Jimyeong智明
1Jimyeong — he entered Chen and came back after ten years to be made a daedeok
釋智明．新羅人。神解超悟。行止合度。內蘊密行。讚揚他德挽回向己。捨直與人。顒顒卬卬。動有可觀。自竺教宣通於海東。權輿之際未曾大集。英俊間生。奮臂而作。或自悟以逞能。或遠求而命駕。新醫𥚫於舊醫。邪正始分。舊尹告於新尹。師資相授。於是西入中國。飽參而來。繼踵而起。師以命世之才。當真平王之七年秋七月。問津利往。入陳求法。雲遊海陸。梗轉西東。苟有道而有名。悉爰諮而爰詣。如木從繩。如金成器飄然一去。忽爾十霜。學既得髓。心切傳燈。以真平王二十四年九月。隨入朝使還國。王欽風景仰。推重戒律。褒為大德。以勸方來。師岳立嵩□。量含滄溟。炤之以慧月。振之以德風。緇素之徒。是彛是訓。後加大大德。蔚居峻秩。不知所卒。初師入陳後五年。圓光法師入陳八年。曇育入隋七年。隨入朝使惠文俱還。師與智明。竝以高德顯名。當代之才之美。固不相上下者也。
The monk Jimyeong (智明) was a man of Silla. His understanding was divine and his awakening surpassing, and in going forward and in stopping he kept to the measure. Within he stored up hidden practice. He praised the virtue of others and drew their faults back upon himself, and he handed over to others what was upright. He was grave and he was lofty, and in his movement there was something worth seeing.
After the teaching of India spread through the lands east of the sea, in the time when it was just opening there had never been a great gathering. Outstanding men were born here and there, and they bared their arms and rose up. Some awakened by themselves and showed what they could do. Some sought far away and ordered out the carriage. Only when the new physician surpasses the old physician are the false and the true first told apart. Only when the old governor instructs the new governor do teacher and disciple hand the work on from one to the other. So those who went west into China, studied their fill, and came back rose up heel behind heel.
The master, with a talent to be famed in his age, in the autumn, in the seventh month of the seventh year of King Jinpyeong, asked the way at the ford in order to go where profit lay, and entered Chen to seek the Law. He roamed sea and land like a cloud, rolling west and east, and wherever there was truly a man of the way and of name, he went to every one of them to ask and to draw near. It was like wood that follows the inked line, like metal that is made into a vessel. Once he had gone off so lightly, ten frosts had suddenly passed.
When his learning had reached the marrow, his heart was set on handing on the lamp, and in the ninth month of the twenty-fourth year of King Jinpyeong he came back to the country with an envoy going to court. The king admired his bearing and looked up to him, held the precepts and the discipline weighty, and in praise made him a daedeok (大德), a master of great virtue, to encourage those who should come after. The master stood high like a mountain range, and his measure held the blue sea within it. He shone with the moon of wisdom and he stirred with the wind of virtue, and the company in black robes and the company in white took him for their constant rule and their teaching. Later the title of daedaedeok (大大德) was added, and he sat in flourishing honour in a high place. How he came to his end is not known.
At the start, five years after the master entered Chen, the master of the Law Wongwang entered Chen and stayed eight years, and Damyuk (曇育) entered Sui and stayed seven years, and they came back together with Hyemun (惠文), an envoy going to court. The master and Jimyeong were both known by name for their high virtue, and the talent and the excellence of that age were truly not above or below one another.
2In praise — they went by different roads and came back to the same place
贊曰：季札觀樂於周室。仲尼問禮於老聃。非始學也。亦有宗矣。德等往還上國。訪道而返。斯亦異類而同歸者歟。
In praise it is said:
Ji Zha (季札) watched the music at the royal house of Zhou, and Zhongni asked Lao Dan about the rites. These were not their first learning: they had a source to go to as well. Gakdeok and his like went back and forth to the great states, sought out the way, and returned. Is this not also going by different roads and coming back to the same place?