No. 1239-A注溈山警策序
Preface to the Admonitions of Mount Wei
左朝奉大夫新廣南東路轉運判官張銖撰
Preface by Zhang Zhu, Left Court Reviser and Transport Judge of the New Guangnan East Circuit
自六祖而下有五派。溈仰居其一。惜乎其後不得其傳。然其法則傳萬世而無弊。不以人為存亡。溈山之警䇿是。以夫警䇿之行於世尚矣。學者每患其辭雖顯而其義則難窮。字有舛錯而久未能辨。不有宗師大匠安能發揚其義而校正其舛錯乎。大洪淨巖禪師禪學冠世。每因暇日游戲筆硯。己未安居因學者請益。遂為之註解。其義坦然明白。字之舛錯者又從而校正之。晚學後進有所矜式。俾溈山二百年湮沒之迹一旦光輝著見。因以傳無窮而施罔極。固不韙歟。門人史德賢欲鏤板以廣其傳。余嘉其志輙為之序而冠于篇首。紹興九年十二月旦日謹序。
From the Sixth Patriarch onward, five schools emerged, and Weishan was one of them. Unfortunately, its lineage was not passed down after that. However, its teachings have been transmitted for myriad generations without flaw, unaffected by the presence or absence of particular individuals. The admonitions of Weishan are a case in point. Indeed, these admonitions have long circulated in the world. Learners often find that while the words are clear, the meaning is difficult to fully grasp. There are also textual errors that have gone uncorrected for a long time. Without a great teacher or master, how could one illuminate the meaning and correct such errors?
The Chan master Dahui Jingyan, whose mastery of Chan Buddhism was unrivaled in his time, would often spend his leisure days playing with brush and ink. In the year 己未, during the summer retreat, responding to his students' requests for guidance, he composed a commentary. The meaning became clear and transparent, and the textual errors were subsequently corrected. Younger students and later generations now have a model to follow, allowing the teachings of Weishan, buried for two hundred years, to shine forth brilliantly once again. Thus they can be transmitted endlessly and applied without limit—is this not a great achievement?
His disciple Shi Dexian wished to carve the text onto woodblocks to spread it widely. I praise his intention and have therefore written this preface to place at the beginning. Respectfully written on the first day of the twelfth month in the ninth year of the Shaoxing era.