緇門警訓 10.12

10.12

傳云。明帝永平十三年。上夢神人金身丈六。項有日光。寤已問諸臣下。傅毅對詔。有佛出於天竺。乃遣使往求。備獲經像及僧二人。帝乃為立佛寺。畫壁千乘萬騎繞塔三匝。又於南官清涼臺。及高陽門上。顯節陵所圖佛立像并四十二章經。緘於蘭臺石室。廣如前集牟子所顯傳云。時有沙門迦攝摩騰竺法蘭。位行難測志存開化。蔡愔使達請騰東行。不守區域隨至雒陽。曉諭物情崇明信本。帝問騰曰。法王出世何以化不及此。答曰。迦毘羅衛國者。三千大千世界一百億日月之中心也。三世諸佛皆在破生。乃至天龍鬼神有願行者。皆生於彼受佛正化。咸得悟道。餘處眾生無緣感佛。佛不往也。佛雖不往光明及處。或五百年。或一千年。或二千年外。皆有聖人傳佛聲教。而化導之。廣說教義。文廣故略也。傳示。永平十四年正月一日。五岳諸山道士朝正之次。自相命曰。天子棄我道法遠求胡教。今因朝集可以表抗之。其表略曰。五岳十八山觀太上三洞弟子褚善信等。六百九十人死罪上言。臣聞。太上無形無名無極無上。虛無自然大道出於造化之前。上古同遵百王不易。今陛下道邁羲皇。德高堯舜。竊承陛下棄本追末。求教西域。所事乃是胡神。所說不參華夏。願陛下恕臣等罪。聽與試驗。臣等諸山道士多有徹視遠聽。博通經典。從元皇已來太上群錄。太虛符祝。無不綜練達其涯極。或策使鬼神吞霞飲氣。或入火不燒。或履水不溺。或白日昇天。或隱形不測。至於方術無所不能。願得與其比較。一則聖上意安。二則得辯真偽。三則大道有歸。四則不亂華俗臣等若比對不如任聽重決。如則有勝乞除虛妄勅遣尚書令宋庠引入長樂宮。以今月十五日可集白馬寺。道士等便置三壇。壇別開二十四門。南岳道士褚善信。華岳道士劉正念。恒岳道士桓文度。岱岳道士焦得心。嵩岳道士呂惠通。霍山天目五臺白鹿等十八山道士祁文信等。各齎靈寶真文太上玉訣三元符錄等五百九卷。置於西壇。茅成子許成子黃子老子等二十七家子書。二百三十五卷。置於中壇。饌食奠祀百神置於東壇。帝御行殿在寺南門。佛舍利經像置於道西。十五日齋訖。道士等以柴荻秥檀沈香為炬。繞經泣曰。臣等上啟太極大道元始天尊眾仙百靈。今胡神亂夏人主信邪。正教失踪玄風墜緒。臣等敢置經壇上以火取驗。欲使開示蒙心得辨真偽。便縱火焚經。經從火化悉成煨燼。道士等相顧失色。大生怖懼。將欲昇天。隱形者。無力可能禁。效鬼神者呼策不應。各懷慚恧。南岳道士費叔才自感而死。太傅張衍語褚信曰。卿等所試無驗。即是虛妄。宜就西來真法。褚信曰。茅成子云。太上者靈寶天尊是也。造化之作謂之太素。斯豈妄乎。衍曰。太素有貴德之名。無言教之稱。今子說有言教。即為妄也。信默然。時佛舍利光明五色。直上空中旋環如蓋。遍覆大眾映蔽日光。摩騰法師踊身高飛。坐臥空中廣現神變。於時天雨寶華在佛僧上。又聞天樂感動人情。大眾咸悅歎未曾有。皆繞法蘭聽說法要。并吐梵音歎佛功德。亦令大眾稱楊三寶。𧩟善惡業皆有果報。六道三乘諸相不一。又說出家功德。其福最高。初立佛寺同梵福量。司空陽城侯劉峻與諸官人士。庶等千餘人出家。四岳諸山道士呂惠通等六百三十人出家。陰夫人王婕妤等。與諸宮人婦女二百三十人出家。便立十所寺。七所城外安僧。三所城內安尼。自斯已後廣矣。傳有五卷略不備載。有人疑此傳。近出本無角力之事。案吳書明費叔才感死。故傳為實錄矣。

The chronicle states: In the thirteenth year of the Yongping reign of Emperor Ming, the Emperor dreamed of a divine being with a golden body sixteen feet tall, with the light of the sun at the back of his neck. Having awakened, he questioned his ministers. Fu Yi replied to the edict: “There is a Buddha who appeared in Tianzhu (India).” Thereupon messengers were dispatched to go and seek [him]. They obtained scriptures and images, as well as two monks. The Emperor then established a Buddhist monastery for them, painting murals of a thousand chariots and ten thousand horsemen circumambulating the stūpa three times. Furthermore, upon the Qingliang Terrace of the Southern Palace and above the Gaoyang Gate, as well as at the Xianjie Mausoleum, images of the standing Buddha were depicted, and the Sūtra in Forty-Two Sections was sealed in the stone chamber of the Orchid Terrace, as detailed extensively in Mouzi's account in the earlier collection.
