爲我有餘宜與人
waga tame ni amari araba yoroshiku hito ni ataubeshi
What I Have Beyond My Need Should Go to Others
Abstract
爲我有餘宜與人, which I read in Japanese waga tame ni amari araba yoroshiku hito ni ataubeshi, what I have beyond my need should go to others, is the last line of a quatrain by the Zen monk Ten'in Ryūtaku 天隠龍沢 (1422–1500) on 福禄寿, the god of fortune, stipend and long life, which one witness titles as inscribed on a painting of him. In my English: a red-crowned crane cries ten thousand years, a green-haired tortoise (as I take 綠毛) offers a thousand springs, fortune and stipend come with them and never run out, and the last line says that what is beyond one's need should go to others [1][2][3]. Two witnesses read at the leaf carry it, and they agree on the line: a manuscript of 天隠's poems, 黙雲藁, whose last piece is dated 1577, and the anthology of Zen verse 翰林五鳳集, compiled early in the Edo period and printed in type in 1916 [1][2]. The 1690 print of his poems, whose postface in the first person is dated 1487, does not list it in its tables of contents, read in the 京都大学 copy [4]. CBETA, the Chinese Buddhist canon, returns nothing for 有餘宜與人 or 爲我有餘 [5]; the National Diet Library's full-text index shows no Japanese reading of it, searched for 宜しく人に與ふべし and 余りあらば宜しく [6]; and no English of it was found in the text layers of the house's English books or the Internet Archive's full text, searched for 天隠's names and for 福禄寿. I read 爲我 as for me, and I hear in the line the 老子's thought turned to the first person, a parallel of mine that no witness names: the sage gives to others and has the more.
A reading
The line, as Eri brushes it: 爲我有餘宜與人. As the manuscript writes it, at the leaf: 為我有餘宜与人 [1].
The whole poem, as the manuscript and the 1916 typeset both give it (the typeset's forms):
丹頂飛來呼萬歲。綠毛出曝獻千春。相隨不盡福兼祿。爲我有餘宜與人。
The red-crowned crane flies in and cries "ten thousand years"; the green-haired one comes out to sun and offers a thousand springs. With them come fortune and stipend that never run out: what I have beyond my need should go to others. (My English; I take the green-haired one to be the tortoise, The words.) [1][2]
I take the first three lines to be the painting's scene: the crane and the tortoise, both signs of long life, and the god's two gifts, 福 and 祿, without end. The last line answers the third. I read it 我が爲に餘り有らば、宜しく人に與ふべし: 爲我, for me, 有餘, there is more than enough, 宜, it is right that, 與人, give to others (The words, below); word for word, if there is more than enough for me, it is right to give it to others, which the English above renders freely. Where the third line promises fortune that never runs out, the fourth says what such fortune is for. As I read it, the thought is the 老子's: its eighty-first chapter says the sage does not hoard, 既以為人己愈有，既以與人己愈多, having done for others, he has the more; having given to others, he has the more, and its seventy-seventh asks who can offer what he has in surplus to the world, 孰能有餘以奉天下 [7]. The line has the 老子's 有餘 and its 與人; where the 老子 says 爲人, for others, it says 爲我, for me. The parallel is mine; no witness read names the 老子 beside the poem.
Two further hearings I offer and do not sign. 爲我 is also the 孟子's word for the doctrine of 楊朱, who would not pluck one hair to benefit the world (楊子取為我，拔一毛而利天下，不為也) [8][9]; a reader of the 孟子 may hear in the line the for-me man, told to give his surplus away. No source read makes that connection. And the line's 我 is not named: on a painting's inscription it may be the god's voice, or the poet's, or, on a scroll hung in a room, its owner's. The poem does not say whose, and I leave it open.
I sign the reading waga tame ni amari araba yoroshiku hito ni ataubeshi, what I have beyond my need should go to others. Signed, 典.
Overview
The sense. As I read it, the line says that what is beyond one's own need should go to others; its 宜, by the 訓読, is as is right [10]. In the poem it closes a wish for long life and plenty, and it turns from what a person receives to what a person gives (A reading).
