佛祖統紀 48.50

48.50

In the eighteenth year, a special imperial decree was received: 'The two schools of Buddhists and Daoists debated, [revealing that] except for the Daodejing, which contains the genuine scriptural tenets of Laozi, all the rest were fabricated by later people, being deceitful talk largely defaming the Buddhist teaching and plagiarizing Buddhist sayings. Furthermore, they collected books on yin-yang, medicine, and the various philosophers, frequently altering the names and titles, so that the transmissions and commentaries became erroneous, losing their original authenticity. They fabricated talismans and spells, falsely asserting that wearing them would double a merchant's profits, bring harmony to husbands and wives like mandarin ducks, multiply offspring, grant long life to men and chastity to women, deceiving and misleading the myriad people in more than one way, and seeking to satisfy greed for wealth and seduce wives and daughters. There are those who instruct people in fraudulent absurdities: that wearing a talisman on the arm will make a man a ruler or minister and a woman an empress or consort, that entering water one will not drown, entering fire one will not burn, and that swords and spears cannot harm one. When Heavenly Master Zhang, Real Man Qi, Real Man Li, and Real Man Du were ordered to test this in fire, they all begged for mercy, pled for their lives, admitted their falsehoods, and dared not undergo the test. It is now deliberated that, except for Laozi's Daodejing, wherever along the circuits there are deceitful Daoist canonical texts and printing blocks, they shall all be incinerated. If there are those who cherish Buddhist sutras, they may become monks; those unwilling to be monks may take wives and return to commoner status. If the local authorities do not enforce this and fail to confiscate them, they shall be held equally guilty with those who conceal them.'