佛祖統紀 48.52

48.52

In the twenty-fifth year, on the nineteenth day of the first month, Yang Lianzhenjia, General Overseer of the Buddhist Teaching in Jianghuai, assembled the various mountains of the three schools of Teaching, Chan, and Vinaya of Jiangnan to Yanjing to inquire about the Dharma. The Chan school cited the Yunmen gongan, with which the Emperor was displeased. Dharma Master Yunmeng Ze expounded the Dharma to the imperial satisfaction; the Emperor ordered the doctrinal monks to wear red kāṣāyas and stand on the right side. Thereupon he bestowed a vegetarian feast at the Xiangdian, conferred a red brocade robe woven with gold, and granted him the title of Great Master of Buddha-Wisdom and Profound Eloquence; that the Teaching took precedence over Chan originated from this. The Emperor once asked the Imperial Preceptor: 'What merit is there in building temples and erecting pagodas?' The master said: 'The blessed shade covers the trichiliocosm.' Because of this, Renwang Temple was built. One day, when the Imperial Preceptor finished eating, the sky rained golden flowers. The Emperor asked: 'Why is there this auspicious omen?' The master said: 'Your Majesty's heart-flower has blossomed within; the sky rains golden flowers in praise.' The Emperor asked the Shu monk Yuanyi: 'Why are the followers of Confucius and Laozi so few, while the followers of the Tathāgata are so numerous?' Yi said: 'In wealth, one finds a thousand mouths too few; in poverty, one regrets having even one body.' The Emperor established a grand assembly for bestowing the precepts, and light shone everywhere. The Emperor asked the Imperial Preceptor: 'Where does the light come from?' The master said: 'The sympathetic resonance of the Path intersects, and the Buddha-light responds and appears.' The Emperor summoned ten eminent monks to the inner palace to receive offerings. The Emperor sat upright without moving; the Venerables remained silent. The Emperor said: 'This is genuine merit.' Furthermore, in the leisure moments of his myriad affairs, he personally held prayer beads, chanted his daily lessons, and made food offerings, saying to his ministers: 'I govern all under heaven with the non-dual true mind of original enlightenment. It is just like watching a gyrfalcon taking a swan: the mind is non-dual. Therefore, since I have possessed all under heaven, the two taxes on monastic agricultural estates have all been remitted, allowing the dark-robed assembly to practice the Way with peace of mind.' In the more than one hundred fascicles of the Shizu Veritable Records, every word and phrase takes the propagation of the teaching as his personal responsibility.