佛祖統紀 50.20

50.20

佛道來東華幾二千載矣。吾儒攘斥甚力者。無若韓氏歐陽氏。然皆未究其言與其道。唯知堅執周孔立教者以詆之。故雖攻之而愈堅。終無以大服天下之心。獨關洛諸賢與胡氏父子。頗嘗出入釋氏而不信之。然考其所與辨明。而謂之詖淫邪遁者亦不過指禪宗單傳之學而已。夫釋氏之有禪宗。猶吾儒之有老莊也。苟以拈椎竪拂誇誕之談。而疑釋氏一代正教。是猶以王何所學之浮虛而疑六經語孟修身齊家治國平天下之道也。奚可哉。去佛愈遠異端並起。唯天台大師為得其正傳。此唐之梁敬之柳子厚。我朝晁以道陳瑩中諸公所服膺而深造者也。僕雖不敏實研究有年。觀其發揮一性範圍法界俾六凡四聖各迪厥德而咸底於極。誠未易遽為足下言。惟足下他日考其書而訂其道。方知僕昨者鄙詩所謂大道不可私與夫孔釋俱援世之句。果非自欺而又以欺天下也。然則孔釋之道果同乎。果異乎。異則不可得而一。同則不應異其施。曰有世法有出世法。以世法而疑出世法固不可。以出世法而外世法亦不可。故天台所傳。亦有真俗相即之諦。其察乎道並行而不相悖者。亦審矣。世有足跡未抵乎泰山之麓而輒談其廣狹高下。欲欺乎未見泰山者。且不可。況乃見者乎。今足下未讀佛之書而遽議佛之道。何怪乎言之諄諄。而僕邈然不聽也。

The Buddha's Way has come to the Eastern Splendour for nearly two thousand years. Among our Confucians who have vigorously repelled and rejected it, none were like Han Yu and Ouyang Xiu. Yet neither of them investigated its words and its Way; they only knew to hold rigidly to the teachings established by the Duke of Zhou and Confucius to revile it. Therefore, though they attacked it, it grew ever firmer, and in the end they had no means to broadly convince the minds of all under heaven. Only the worthy scholars of Guan and Luo, together with Master Hu and his son, somewhat engaged with Buddhism without believing in it. Yet when examining what they debated and clarified, calling it biased, licentious, perverse, and evasive, they were merely pointing to the singular transmission of the Chan school. The presence of the Chan school in Buddhism is like the presence of Laozi and Zhuangzi in our Confucianism. If, because of extravagant talk about picking up mallets and raising whisks, one doubts the orthodox teachings of the Buddha's entire lifetime, that would be like doubting the way of cultivating the person, regulating the family, ordering the state, and bringing peace to all under heaven in the Six Classics, the Analects, and the Mencius on account of the frivolous vacuity of Wang Bi and He Yan's studies. How could that be acceptable? As the Buddha receded further into the distance, heterodoxies arose together; only the Great Master of Tiantai obtained its orthodox transmission. This is what gentlemen such as Liang Jingzhi and Liu Zihou of the Tang, and Chao Yidao and Chen Yingzhong of our dynasty, took to heart and attained deeply. Although I am not clever, I have truly researched it for years. Observing how it explicates the single nature and encompasses the Dharma realm, enabling the six ordinary and four noble realms to each cultivate their virtues and all reach the ultimate, it is truly not easy to explain this to you hastily. Only when you examine its books and verify its Way in the future will you realize that what my humble poem yesterday called 'the Great Way cannot be kept private' and 'Confucius and Śākya both rescue the world' were truly not self-deceptions, nor deceptions practiced on the world. But then, are the ways of Confucius and Śākya truly identical, or are they truly different? If they are different, they cannot be made one; if they are identical, their applications should not differ. It is said: there are worldly dharmas and world-transcending dharmas. To doubt world-transcending dharmas by means of worldly dharmas is certainly unacceptable; to exclude worldly dharmas by means of world-transcending dharmas is also unacceptable. Therefore, in what Tiantai transmitted, there is also the truth of the mutual identity of the ultimate and conventional truths. Its discernment that the ways move in parallel without conflicting is indeed thorough. In this world, there are those whose footsteps have never reached the foot of Mount Tai, yet they glibly talk of its breadth and height; to wish to deceive those who have not seen Mount Tai is already impossible, how much more so those who have seen it! Now, you have not read the Buddha's books yet hastily discuss the Buddha's Way; why wonder that while you speak so earnestly, I remain aloof and do not listen?