佛祖統紀 47.11

47.11

In the second month of the third year, Master Dao of Mount Lu submitted a memorandum to the Department of Ministries, stating: "After the Chongning and Daguan eras, Daoist priests usurped honorary ranks and offices. Those like Lin Lingsu and Wang Chongdao who were treated as equivalent to the Two Grand Councils were very numerous. Consequently, Daoist priests were made to improperly sit above Buddhist monks. During the Jingkang and Jianyan eras, the official ranks treated as equivalent for Daoist priests were already rescinded, yet when assembling at monasteries for state memorial services with incense offering, they still dare arrogantly to take the superior seats. Their disregard for state law is like this! We now wish to restore the ancestral old regulations. The Short History of the Buddhist Monastic Order records in detail that whenever there was a court assembly, monks came first and Daoists after; when standing together in the palace courtyard, monks were on the east and Daoists on the west; and whenever Heaven was sacrificed to in the suburbs, Daoists were on the left and monks on the right." Soon after, it was sent to the Ministry of Rites, which obtained a report from the Court of Imperial Sacrifices stating: "Regarding the changing of rituals, the precedent of the general amnesty at Xuande Gate in the first year of Qiande had Daoists on the left and monks on the right. Furthermore, checking the Compiled Edicts of Jiayou and the New Book of Shaoxing, the texts consistently place monks before Daoists in sequence. In the Zhenghe regulations, the provisions that 'Daoist, Buddhist monk, Daoist abbey, Buddhist monastery' and that Daoists 'rank above monks' have already all been deleted and discontinued." Soon an imperial decree was received to correct it according to the regulations, placing monks above. In the eleventh month, the Court of Imperial Sacrifices issued a circular order to all circuits: whenever offering incense and lining up, or gathering in various places, all must follow the ancestral established regulations, placing monks on the left (this conformed to the imperial edict of the fifth year of Kaibao). In the eighth month, [it was noted that] ordained status certificates had first begun to be sold toward the end of the Zhiping era; formerly they were printed on yellow paper, and many were counterfeited. Zhu Yi of the Ministry of Revenue first memorialized to order that monks and Daoists use imperial silk certificates.