The chronicle states: At that time there were the śramaṇas Kāśyapa Mātanga and Dharmaratna, whose stage of practice was unfathomable and whose intent was set on opening up transformation. When the envoy Cai Yin arrived, he invited Mātanga to journey east. Not bound to any region, they accordingly reached Luoyang, instructing the sentiments of beings and exalting the foundation of faith. The Emperor asked Mātanga, “When the Dharmarāja appeared in the world, why did his conversion not reach here?” He replied, “The kingdom of Kapilavastu is the center of the ten billion suns and moons of the great trichiliocosm. The Buddhas of the three periods are all born there. Even the devas, nāgas, ghosts, and spirits who possess vows and practice are all born there to receive the Buddha’s true conversion and all attain awakening to the Way. Sentient beings in other places have no conditions to sense the Buddha, so the Buddha does not go [there]. Although the Buddha does not go, wherever his radiant light reaches, after five hundred years, or one thousand years, or beyond two thousand years, there will always be sages who transmit the Buddha’s spoken teachings and transformatively guide them, extensively expounding the doctrine.” The text being extensive, it is abridged here.
The chronicle shows: On the first day of the first month of the fourteenth year of the Yongping reign, while the Daoists of the various mountains of the Five Sacred Peaks were assembling for the New Year's court audience, they said to one another, “The Son of Heaven has abandoned our teachings of the Way and sought the barbarian doctrine from afar. Now, taking advantage of the court assembly, we may submit a memorial to challenge it.” Their memorial stated in brief: “Chu Shanxin and others, six hundred and ninety disciples of the Supreme Three Caverns from the monasteries of the eighteen mountains across the Five Sacred Peaks, submit this under penalty of death. Your subjects have heard that the Supreme is formless and nameless, limitless and unexcelled. The great Way of empty nothingness and spontaneity emerged before the Creation. High antiquity collectively followed it, and a hundred kings did not change it. Now Your Majesty's virtue surpasses the Sovereign Fuxi and Your grace rises above Yao and Shun. We have privately learned that Your Majesty has abandoned the root to pursue the branches, seeking teachings from the Western Regions. What you serve is merely a barbarian god, and what is spoken does not accord with the Chinese. We pray that Your Majesty forgive your subjects’ offense and permit a trial and contest with them. Among us Daoists of the mountains, many possess far-seeing eyes and far-hearing ears, and are broadly versed in the scriptures and classics. From the time of the Primordial Sovereign onward, regarding the Supreme records and the Great Void talismans and incantations, there are none we have not thoroughly practiced to their utmost limits. Some can command ghosts and spirits, swallow rosy clouds and drink vital breath; some can enter fire without being burned, or tread water without drowning; some can ascend to heaven in broad daylight, or become invisible and unfathomable. As for magical arts, there is nothing we cannot do. We wish to hold a contest with them: first, that the Sagely Sovereign's mind may be set at ease; second, that the true and the false may be distinguished; third, that the Great Way may have its rightful return; and fourth, that the customs of the Chinese may not be thrown into disorder. If your subjects are inferior in this contest, we submit to whatever severe punishment you decide. If we prevail, we beg that the vain and false be abolished.”
