佛祖統紀 46.25

46.25

五年十月。詔曰。有天下者尊事上帝敢有弗虔。而釋氏之教。乃以天帝置於鬼神之列。瀆神逾分。莫此之甚。有司其除削之。又勅水陸道場內設三清等位元豐降詔止絕。務在檢舉施行。舊來僧居多設三教像。遂為院額殿名。釋迦居中。老君居左。孔聖居右。非所以奉天真與儒教之意。可迎其像歸道觀學舍以正其名。洛京沙門永道讀詔泣曰。域中孔老法天制教。故不違天。佛出世法。天人所師。故不違佛。自古明王奉佛以事上帝者。為知此理也。佛法平等。故其垂教雖聖凡俱會。而君臣尊卑之分莫不自殊。祖宗以來奉法已定。一旦除削。吾恐毀法之禍兆於此矣。聞者為之憮然。

In the fifth year, in the tenth month, an imperial edict stated: 'Those who rule the realm revere and serve Shangdi; how dare they be lacking in piety? Yet the Buddhist teachings place the Celestial Emperor among the ranks of ghosts and spirits. In profaning the spirits and exceeding bounds, nothing is worse than this. Let the authorities eradicate this. Furthermore, in the Water and Land bodhimaṇḍas, the installation of seats for the Three Purities and others was prohibited by an edict issued in the Yuanfeng era; it must be investigated and enforced. From of old, monks' residences have often installed images of the Three Teachings, which then became the tablets of cloisters and names of halls, with Śākyamuni in the center, Laozi on the left, and Sage Confucius on the right. This is not the way to honor the Heavenly Realized Ones and the intent of Confucianism. These images may be welcomed back to Daoist abbeys and Confucian academies to rectify their names.' The śramaṇa Yongdao of the capital Luoyang read the edict and wept, saying, 'Within our realm, Confucius and Laozi took Heaven as their model and established their teachings, hence they did not oppose Heaven. The Buddha's supramundane Dharma is that by which gods and humans are guided, hence it does not oppose the Buddha. Since ancient times, enlightened monarchs who honored the Buddha to serve Shangdi did so because they understood this principle. The Buddha Dharma is impartial; therefore, though its teachings gather together both sages and ordinary beings, the distinctions between lord and minister, high and low, are nonetheless distinct. Ever since the ancestral monarchs, the veneration of the Dharma has been settled. If it is abolished in a single day, I fear the calamity of the destruction of the Dharma will begin from this.' Those who heard him were saddened and unsettled.