佛祖統紀 48.26

48.26

In the tenth year, the court officials submitted a memorial: "Our state extends exceptional courtesy to founding ministers, close relatives, and imperial in-laws, permitting them to petition for temple plaques for ancestral graves. This was meant for cases where they built the halls themselves and purchased the fields themselves, desiring thereby to aid and commend their deceased ancestors, and therefore plaques were granted to them. Thus, an imperial decree during the Daguan reign period forbade close ministers from aiming for temples that already possessed plaques, making it a statutory law. Whenever meritorious ministers and imperial in-laws have merit cloisters, it only means the granting of a plaque, exemption from levies and taxes, and the like, allowing them to invite monks on their own to serve as abbots; it was never intended that existing temples with state-bestowed plaques be handed over to them. In recent years, as soon as scholar-officials enter the executive administration, they hatch schemes of self-interest and set their sights on famous monasteries, converting them into merit cloisters and seizing their lands as if establishing personal estates. Their degenerate scions accept bribes from mediocre monks to install them as abbots; rice, salt, firewood, and charcoal are requisitioned and delivered at all times, supporting a whole family with a single temple. How greatly this defiles and disgraces their ancestors! Furthermore, executive officials' families are numerous everywhere; if one person occupies several temples, then few of the famous monasteries of the state will remain. Once the government has tax demands, these will inevitably be distributed among ordinary households; how does this not heavily harm the people? We foolish ministers desire that an imperial decree be issued to enforce the old regulations strictly: all temples with imperial plaques that have been pointed out and occupied should be recovered and set right, and monks should still be invited through official authorities, hoping thereby to eradicate the abuse of private families colluding with temples and receiving bribes." The decree approved it. Silian, a Tiantai monk, sent a letter to Du Qingxian (Du Fan), saying: "The Buddha entrusted kings and great ministers to protect and maintain the Buddha-Dharma. Yet among those who conversely destroy the Buddha-Dharma, there is one matter that is most crucial. When the court established the law permitting ministers to build temples with their own family wealth for their ancestors and petition for plaques, it was to transfer merit to the deceased. Nowadays, the benighted who do this act otherwise: considering the noble physical remains of their ancestors, they cannot bear to spend money to purchase a mountain, and having already seized a saṃghārāma's land for a tomb, they further wish to shadow-occupy several temples under the name of 'merit cloisters.' They appropriate every single item in the temple for themselves: today sending for rice, tomorrow for tea and bamboo shoots, the next day for firewood and charcoal, for bamboo and lumber, and even monthly demanding delicacies of water and land. As soon as a monk passes away, they are sure to conceal and confiscate his belongings, returning them to their private treasuries. I once heard the contemporary grandees say: 'Once it has been claimed as a merit cloister, every single needle and blade of grass is the property of my family.' How lamentable! In truth, they do not know that the permanent property of the temple and the assets of deceased monks all belong to the Three Jewels. Those who usurp and plunder them, whether masters or servants, will inevitably incur bitter retribution. In laying to rest the bodily remains of their ancestors, would this not bequeath the evil retribution of the three wretched realms? Alas! Usurping a saṃghārāma deceives the sovereign; burying a father in monastic ground ensnares the father; engaging in lawlessness harms oneself; and teaching scions lawlessness brings ruin to others. One who deceives the sovereign is unloyal; one who ensnares his father is unfilial; one who harms himself is unwise; one who brings ruin to others is unbenevolent. To act as a human being in this way—what kind of person is this, truly? Today, those who follow this evil precedent and seize famous and excellent bodhimaṇḍas have spread throughout almost all prefectures. Once a temple becomes a merit cloister, mediocre and blundering sorts are installed in it; barely having time to flatter and fawn upon their patrons with all their might, how could they prepare pure offerings to settle the great assembly? For this reason, those who seek teachers and inquire about the Path wander aimlessly back and forth between north and south, only able to lament that the affairs of the times are not as they should be. The humble and foolish wish of this person is that the Grand Chancellor clearly examine these accumulated abuses and inspect and follow the old laws: for the families of grand chancellors and vice chancellors, except for the seven mountains of Daci in Siming where the Shi clan built them themselves and petitioned for plaques in conformity with the standards, as for all other old temples with imperial plaques that have been usurped, specially order the censorate and ministries to establish an office to dispatch orders to all prefectures to submit truthful and detailed reports, confiscate them all back, and have all letters of appointment for abbots issued through the relevant prefectures and commands. Furthermore, rectify the mountains, forests, and buildings that were previously occupied, returning them to each temple. If there are scions who dare to collude with abbots and occupy property as before, permit ordinary people to secretly report them to the censorate and ministries to arrest the managing retainers and brand them as criminals, and proclaim orders that the abbots be forced to defrock. To purify and order the gates of the Dharma and to clarify and enforce the dynastic statutes truly rests upon the vigor of Your Excellency the Grand Chancellor's execution; let it not be shaken by popular chatter, and that will be well."