Original Text
Hanlin Academy Compiler Jiang Chao remembered that in his past life he was a monk on Mount Emei, and often dreamed of washing his feet by the pond before his old temple hut. He was particularly fond of reading Buddhist sutras, devoting himself wholeheartedly to the Tiantai school, and though he had long entered the Hanlin Academy as an official, he still frequently harbored thoughts of renouncing the world. Asking for leave to return to Jiangnan, upon reaching Qinyou, he no longer wished to go home. His son wept and pleaded with him to stay, but he would not listen. Thus he went to Sichuan, lodging at the Jinsha Temple in Chengdu. After living there for a long time, he proceeded to Mount Emei and stayed at the Fuhu Temple, where he eventually passed away from illness. Before his death, he composed a gatha.
Soaring freely, apes and cranes come to befriend me of their own accord, yet the old monk has inexplicably fallen into the dust of worldly karma.
Foolishly seeking to escape the heat in a boiling cauldron, how could one turn over and dive into the vast sea?
Fame and fortune are but puppets on the stage of life; wife and children are merely skeletons among the ranks of the dead.
Only to lord and parent can one never repay, life after life always praying to the merciful one.
Commentary
Historiographer Jiang was a renowned figure of his time, his deeds recorded in various other texts. Because Historiographer Jiang and Wang Yuyang were once fellow officials away from home, they corresponded by letter. Thus, when Wang Yuyang read Pu Songling's account, his commentary was far longer than usual, stating: "Jiang was a native of Jintan, originally called Jinsha. His style name was Huchen, and he died at the Fuhu Temple on Mount Emei: these names all coincidentally match, which is also strange. In the year of Renzi, when I served as examiner in Sichuan, Jiang was on Mount Emei and sent me a letter saying: 'I am an old monk of Mount Emei, so I return my bones here from ten thousand li away.' Soon after, he passed away. I wrote a elegy: 'Thirty years in the west wind, nine illnesses and one official transfer. Suddenly remembering the beauty of Mount Emei, truly forgetting the difficulty of the Shu road. The dharma clouds are vast and clear in the sky, the spring snow is lofty and cold. Ten thousand li is fit for burying bones, heaven has made a white jade coffin.' This was using the words from his letter." This supplemented Pu Songling's narrative. Additionally, Wang Yuyang also recorded related anecdotes about Historiographer Jiang in his work "Chibei Ouyi, Tanxian Four" under the entry "Jiang Huchen," which was more detailed than Pu Songling's account. However, Wang Yuyang's record of the seven-character regulated verse gatha that Jiang recited just before his death omitted the first and last couplets, retaining only the second and third couplets.