佛祖統紀 40.16

40.16

In the second year, in the first month, because noble relatives had memorialized to ordain people as monks since the time of Zhongzong, and wealthy households and able-bodied men had largely shaved their heads to evade corvée labor, the Director of the Purple Palace Yao Chong submitted a memorial requesting a ban on ordaining monks, stating, "The Buddha is not external; awakening stems from the mind. Performing actions that bring benefit and cause the common people to be at peace—this is what is called Buddhist truth." The Emperor complied with this and ordered the relevant authorities to weed out those monks and nuns who were false and fraudulent, totaling twelve thousand people, and ordered them all to return to lay life. An imperial decree ordered that the hundred officials not establish monasteries, and that commoners not cast Buddhist images or copy scriptures; those who needed them should redeem them from monasteries. In the second month, an imperial decree ordered monks and Daoists to pay homage to their parents. In the fourth month, this homage was abolished.