An imperial edict dispatched Song Xiang, Director of the Department of State Affairs, to usher them into the Changle Palace: “On the fifteenth day of this month you may assemble at the White Horse Monastery.” The Daoists then set up three altars, each altar opening into twenty-four gates. The Daoist of the Southern Peak, Chu Shanxin; the Daoist of the Western Peak, Liu Zhengnian; the Daoist of the Northern Peak, Huan Wendu; the Daoist of the Eastern Peak, Jiao Dexin; the Daoist of the Central Peak, Lü Huitong; and the Daoists of the eighteen mountains including Mount Huo, Mount Tianmu, Mount Wutai, and Mount Bailu, Qi Wenxin and others, each brought five hundred and nine fascicles including the True Texts of the Numinous Treasure, the Jade Instructions of the Supreme, and the Registers and Talismans of the Three Primes, and placed them upon the western altar. Two hundred and thirty-five fascicles of writings of twenty-seven masters, including Mao Chengzi, Xu Chengzi, Huangzi, and Laozi, were placed upon the central altar. Fine foods and offerings to sacrifice to the hundred gods were placed upon the eastern altar.
The Emperor took his place in the imperial traveling palace at the south gate of the monastery. The Buddha’s relics, scriptures, and images were placed to the west of the path. On the fifteenth day, when the fast was concluded, the Daoists took torches of firewood, reeds, sandalwood, and aloeswood, circumambulated the scriptures, and weeping said, “Your subjects address on high the Great Way of the Supreme Ultimate, the Heavenly Worthy of Primordial Beginning, all the immortals and the hundred spirits: Now a barbarian god brings disorder to China, and the lord of men believes in heresy. The true teaching has lost its path, and the lineage of the profound style has fallen. Your subjects dare to place the scriptures upon the altar to test them by fire, wishing to open and instruct the unenlightened minds, so that the true and false may be distinguished.” Thereupon they set fire to burn the scriptures. The scriptures were transformed by the fire, entirely turning into ash and cinders.
The Daoists looked at one another and paled, overcome with great dread and fear. Those who had intended to ascend to heaven or become invisible possessed no power to perform their arts; those who commanded ghosts and spirits called out and directed them without response. Each harbored shame and disgrace. Fei Shucai, a Daoist of the Southern Peak, died of grief and shock. Grand Tutor Zhang Yan said to Chu Xin, “What you gentlemen tested had no efficacy; thus it is false. You ought to turn to the true Dharma that has come from the West.” Chu Xin said, “Mao Chengzi said that the Supreme is the Heavenly Worthy of the Numinous Treasure. The workings of Creation are called the Great Simplicity. How could this be false?” Yan said, “The Great Simplicity is a designation for exalting virtue, not a term for spoken teachings. Now you claim it has spoken teachings; that is indeed false.” Xin remained silent.
At that time, the Buddha’s relics emitted light of five colors, shooting straight up into the air and swirling like a parasol, completely covering the great assembly and eclipsing the light of the sun. Dharma Master Mātanga leaped into the air and flew high, sitting and reclining in the sky, extensively displaying divine transformations. At that time heavenly jewel flowers rained down upon the Buddha and the Saṅgha, and heavenly music was heard, deeply moving people's sentiments. The great assembly all rejoiced, exclaiming that it was unprecedented. All circumambulated Dharmaratna, listening to him expound the essentials of the Dharma, and he also intoned Sanskrit sounds, praising the Buddha’s merit and virtue. He also led the great assembly to praise and proclaim the Triratna, [explaining] that wholesome and unwholesome karma all have their retributions, and that the various marks of the six destinies and the three vehicles are not identical. He further expounded on the merit and virtue of pravrajyā, that its blessings are supreme, and that the initial founding of a Buddhist monastery matches the measure of Brahmā's blessings.
Grand Master of Works Liu Jun, Marquis of Yangcheng, together with various officials, scholar-gentry, and commoners, more than a thousand people, left home [for pravrajyā]. Lü Huitong and other Daoists from the mountains of the Four Sacred Peaks, six hundred and thirty people, left home. Lady Yin, the Lady of Handsome Demeanour Wang, together with various palace women and ladies, two hundred and thirty people, left home. Thereupon ten monasteries were established: seven outside the city to accommodate monks, and three within the city to accommodate nuns. From this time forward [the Dharma] broadened. The chronicle comprises five fascicles, so this is an abridged account and does not record everything in full. Some people doubt this chronicle, saying it emerged recently and that there was originally no such contest. But examining the Book of Wu, it clearly states that Fei Shucai died of grief; hence the chronicle is a true record.