王奉常以累世修積科第蟬連
Wang Fengchang, through generations of accumulated merit, saw continuous success in the imperial examinations.
大原先文肅公王錫爵。號荊石。明神廟首輔。雖貴顯終身不二色。其立朝鼎望建儲元勳。載在國史。茲略紀者居鄉一二逸事也。公為人謙恭溫厚。獨御下以嚴。好朴素。不許僕衣紈綺。或僕輩與人爭毆進前膚愬。公必曰。相府一犬。人猶別眼視。況人乎。必先責僕。公好植菊。多生千餘本。偶一里人向園丁乞菊。丁曰。明日來。明日人入園。適公低頭對菊坐。其人不知。驀拍公背曰。老伯伯昨許我菊花𠰚。公擡頭。人驚仆。公慰諭曰。莫驚莫驚。令童子取幾本送出。其厚德如此。梵字無大小。皆書額護持。晚年命工以金銀汁畵大士像。手書心經在上施人供養。不記數。子緱山先生。諱衡。亦榜眼。孫奉常烟客翁。諱時敏。篤奉佛教。增修世德。儉歲首倡糶官米。兼煑粥濟民。請瓶窑聞谷大師至婁。創興佛法。孝廉陸𠃔升。字子就。夢至一大寺。六人挑豆至。黃豆中雜以蠶豆。老僧曰。此皆烟客翁前生所積善業也。大善記一蠶豆。小善記一黃豆。凡六擔。子就遍告人。無不知者。今子九人。次子揆。第八子掞。次房孫厚初。皆進士。一門厚德。榮盛未艾。
Wang Xijue, posthumous title Wensu, style name Jingshi, was a chief grand secretary under the Ming emperor Shenzong. Though greatly honored and prominent, throughout his life he never took a second wife. His towering reputation at court and his merit in establishing the heir apparent are recorded in the national histories. What is briefly recorded here are one or two lesser anecdotes from his time living in his home district.
He was by nature humble, courteous, gentle, and kind, yet he governed his household strictly. He loved plainness and did not permit his servants to wear fine silks. If a servant quarreled or fought with someone and came before him to complain, he would invariably say, "Even a single dog of the grand secretary's household is looked at differently by people—how much more so a person!" And he would always reprimand the servant first.
He loved planting chrysanthemums, and grew more than a thousand of them. Once a villager asked the gardener for a chrysanthemum. The gardener said, "Come tomorrow." The next day the man entered the garden, and it happened that the duke was sitting with his head bowed facing the chrysanthemums. The man did not know who he was and abruptly patted him on the back, saying, "Old uncle, yesterday you promised me a chrysanthemum." The duke raised his head, and the man, startled, fell to the ground. The duke comforted him, saying, "Don't be frightened, don't be frightened," and had a boy fetch several plants and send them out to him. Such was his generous virtue.
Whenever he wrote Sanskrit characters, large or small, he would always have them mounted as plaques to protect and uphold the Dharma. In his later years he commissioned craftsmen to paint an image of the Bodhisattva Guanyin in gold and silver pigment, and with his own hand wrote the Heart Sutra upon it to give to others for making offerings—too many to count.
His son, Mr. Goushan, whose personal name was Heng, was also a bangyan, second in the imperial examination. His grandson, the Chamberlain for Ceremonials known as Old Man Yanke, whose personal name was Shimin, was devoted to the Buddha's teaching and added to the family's inherited virtue. In lean years he took the lead in selling official grain, and also boiled gruel to relieve the people. He invited Great Master Wengu of Pingyao to come to Lou and founded the flourishing of the Buddha's teaching there.
The licentiate Lu Yunsheng, style name Zijiu, dreamed he arrived at a great monastery. Six men came carrying baskets of beans, yellow beans mixed with broad beans. An old monk said, "These are all the good karma accumulated by Old Man Yanke in a former life. Great good deeds are recorded with one broad bean, small good deeds with one yellow bean." In all there were six loads. Zijiu told everyone, and there was no one who did not know of it. Now he has nine sons. His second son, Kui, his eighth son, Yan, and his grandson by the second branch, Houchu, are all jinshi. The family's abundant virtue and glory are still on the rise.
罷翁曰。烟翁全福。世所希有。堅修亦復希有。每昧爽。即盥嗽。禮誦聲琅琅達戶外。嘗語余曰。吾十七歲持金剛經。至今年垂八十。未嘗缺一日。每日持誦有定課。皆用鈐記。非夙世勇猛修習乘願再來。能有此乎。余與烟翁蓮社同事四十餘年。知之最深也。
Baweng said: Yanzweng's complete blessings are rare in this world, and his steadfast practice is rare as well. Every morning at dawn, he would wash and rinse his mouth, and the sound of his bows and recitations would ring out clearly beyond his door. He once said to me: "I have upheld the Diamond Sutra since I was seventeen, and now I am nearly eighty—I have never skipped a single day. Each day I keep to a fixed amount of recitation, and I record it all with a seal-mark." Were he not one who had practiced with heroic vigor in former lives and returned by his vow, could he have done this? I was a fellow member with Yanzweng in the Lotus Society for over forty years, and I know him most deeply.