The words. 爲 is the old form of 為, 餘 of 余 and 與 of 与; the manuscript writes 為, 餘 and 与, the 1916 typeset 爲, 餘 and 與, and Eri's hands 爲, 餘 and 與 (Notes). 爲我 the 精選版 日本国語大辞典 enters as a noun, 自分の利益のみを考え行動すること, acting with only one's own profit in mind, citing the 孟子 and, as the earliest Japanese example it cites, 惺窩文集 (about 1627); the 字通 gives 自分のためにする。楊朱の学説, to act for oneself; the doctrine of 楊朱, and reads the 孟子's line 楊子は我が爲にするを取る [8]. In this line I read the two characters not as that noun but as the phrase it was made from, 我が爲に, for me. 有餘, the 日国's 有余 ①, is あまりがあること。必要分よりも多くあること, there being a surplus; there being more than is needed [11]. 宜 I read with the 再読 of 漢文訓読, よろしく…べし; the デジタル大辞泉 gives under 宜しく 《「宜」の漢文訓読語から》（「よろしく…べし」の形で）当然。ぜひとも, from the 訓読 of 宜: in the form よろしく…べし, as is right; by all means [10]. 與人 is give to others: the 字通 gives 與 (与) the sense 予と通じ、あたえる、ほどこす, read as 予: to give, to bestow, and its 古辞書の訓 cite the 名義抄's 與 アタフ, to give [12]; 人 is others, its ordinary sense in such a phrase, as in the 老子's 與人 below, so no entry is quoted for it. A like construction, 宜與 with its object, stands in the 傳法正宗記, where 迦葉 says of the Buddha's relics 金剛舍利宜與人天為其福田, the adamantine relics should be given to men and gods as their field of merit [13]. The poem's other words: 丹頂, the red-crowned crane, ツル科の鳥 … 頭頂は裸出して赤く, a crane … the crown of its head bare and red, in the 日国 [14]; and 綠毛, the green hair, which I take to be the tortoise whose shell grows green weed, the 蓑亀 the 日国 describes as 古来、長寿の印などとしてめでたいものとされる, held auspicious from of old as a sign of long life and the like [15]. The collection 三益艶詞, printed in the same 1925 volume as 天隠's poems, sets the two side by side, 丹頂鶴綠毛龜, the red-crowned crane, the green-haired tortoise [16].
The text in English. No English of the line or the poem was found: not in the text layers of the house's English books, and not in the Internet Archive's full text, searched for 天隠's names and for 福禄寿 (the research record's § Sitting 3). 天隠 himself is named in English, among the books read, by Anesaki Masaharu in 1915, who writes of a landscape at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston: the descriptive poem at the top of the picture is by the Zen monk Ryūtaku Ten-in, commonly known as Moku-un, and is dated in the early summer of 1500, — the year in which the poet died at the age of seventy-nine [17].
The historical record
The poet. 天隠龍沢, of the 臨済 school, served as abbot of 真如寺, 建仁寺 and 南禅寺; his poems are 黙雲詩藁, he compiled the anthology 錦繍段, and he died in 1500 (明応9) [3]. 黙雲, the name in his poems' titles, was a second name of his [3].
The poem among his poems. The 国書データベース enters his poems as one work, 黙雲詩藁, also titled 黙雲藁 and 黙雲集, and lists manuscripts and prints of 1688 and 1690 [18]. The National Diet Library's manuscript, titled 黙雲藁, carries the poem, followed by 同 and the title 福禄寿星: 丹頂飛来呼万歳緑毛出曝献千春相随不尽福兼禄 / 為我有餘宜与人 [1]. The library's record dates the manuscript 天正五写, copied 1577; the book's last written page closes a prose piece with 天正萬年之五稔丁丑書于令節之後, written in the fifth year of 天正, 丁丑 (1577) [19]. Whether that line dates the copying of the whole book or only the piece it closes, the page does not say, and this history writes a manuscript whose last piece is dated 1577. The line is signed 前圓覺 (the rest not read), a former abbot of 円覚寺, and 天隠 died in 1500: the line that carries the date is not his [19][3]. The same manuscript has 天隠's other quatrain on the god, under the title 賛福禄寿画像, in praise of a portrait of 福禄寿: 首与身雖分一半福兼禄共得双全 / 有人若問寿多少屢見黄河五百年, though his head and his body divide him half and half, fortune with stipend he has both whole; if anyone asks how long he has lived, he has seen the Yellow River's five hundred years again and again (My English.) [20].
