Notes Beside the Bamboo Window — Third Collection, Part 25
Continuing the Third Collection (三筆). A sober redefinition of what genuinely benefits a monk — not comfort or freedom from labor, but only real spiritual liberation, on pain of a debt owed to every almsgiver — paired with a plain-spoken rejection of transactional folk vow-making in favor of simply cultivating virtue and accepting outcomes without resentment.
95. 出家利益 — The True Benefit of Leaving Home
Rejecting the popular assumption that a monk's benefit lies in comfort, free food, and freedom from ordinary labor, Zhuhong insists that ordination without genuine spiritual liberation is not a benefit at all but a dangerous debt — every grain of alms received from the faithful is a burden that must eventually be repaid.
古德云：「最勝兒，出家好。」俗有恆言曰：「一子出家，九族生天。」此者贊歎出家，而未明言出家之所以為利益也。豈曰不耕不織，而有自然衣食之為利益乎？豈曰不買宅、不賃房，而有自然安居之為利益乎？豈曰王臣護法，信施恭敬，上不役於官，下不擾於民，而有自然清閒逸樂之為利益乎？古有偈曰：「施主一粒米，大似須彌山，若還不了道，披毛帶角還。」又云：「他日閻老子與你打算飯錢，看你將何抵對？」此則出家乃大患所伏，而況利益乎哉！所謂出家之利益者，以其破煩惱、斷無明、得無生忍、出生死苦，是則天上人間之最勝，而父母宗族被其澤也。不然，則雖富積千箱，貴師七帝，何利益之有？吾實大憂大懼，而併以告夫同業者。
The ancients said: "The finest of all children is the one who leaves home to become a monk." A common popular saying likewise holds: "When one son leaves home, nine generations of his family are reborn in the heavens." These sayings praise the act of leaving home, but never actually specify what its true benefit consists of. Could it possibly mean that not having to plow fields or weave cloth, while receiving food and clothing as a matter of course, is itself the benefit? Could it mean that not having to buy a house or rent lodgings, while receiving a settled dwelling as a matter of course, is itself the benefit? Could it mean that having kings and ministers protect the Dharma, and the faithful offer their reverent support, so that one is subject neither to official corvée labor above nor disturbance by the common people below, and thereby enjoys an effortless life of leisure and ease — is that the benefit?
The ancients left behind a verse: "A single grain of rice from a donor weighs as heavily as Mount Sumeru itself; if one fails to complete the Way, one must return it wearing fur and horns." Another saying warns: "One day King Yama himself will settle accounts with you for every meal you have eaten — what will you have to offer in payment?" Understood this way, leaving home is a state fraught with grave hidden danger — how, then, could it be called a benefit at all!
The true benefit of leaving home lies in this alone: breaking through afflictions, cutting off fundamental ignorance, attaining the patient acceptance of the birthless nature of all things, and escaping the suffering of birth and death. This alone is the truly supreme achievement, in heaven or on earth, and it is this alone that brings real blessing to one's parents and family line. Absent this, even if one accumulated a thousand chests of wealth, or were honored as teacher to seven successive emperors, what genuine benefit would there be in it? I am, in truth, deeply anxious and fearful on this account, and I set this down here to share with my fellow practitioners as well.
The proverb "when one son leaves home, nine generations are reborn in the heavens" was, and remains, one of the most widely quoted popular sayings in Chinese Buddhist culture, and Zhuhong's decision to interrogate rather than simply repeat it is characteristic of this collection's broader habit — seen also in entry 91's treatment of hasty canon compilation and entry 93's honest concession to a Daoist critic — of refusing comfortable received wisdom whenever it goes unexamined; the "seven emperors" reference alludes to the historical Huayan patriarch Chengguan, who genuinely served as personal teacher to seven successive Tang emperors, making him a deliberately extreme example of worldly honor that Zhuhong nonetheless declares worthless without genuine liberation.
96. 世俗許願 — Popular Vow-Making
A plain-spoken rejection of transactional folk religion — vows offering sacrificial animals, robes, or temple buildings in exchange for divine favor — in favor of simply cultivating genuine virtue and accepting whatever outcome follows without resentment.
世人祈求子嗣者，祈延壽命者，祈消疾病者，祈解災難者，祈取功名者，祈安家宅者，祈益資財者，如是等事；第一不可告許宰殺牲牢之願，此名惡願，有業無功，縱得遂心，美好一時，苦報在後。乃至許袍、許旛，許造殿堂，許置供器，雖與上之葷祭不同，然大悲平等名佛，正直不偏名神，豈有因賄降福之理乎？縱得遂心，本人命所自致，非許願力也。據理而論，惟在廣作諸善耳。忠君孝親，憐貧愛老，救災恤苦，戒殺放生，種種陰騭，種種方便，隨力所能，皆力行之，善功所感，理必降祥。儻不遂心，則應歸之天命，委之宿緣，不怨不尤，彌加行善而無退悔。
People in this world pray for children, pray for extended life, pray for the cure of illness, pray for release from calamity, pray for success in the examinations, pray for the safety of their households, pray for increased wealth — in all such matters, the very first rule is that one must never vow to offer a sacrificial slaughter of livestock in return. This is what is called an evil vow: it produces only karmic offense and no merit at all, and even should one's wish happen to be fulfilled, the resulting good fortune lasts only a short while, with painful retribution to follow afterward.
Even vowing to offer robes, banners, temple halls, or ritual implements — though clearly different from the meat-sacrifice described above — still misses the point. The Buddha is called "Buddha" precisely because his great compassion extends equally to all beings; a true deity is called a deity precisely because it is upright and impartial. How could there possibly be any principle by which blessings descend in exchange for a bribe? Even if one's wish happens to come true, this results from one's own destiny, not from the power of the vow itself.
Reasoned through properly, the only real path is simply to do good deeds widely: being loyal to one's ruler, filial to one's parents, compassionate toward the poor, caring toward the elderly, offering relief in disaster and comfort in suffering, refraining from killing, and freeing captured animals — every kind of hidden virtue, every kind of skillful helpful act, carried out to the fullest extent of one's own ability. It is the power of such genuine good deeds that, by the principle of cause and effect, must inevitably bring auspicious results. Should one's wish still not be fulfilled, one should attribute this simply to fate, entrusting it to karmic causes from past lives, harboring no resentment and blaming no one, and instead redoubling one's own good deeds without ever growing discouraged or regretful.
This entry's rejection of transactional vow-making extends the same critique of sacrificial ritual already voiced in this collection's earlier discussion of animal sacrifice, and its closing counsel — to attribute an unfulfilled wish to fate and simply continue doing good without resentment — mirrors the equanimity Zhuhong elsewhere recommends toward illness and misfortune generally, treating popular religious bargaining as a category error about how merit and causation actually function rather than merely a matter of taste or etiquette.