佛祖統紀 45.23

45.23

Xiu said: "Cases where Master Han did not accord with the Dao and Master Wenzhong are few. Had he encountered Taizong, he would certainly have displayed to the utmost what he held within." The Master said: "Xianzong was a ruler of dynastic restoration. We have not heard of Tuizhi offering any assistance or support at that time; rather, he took the repelling of Buddhism and Daoism as his personal achievement, desiring to compare himself to Mencius repelling Yang and Mo. His eagerness to triumph and seek fame was as extreme as this! Furthermore, as for Tuizhi denouncing the Buddha as a barbarian ghost, allow me to briefly distinguish it. The Buddha as a sage descended from the Tuṣita Heaven and took birth in the family of a sacred king in Central India; why call him a barbarian? The Buddha as a sage is neither born nor destroyed, abiding permanently across vast kalpas, the object of veneration for humans and devas; why call him a ghost? Are these not words of great arrogance by Tuizhi? Tuizhi's ancestor of seven generations back was Han Qi. During the Yongxing era of the Later Wei, he surrendered to the Tuoba from Helian Qugai (The Helian clan was the Left Worthy King of the Xiongnu, later occupying Shuofang with the dynastic title Great Xia. The Tuoba clan of Emperor Daowu of the Later Wei arose from the Northern Di). Coming from the Western Rong to submit to the Northern Di—he did not observe taboo for his own ancestor, yet instead dared to slander the Buddha, a sage? Tuizhi was afraid of the transgressions of praise and blame in compiling history (in his 'Letter in Reply to Xiu Cai Liu,' he wrote: 'For one who compiles history, if there are no human misfortunes, there will certainly be divine punishment'), yet he did not consider that the transgression of disparaging the Buddha was even more to be feared! He took the repelling of Laozi as his personal task, yet served Immortal Mao as an elder brother and ingested his elixir, ultimately dying when carbuncles broke out (Tuizhi said that Han and Mao shared the same surname). His son Chang was incompetent as a collator of texts (while collating the Book of Han, he changed 'golden root carriage' to 'gold and silver carriage') and was eventually dismissed and sent home; within a few generations, his line was extinguished. Was that not also something from which divine punishment and human misfortunes could not be escaped? Tuizhi initiated the repelling of Buddhism and Daoism, and you, Sir, have now chimed in with him. This will cause fame-seeking scholars of later generations to cite the Han and Ouyang clans as their standard; how could this not be a burden on your magnificent virtue? The proverb says: 'He who is good at reviling will also be well reviled by others.' In your past composition of the 'Original Discourse,' you were diligently devoted to defaming the Buddha; how could the multitude of voices not defame you before the imperial ears? Your words took the rituals of seasonal hunts, funerals, sacrifices, and local archery as the basis for triumphing over Buddhism; this is just like Tuizhi's 'Tracing the Way' (Yuandao)—he did not actually know the Way!" Xiu was greatly astonished and blushed; he apologized to him, saying: "My mind is already completely relieved. With what will you instruct me?" The Master said: "The Buddhist Way takes awakening the mind as its foundation. For many lifetimes, Sir, you embodied the Way; it was only due to a lapse of mindfulness that you were born in Donghua as a renowned Confucian, where, clinging one-sidedly to worldly teachings, you forgot your origin. If you can truly bring forth a mind that regards the sacred and the ordinary as equal, silently realize it, instantly dispel self-conceit, and entirely repent your past wrongs; observe that glory and disgrace are fundamentally empty, and realize that death and life are of one accord; then pure mindfulness will shine forth, and your heavenly nature will be revealed alone; only then can you inquire into the path of this Way." From this point on, Xiu had considerable awakening. Later, when he entered court to participate in major state affairs, he always praised him before high officials, and their exchange of letters through the seasons never ceased (the Śramaṇa Zuxiu of Shu recorded the event of Ouyang Xiu meeting Chan Master Né, composing the Unofficial Biography of Ouyang. Lay Buddhist Su Xiang Yangzhi of Houhu and Duke of Wei Zhang Jun wrote prefaces for it. Xiu resided at Shangfeng in Tanzhou, received the Dharma from Chan Master Huanglong Xin, and called himself the 'Hermitage of Six Concealments').