The opening petition is as the ritual code prescribes. Your servant looks up and examines the dark scripture, and sees that the Way is the ground of all that is fair. He bends down and consults the canon of the sages, and knows that the spirits answer utmost sincerity. So he came early to know well the saying that one should treat a fault as a fault, and he strives always at the practice of honoring the worthy as worthy. The five notes and the five colors he has truly put away, with the pleasures of ear and eye. The six jia and the six ding bring him in secret the service of claw and fang. He wishes to tread the road of light flight, and he knocks always at the gate of the host of mysteries. But war horses were foaled in the suburbs, and the snake of the battle line ran to its hole. He does not seek a mean escape when he faces danger, and he uses arms only because he must. It is to repay his lord's kindness, yet he fears that his duty as a subject is chipped away. He swears only to cut down openly the host of calamity. How should he know what faults and disasters heap up in the dark? Though the army's law can be carried out, the true code is what he fears. Now the sun draws out a mild light, and the moon fills at the first prime. Meeting the day for drawing in the new and breathing out the old, he repents the sin of pecking at the rotten and swallowing the raw. Solemnly he sets out the rite of offering, and reverently he presents the sincerity of the fast. The lamps shine with nine lights, and the embers burn a hundred blended scents. Still and lonely beyond the dust, banners and streamers are set quietly at the star altar. Faint within the clouds, the ring pendants seem to sound from the wind-drawn carriage. Hoping to melt away the baleful vapor, he looks up and reports to the awesome powers. I humbly beg them to send down their dark mercy greatly, and to follow this red earnestness below. Let the lord of ten thousand chariots rest forever upon ten thousand years of life, and let the hundred officers all bear a hundred blessings. Let thorns grow in thickets on the battlefield, and let barley and grain sprout thick on the farmland. Let all that stirs and crawls come back to life in the light. After that, let your servant complete the merit of pulling out the drowning, and then take up his body and withdraw. Let the way of the empty spirit be fulfilled, and let him drum on his belly and roam. Let him eat his fill of the provision of jade flower buds, and take the path to the Jasper Terrace. He who met the old man on the bridge had his plain purpose fulfilled in the end, and there are traces from before. He who entered the gourd was moved by singleness of heart. How should one who comes after be without hope? Since this is not the same as catching shadows, how should he shrink from wearying his body? Your servant cannot bear the fullness of his repentance of fault, his prayer for kindness, his reverent urgency and his fear. This he submits with respect.