佛祖統紀 47.22

47.22

The Commentary states: To view monks and Daoists as ordinary adult males and levy taxes to grant them exemption—is this merely a shame for monks and Daoists? It is also a shame for the state, showing an ignorance of honoring and esteeming the Two Teachings! Nowadays, when prefectures levy the male exemption tax, they invariably demand payment according to the high quotas of normal years, disregarding the survival, demise, departure, or residence of monks. Furthermore, they wish to equalize the deficient quotas among the various monasteries. The harm produced is entirely of this sort! I once examined the commandery gazetteer, which stated: 'The male exemption tax for monks and Daoists originally had no fixed annual quota, but officials never reflect upon this.' This was the new law created by Wang Jinggong; in his own time and in subsequent generations, who did not know it was a calamity for the people? Yet when those governing today speak of Anshi, they view him as a petty man, but when pursuing people's taxes, they continue to employ his legislation! Once the fountain of profit is opened, even under the governance of a sage it cannot be abolished, because the human mind's fondness for profit is universally the same. Thus, those who devise laws for profit never fail to become a disaster for later generations. How sorrowful!