Classical Chinese:X者即B 令公之所㔙也

[Saciel]

Dear community,

 

I am translating a 12th century stele and have some problem grasping the direction of this sentence:  仰山靈稱寺者即太尉令公之所㔙也

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Context: The stele was made in Vietnam as an honor toward general  Lý Thường Kiệt , it's the very first sentence after the Buddhist preface (the stele was also written by a monk). The Vietnamese commentary says the taiwei is Ly Thuong Kiet, but I am not sure as the very next sentence says he was elected when he was twenty to serve the emperor ( 公弱冠之初。擢入禁闈 內侍    太宗皇).

Mostly I am confused by 㔙, since normally it should say something like "he founded this temple" but I am not sure who or what that "strong, energetic" refers to, and the appearance of "公". I translated as following so far: The Lingcheng temple of Yangshan is exactly that place where the Defender-In-Chief ordered the strong (subjects of) his majesty (to be).

Later in this text "公" is commonly used as a reference for either "his majesty" the emperor or for "the lord" Ly Thuong Kiet himself.

But I fear I have deeply misunderstood the sentence.

Thank you for your help!

[Publius]

令公 is a title, one word, not "ordered whomever"

http://www.zdic.net/c/4/8/11265.htm

對中書令的尊稱。中唐以後，節度使累加中書令、尚書令，使用漸濫，皆以令公稱之。魏書．卷四十八．高允傳：「高宗重允，常不名之，恒呼為『令公』。」

https://kknews.cc/history/856rrve.html

楊繼業為何被世人成為「令公」，有兩個說法： 其一，令公是古代對中書令、宰相的尊稱，《高允傳》，高允任中書令，「高宗重允，常不名之，恆呼為令公。令公之號，播於四遠矣」。唐朝宰相裴度被稱為「裴令公」，五代史弘肇被稱為「四鎮令公」，符彥卿為「符令公」。而楊繼業死後被追封為太尉，太尉位列三公，後世於是也尊稱他為「楊令公」。

 

From the context one can sense that In the position of 㔙 there should be a word with the meaning "to build" or "to found". I suspect it's a misreading. And without a photo there is no way to know. Case in point, the next sentence you quoted, I've found a different version that reads "公弱冠之初擢入禁闈。 ", different punctuation, different character, and the same source says "《匯編》誤釋作「禁闥」".

I have a feeling this is going to be a fool's errand.

[Saciel]

Thanks!

 

Here is the composit file of the stele, it's the sixth column, you can see where the introduction ends and the new passage starts.

[Saciel]

uhm, for  令公 it only says that it's a honorific used in texts, it's not an exact title :/

[Saciel]

Yeah, I have found the different version, too. The author as corrected the reading, the one I showed was the one on the stele, but it's not too much different, it basically says that he became a guard of the inner quarters serving the emperor, so far is known. The real problem is  㔙  and as you can see, it's written quite clearly, it could also be  (井力)  which would be  a variant of  勤 but the "hard working" isn't helping much or I am missing something :/

[Publius]

Hmm I would read it as 勤. I vaguely remember (井力) was in the short-lived 第二批簡化字方案 (ha, found it here). There also seems to be a dot which is originally in the "well" but is written outside of it to the right.

And I think it makes sense: ～者即～之所勤也 roughly "something is what someone dedicated himself to". 勤 is a verb with many meanings.