Petition seeking donations to repair the Daoist abbeys求化修諸道觀疏
1The ruined halls made into rooms of gold and halls of silver
紫極宮重修城下諸宮觀求化瓦木等價。伏以苦縣誕靈。神州演法。眞性乃聖朝之祖。強名爲至道之宗。玉葉金柯。耀芳陰於萬代。瑤函瓊笈。傳妙旨於四方。遂得齋醮有歸。科儀無墜。神宮靈宇。宛寫諸天。祕殿精壇。嚴修勝地。當州東吳麗俗。南兗雄藩。鮑參軍則賦衒精姸。揚執戟則箴誇夭矯。而乃至道少勤行者。玄門無善閉之。味澹口中。動成大笑。義深目外。誰信上昇。福庭則草沒塵侵。仙室則雨傾風壞。況値梟聲競噪。虺毒強吹。到處星飛。但見羽書之急。經年霧集。唯聆甲騎之勞。俗旣喧驚。敎增寂黙。未有葺修之暇。非無捨施之緣。今幸遇太尉德繼猶龍。道深有象。黃石公之妙訣。雅稱帝師。赤松子之勝遊。佇迎仙友。是故出則以六奇制敵。入則以九轉服勤。靜除閫外之煙塵。閒對壺中之日月。三元遵敬。一氣精修。果見眞位高遷。殊祥荐降。彩雲片片。飛來楚岫之風。玄鶴雙雙。唳向隋宮之月。又乃前年則江寇南逼。去歲則淮戎北侵。蟻皆恃於成群。蛇欲矜於結陣。伏賴太尉雄威坐振。衆孼奔亡。四隣戴信於桓公。八郡感恩於召父。覩耕農之蔽野。聽歌吹之沸天。古人有言。爲可爲於可爲之時則可。其城下宮觀。今欲旋集良工。增修舊址。擬金室銀堂之制。處處騰光。俾星冠月帔之徒。人人潔跡。微功若就。良願克伸。龍圖早耀於中興。虎旅永摧其大盜。次願太尉運籌佐漢。迥掩張良。拊棹遊湖。靜追范蠡。石留馬跡。臺挂鳳音。蓬島花開。春醉而閑乘白鹿。芝田雨過。曉耕而長任靑牛。罷吟小桂之句。獨邁大春之壽。然後仰從翔翼。俯至潛鱗。凡曰含虛。悉能蒙福。但以所修宮觀。荒摧旣久。經費甚多。無因獨辦資糧。唯仰衆成功德。迦譚之難捨能捨。猶見樂輸。道敎之自然而然。幸無輕諾。謹疏。
The Ziji palace seeks the price of tiles and timber and the rest, to rebuild all the palaces and abbeys below the city wall. I humbly consider that the divine one was born at Kuxian and set forth the Law in the Divine Land. His true nature is the ancestor of the holy dynasty, and he is named by force the head of the utmost Way. Jade leaves and golden boughs make his fragrant shade shine for ten thousand ages. Jasper cases and gem caskets hand down his subtle purport to the four quarters. So the fasts and offerings have somewhere to return to, and the ritual code has not fallen away. Divine palaces and numinous halls copy the many heavens exactly. Secret shrines and pure altars keep these fine places in strict order. This prefecture has the fair customs of Eastern Wu and is the mighty domain of Southern Yan. Adjutant Bao showed off the polish of his rhapsodies, and Yang, the halberd bearer, boasted of the vigor of his admonitions. Yet few practice the utmost Way with diligence, and no one in the dark gate shuts it well. The taste is bland in the mouth, and at a touch it turns into loud laughter. The meaning lies deep beyond the eye, and who believes in rising up? In the courts of blessing the grass buries the ground and the dust encroaches. In the immortals' chambers the rain tilts the walls and the wind breaks them. Still more, this is a time when the owls hoot in rivalry and the viper's poison blows strong. In place after place stars seem to fly, and only the urgency of feathered dispatches is seen. Year after year they gather like fog, and only the toil of armored horsemen is heard. The world has been loud and startled, and the teaching has grown the more silent. There was no leisure for mending and repair. It was not that there was no karmic tie for giving. Now by good fortune the Grand Commandant has come. His virtue carries on the one who was like a dragon, and his Way is deep in the one who has an image. With the subtle secret of Huang Shigong he is fit to be called the emperor's teacher. With the fine roaming of Chisongzi he waits to welcome his immortal friends. So when he goes out he masters the enemy with the six extraordinary stratagems, and when he comes in he gives all his diligence to the nine turnings. He quietly clears away the smoke and dust beyond the gate, and at leisure he faces the sun and moon within the gourd. He follows reverence at the Three Primes and refines the one breath. And indeed his true station has risen high, and rare good omens come down again and again. Colored clouds come flying piece by piece on the wind of the peaks of Chu. Dark cranes cry two by two toward the moon of the Sui palace. Again, the year before last the bandits of the river pressed from the south, and last year the soldiers of Huai invaded from the north. The ants all trusted in massing together, and the snakes would boast of drawing up their ranks. But thanks to the Grand Commandant, whose mighty power shook them while he sat, the brood of calamity fled away. The four neighbors bear their faith in Duke Huan, and the eight commanderies feel the kindness of Father Shao. One sees the plowmen covering the fields, and one hears the singing and the piping boil up to the sky. A man of old said, "To do what may be done at a time when it may be done will do." Those palaces and abbeys below the city wall are now to have good craftsmen gathered, to enlarge and repair the old foundations. They will follow the pattern of rooms of gold and halls of silver, so that light rises in place after place, and so that the company in star caps and moon cloaks may each make their traces clean. If this small work is finished, the good vow will be fulfilled. The dragon chart will shine early upon the restoration, and the tiger troops will break that great robber forever. Next it is prayed that the Grand Commandant ply his counsels to aid Han and far outshine Zhang Liang, that he beat the oar and roam the lake and quietly follow Fan Li, that the hoofprints of a horse stay on the stone and the phoenix note hang in the terrace, that when the flowers open on the isle of Penglai he be drunk with spring and ride the white deer at leisure, that when the rain has passed over the field of magic mushrooms he plow at dawn and trust himself forever to the green ox, and that he stop chanting the lines of the little cassia and alone go on to the long life of the great chun tree. Then, from the soaring wings above to the hidden scales below, all that hold emptiness within them will receive his blessing. Only, the palaces and abbeys to be repaired have long been ruined, and the cost is very great. There is no way to provide the means alone. I look only to the merit that the many complete. In the tales of the Buddha, that one can give up what is hard to give up is still seen in glad offering. As for what is so of itself in the teaching of the Way, do not, I pray, promise it lightly. Respectfully submitted.