兼祧娉二室

道光三十年庚戌公父回泉州。祖母周年老。望見孫媳之心甚切。以公兼祧繼叔為定二室。一為田氏。一為譚氏。二室皆湖南湘籍。仕宦於閩。本為世交。復成親眷。循父母之命。媒妁之言。訂婚納禮矣。

宣化偈曰：
宜爾室家敘天倫。幽嫻貞靜女中英。
淨業圓修法伴侶。無人無家無色空。

Betrothals to two girls aimed at carrying on the lineages of two families

In the 30th year of the Tao Kuang reign period (1850), when the Master was eleven years old, his father returned to Ch'uan Chou. The aging grandmother of the Chou clan was determined that her grandson would have a wife. In order to continue his uncle's lineage as well, the Master was to become heir to two lineages, and so it was that one woman from the T'ien family and one from the T'an family were promised in marriage. Both families, originally from Hsiang-hsiang County in Hunan Province, were Mandarins residing in Fukien Province and had remained friends for generations. All of the relatives and in-laws approved of the fathers'choices. So following the orders of his parents and the words of the matchmakers, he was betrothed.

The verse says:
It is proper and fitting that families should accord with natural relations.
Quiet and graceful, chaste and tranquil, they were exceptional women.
Pure in action, perfecting cultivation, they were comrades in the Dharma, 
Without any selves, without any home. without any form or space.