佛祖統紀 44.33

44.33

The commentary states: According to the Record of Returning to the Fields (Guitian lu), Emperor Taizu entered a monastery and asked Zanning Tonghui, "Should the Buddha be bowed to?" He replied, "A present Buddha does not bow to past Buddhas." But Zanning first returned to the capital along with the King of Wuyue during the reign of Emperor Taizong; he had never seen Taizu. What Ouyang [Xiu] recorded is false. Now observing that Emperor Zhenzong bowed more than a hundred times and did not wish to delegate this to his close ministers, it was because he was well practiced in the ancestral family precepts. Later, just as Emperor Huizong bowed to the Buddha's tooth and the emperors throughout the Southern Song bowed to the Great Being [Guanyin], we know that since the founding of the state there has never been any principle of not bowing to the Buddha. Ouyang disparaged the Buddha, and not wishing the ruler of men to show reverence, he fabricated this account. His nonsensical talk of "present and past" slandered the sovereign above and slandered Master Zanning below. How extreme!