The anthology 翰林五鳳集, and a preface scroll of 1623. The anthology of the Zen poets 翰林五鳳集, compiled under 以心崇伝 early in the Edo period (the 国書データベース lists a manuscript of its preface alone, on one scroll, dated 1623, 元和9), gives the poem in its fifty-seventh book, with the title 題畫福祿壽星, inscribed on a painting of the star of fortune, stipend and long life, and the poet given as 同, in a run of pieces after one signed 天隱 [2][21]. Its typeset of 1916, in the 大日本仏教全書, prints it: 丹頂飛來呼萬歲。綠毛出曝獻千春。相隨不盡福兼祿。爲我有餘宜與人。 [2]. The same book also gives 天隠's other quatrain, as 贊福祿壽畫像 [2]. The line's words agree in the two witnesses; their titles differ (Notes).
1487 and 1690. The print that does not list it. The print of 1690 (元禄3), 黙雲詩藁 in four books, read in the 京都大学 copy, has a table of contents for each book; none lists the poem [4]. The one piece on the god they list is 贊福禄壽畫像, a form of the other quatrain: 首與身雖居大半 福兼禄共得相并 曾遊如昨黄河水 五百年間又一清 [4]. A postface at its end, in the first person and dated 文明丁未 (1487), closes 以應慧峯器成老人需, in answer to the request of 器成老人 of 慧峯, and the colophon dates the print 元禄三庚午年暮秋, late autumn 1690 [4]. So the poem is not among the pieces the print's tables of contents list. The absence does not date the poem.
1925. 続群書類従. The typeset collection 続群書類従, in its thirteenth part, prints 默雲詩藁 with the manuscript's form of the other quatrain and the print's readings beside it as variants (by the National Diet Library's text layer); the line was not found in its text layer, searched for 有餘宜, 宜與人, 不盡福 and 松鶴, the title of the piece that follows it in the manuscript [16].
1971. 五山文学新集. 玉村竹二's edition of Gozan literature, in its fifth volume, heads the poem 同 福祿壽星, the manuscript's title, standing before the poem where the manuscript sets it after, with 松鶴賛並序 as the piece after it, as in the manuscript; this is by the index's snippets, whose text layer leaves the line's fifth character unread, and the book is not open outside Japan [22].
The canon and the index. The line is not found as a quotation in the canon: CBETA, the Chinese Buddhist canon, returns nothing for 有餘宜與人 or 爲我有餘 [5]. The National Diet Library's full-text index, all access levels, oldest first, searched for 有餘宜與人, 爲我有餘 and 為我有余, finds the line only in the manuscript (whose text layer reads the fifth character 足), the 1916 typeset and its reprints, and the 1971 edition, and finds no Japanese reading of it, searched for 宜しく人に與ふべし and 余りあらば宜しく [6]. An echo of mood, not a source: the Chan teacher 五祖 (法演) told 佛鑒, as 佛鑒 took his leave, that an abbot keeps four cautions, the second 福不可受盡, fortune is not to be used up, and 福若受盡緣必孤, if fortune is used up, one will surely be left without ties [23].
Notes
The reading of 爲. The line can be read 我の餘り有るは, as for my surplus, passing over 爲; the 為我 entries read do not give 爲 that use, and the 字通's entry for 為 itself was not read. I read it 我が爲に, as above; the 楊朱 hearing (A reading) depends on the same 爲我.
The text as brushed. Eri's pieces write the line in two columns, 爲我有 / 餘宜與人, in the old forms 爲, 餘 and 與, as the 1916 typeset prints it; one piece writes its columns otherwise.
The titles. The manuscript titles the poem 福禄寿星, the star of fortune, stipend and long life; 翰林五鳳集 adds 題畫, inscribed on a painting [1][2]. The study of the god himself is a sibling history [24].
The other quatrain's text. Where the manuscript writes 共得双全, has both whole, the 1916 typeset of 翰林五鳳集 prints 共得雙金, and the 1690 print 共得相并; the manuscript's 雖分一半 is the print's 雖居大半 [20][2][4].
Japanese Scrolls by Master Calligrapher Eri Takase
Sources not seen
The 翰林五鳳集 manuscript at 京都府立京都学・歴彩館 (https://kokusho.nijl.ac.jp/biblio/100188140), imaged at the 国書データベース in 1,738 unindexed canvases: its fifty-seventh book was not reached. It would collate the 1916 typeset.
