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【白話註解】
《戒牛錄》上記載：宣城庾本淑的祖父輩，都遵守不吃牛肉，已經很久了。有一次，庾本淑生病，服用醫師開的藥方，用牛腦作引子。曾經有人贈送牛肉，庾本淑自己雖然不吃，卻給僕人吃，自以為這樣就沒罪過。
有一天，庾本淑夢見頭戴冠帽，身穿赤色朝服的神，呵斥他說：「你是吃牛肉的人嗎？身體竟然如此腥臭難聞？」庾本淑回答說：「我並沒有吃牛肉。」神即命隨從官吏檢閱善惡簿，接著說：「你雖然未吃牛肉，但因病破了戒。而且送牛肉給僕人吃，由於這個罪過，應當奪減你的陽壽，姑念你尚有反悔之心，你若能勸百家不吃牛肉，就還回你的壽算。」庾本淑不敢回答，心想：「世人能信戒不吃牛肉的人很少，怎能勸導百家呢？至於平時若有贈送牛肉應當怎辦？」神知道他的心理，便微笑地說：「有人贈送牛肉把牠埋葬就行了。只恐勸導的心不堅定，何必憂慮推行不廣呢？」
庾本淑醒來就將夢中所見經過記載下來，流傳勸化世人，戒吃牛肉。
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This account is from a book entitled Against Killing Cows. In a place called Hsuan Cheng, there was a man by the name of Yu Ben Shu. From the time of his grandparents, his entire family kept the precept against eating beef.
However, one time Mr. Yu got sick and the doctor prescribed a kind of medicine that had as its primary ingredient the brains of a cow. Moreover, people would occasionally present him with beef as a gift, and although he did not eat it himself, he would give it to his servants to eat, thinking that way he would not personally be at fault.
One night, he dreamed of a person wearing the red robe and hat of an official, who scolded him, "You eat beef, right? Why does your body stink so much that people cannot even get near you?"
Mr. Yu replied, "I have never eaten beef!"
Then the guard ordered his attendant to check the "Record of Good And Evil." He said, "Although you did not personally eat beef, you broke the precept by taking medicine made from the brains of a cow; furthermore, when your friends gave you beef, although you did not eat it yourself, you gave it to your servants to eat. In those cases it was you who created the offense. Therefore, your lifespan should be shortened. But since I see that now you have a true mind of repentance, your originally allotted lifespan will be returned to you as long as you can exhort one hundred households to hold the precept against eating beef."
At that time, Mr. Yu did not speak, but only held the thought in his mind: "It is so rare in this world for people to hold the precept against eating beef. How could I possibly manage to exhort one hundred households to do so? And if someone gives me beef, what can I do with it?"
Because the guard had the spiritual penetration of knowing others' thoughts, he immediately knew what Mr. Yu was thinking, and so he cracked a subtle smile and said, "If someone gives you beef, you should simply bury it. Also, do not be afraid that you will not be able to exhort one hundred households to not eat beef. You only need fear that your faith is not firm enough."
When Mr. Yu awoke up from the dream, he immediately recorded it and published it, as a means to exhort people not to eat beef and to transform worldly people to hold this precept: his was indeed a task not easy to accomplish.
At the end of day, I blow on my wooden flute. Even the old ox likes it. Turning around his head, As we amble slowly into the sunset.
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