佛祖統紀 54.97

54.97

唐憲宗。迎鳳翔佛骨入禁中。刑部侍郎韓愈上表。諫曰。佛本夷狄之人。身死已久。枯朽之骨凶穢之餘。豈宜以入宮禁。乞以此骨付之水火。永絕根本。帝大怒貶潮州刺史。愈至潮聞大顛禪師名。請入郡問道。留旬日。尚書孟簡聞愈與大顛遊。以書嘉之。愈答書稱。大顛頗聰明識道理。遠地無可與語。故自山召至州郭。留數十日。實能外形骸不為事物侵亂。非崇信其法求福田利益也。簡復報之曰。釋氏之教。大明善惡之異路。覈天下神道報應之徵。為廣其道。奈何韓君以愚人下俚翁嫗之情。見待之耶（云云）。柳宗元送浮圖浩初序。退之好儒未能過楊子之書。於莊墨申韓皆有取焉。浮圖者反不及莊墨申韓之怪僻險賊耶。曰以其夷也。果不信道而斥焉。以夷則將友惡來盜跖。而賤季札由余乎。非所謂去名求實者矣（云云）○韓退之作原道云。舉夷狄之法。而加之先王之教之上。幾何其不胥而為夷也。然則如之何其可也。曰人其人火其書。廬其居。明先王之道以道之。亦庶乎其可也○女拏壙文云。愈為少秋官言。佛夷鬼。其法亂治可一掃去（云云）。

Under Emperor Xianzong of the Tang, when the Buddha bone of Fengxiang was welcomed into the imperial palace, Han Yu, Vice Minister of Justice, submitted a memorial remonstrating, saying: "The Buddha was originally a man of the barbarians. His body has long been dead; withered and decayed bones are the remnants of ill fortune and defilement. How can they be fit to enter the palace precincts? I beg that these bones be committed to water and fire, forever severing the root." The emperor was greatly enraged and demoted him to Prefect of Chaozhou. When Yu arrived in Chaozhou, he heard of the fame of Chan Master Dadian, invited him into the commandery to inquire about the Way, and detained him for ten days. Minister Meng Jian heard that Yu was associating with Dadian and commended him by letter. Yu replied in a letter stating: "Dadian is quite intelligent and understands principle. In this remote land there is no one to converse with, so I summoned him from the mountain to the prefectural city and detained him for several tens of days. He is truly able to detach from his physical form and not be invaded or disordered by external things; it is not that I revere and believe in his Dharma to seek field-of-merit benefits." Jian replied to him again, saying: "The teaching of the Śākya clearly illuminates the diverging paths of good and evil and investigates the manifestations of divine retribution in the world to broaden its Way. Why does Lord Han treat it with the sentiments of foolish men and base rustic elders?" (and so forth). In his preface sending off the monk Haochu, Liu Zongyuan said: "Tuizhi loves Confucianism, but has not been able to surpass the books of Master Yang; yet from Zhuangzi, Mozi, Shen Buhai, and Han Feizi, he drew upon them all. Can it be that the monks are instead inferior to the strangeness, deviousness, peril, and harm of Zhuang, Mo, Shen, and Han? He says it is because they are barbarians. If he truly does not believe in their Way and rejects them, then if [judged merely] by their being barbarians, should one befriend E Lai and Robber Zhi while scorning Jizha and You Yu? This is not what is called casting aside names to seek reality." (and so forth). Han Tuizhi composed the Yuan Dao (Inquiry into the Way), which says: "To take the methods of the barbarians and place them above the teachings of the former kings—how long before we all turn into barbarians together? If so, what should be done? I say: make humans of their people, burn their books, and turn their dwellings into homes; illuminate the Way of the former kings to guide them, and perhaps it may be accomplished." In the Epitaph for Daughter Na, it says: "Yu said as a junior official of the Ministry of Justice: 'The Buddha was a barbarian ghost; his law brings disorder to good governance, and can be swept away in a single stroke.'" (and so forth).