The 1688 print of 黙雲詩藁 (貞享5) and the manuscripts at the 内閣文庫 and the 静嘉堂文庫, which the 国書データベース lists without images [18]; the 二松学舎 copy of the 1690 print (https://kokusho.nijl.ac.jp/biblio/100419498), of the same imprint as the copy read.
玉村竹二 編, 『五山文学新集』 第5巻 (1971; NDL 1674640, not open outside Japan) [22]: its reading of the line's fifth character and any note on the poem.
An article in 『美術史論叢』 (University of Tokyo, no. 15, November 1998; NDL 4423924, not open outside Japan), which by the index's snippet quotes 天隠's other quatrain from 黙雲藁; its author was not identified from the catalogue.
A reader with access to any of these is invited to write to Takase Studios at Tim@Takase.com.
References
- 天隠竜沢, 『黙雲藁』, manuscript (the library's record: 天正五写), scan 81, at the National Diet Library. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/2533529/1/81
- 『翰林五鳳集』 卷五十七, in 仏書刊行会, editor, 『大日本仏教全書』 146, 1916 (colophon 大正五年四月廿五日發行, scan 222), scans 102–103. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/952850/1/103
- 「天隠竜沢」, デジタル版 日本人名大辞典+Plus, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/天隠竜沢-1093213
- 天隠竜沢, 『黙雲詩藁』, 4 巻 1 冊, 元禄3 (1690), 京都大学附属図書館 谷村文庫 copy, canvases 8–13 and 41–46 (the four tables of contents), 43, 60, 112 and 113, at the 国書データベース. https://kokusho.nijl.ac.jp/biblio/100425564
- CBETA, full-text search for 有餘宜與人 and 爲我有餘, November 2026. https://cbetaonline.dila.edu.tw/search/?q=有餘宜與人
- National Diet Library Digital Collections, full-text search, all access levels, oldest first, November 2026. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/search/searchResult?keyword=爲我有餘
- 『老子』 (王弼本), chapters 77 and 81, at Wikisource. https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/道德經_(王弼本)
- 「為我」, 精選版 日本国語大辞典 and 普及版 字通, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/為我-2005058
- 『孟子』, 盡心上, at Wikisource. https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/孟子/盡心上
- 「宜しく」, デジタル大辞泉, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/宜しく-655273
- 「有余」, 精選版 日本国語大辞典, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/有余-441698
- 「与」, 普及版 字通, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/与
- 契嵩, 『傳法正宗記』 卷二, T51n2078, p. 719b08, at CBETA. https://cbetaonline.dila.edu.tw/T51n2078_p0719b08
- 「丹頂」, デジタル大辞泉 and 精選版 日本国語大辞典, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/丹頂-564448
- 「蓑亀」, デジタル大辞泉 and 精選版 日本国語大辞典, at kotobank. https://kotobank.jp/word/蓑亀-639360
- 塙保己一, editor, 『続群書類従』 第十三輯上 文筆部, 1925, scan 270 (三益艶詞: 丹頂鶴綠毛龜, read at the page image) and the 默雲詩藁 pages (read by the National Diet Library's text layer). https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/936503/1/270
- Anesaki Masaharu, Buddhist Art in Its Relation to Buddhist Ideals, Houghton Mifflin, Boston, 1915, Plate XLI and its note, at the Internet Archive. https://archive.org/details/buddhistartitsr00anes
- 『黙雲詩藁』, the work record, at the 国書データベース. https://kokusho.nijl.ac.jp/work/1755835
- 天隠竜沢, 『黙雲藁』, manuscript, scan 103, at the National Diet Library. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/2533529/1/103
- 天隠竜沢, 『黙雲藁』, manuscript, scan 68, at the National Diet Library. https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/2533529/1/68
- 『翰林五鳳集』, the work record, at the 国書データベース. https://kokusho.nijl.ac.jp/work/146269
- 玉村竹二, editor, 『五山文学新集』 第5巻, 東京大学出版会, 1971, at the National Diet Library (read by the full-text index's snippet; not open outside Japan). https://dl.ndl.go.jp/pid/1674640
- 『大慧普覺禪師宗門武庫』, T47n1998B, p. 952a05–a10, at CBETA. https://cbetaonline.dila.edu.tw/T47n1998B_p0952a05
- 典 Ten, 「福禄寿 · fukurokuju · Fortune, stipend and long life」, Philology, Takase Studios, 2026. https://takase.com/library/philology/fukurokuju