佛祖統紀 47.49

47.49

When Duke Shi of Wei passed through Jinshan, he observed the grandeur of Emperor Wu of Liang's Water and Land ritual liturgy, and considered that the way to repay kindness and deliver the world resided therein. Thereupon, he built a hall on Mount Yuebo, set up images of the ten realms, and studied together with renowned monks to compile four volumes of ritual text, offering services across the four seasons as the Great Feast of Universal Deliverance (which has continued for a hundred years to the present). The arrangement of sacrificial vessels struck a proper balance between elaborateness and simplicity, and the chanting of hymns rose and fell with measured cadence. All the monasteries in the countryside and city took this as their model. Wang Rixiu, a student of the National Academy from Longshu, composed commentaries and sub-commentaries on the Six Classics totaling hundreds of thousands of words. One day, he cast them aside, saying, "These are all karmic habits, not the ultimate Dharma. Shall I not take refuge in the Western Paradise?" From then on, with single-minded devotion, he recited the Buddha's name, chanting a thousand prostrations daily. One evening, reciting the Buddha's name in a loud voice, he suddenly said, "The Buddha has come to welcome me." Standing erect, he passed away. A local person dreamt that two attendants in green led him westward. Rixiu composed a Pure Land Text that circulated in the world. He once said: "Some Confucians disparage the teachings of the Buddha because his followers lack disciplined conduct; yet how could one disparage Laozi because Daoists are unworthy, or disparage Confucius because literati are unworthy? The teaching of the Buddha contains both mundane dharmas and supramundane dharmas. In its mundane dharmas, prohibiting killing, stealing, and sexual misconduct, Confucianism and Buddhism have never differed. Where they differ is in the supramundane dharmas of Buddhism. Confucianism stops at the mundane, and therefore speaks only of a single lifetime, attributing it to Heaven. Buddhism understands many lifetimes and can fully perceive the origin and end of the karmic conditions of all living beings. This is their difference."