佛祖統紀 48.6

48.6

The narrator states: Having examined the Yijian zhi, it says: 'Eating vegetables and serving demons is especially rampant in Sanshan. Their leaders wear purple hats and broad robes; their women wear black crowns and white attire, calling themselves the Mingjiao (Luminous Religion) Society. The Buddha they serve is clad in white, citing the scripture's phrase: "spoke to the Buddha, saying, 'World-Honoured One'" (reading "white" as an adjective). Drawing from the Diamond Sūtra's "one Buddha, two Buddhas, three, four, five Buddhas," they consider him the Fifth Buddha, also named Mamo-ni (Mani). Taking from the Scripture of the Conversion of the Barbarians, [it states that he] rode the pneuma of the Dao of natural luminous radiance, flew into the Jade Realm of Xina in the country of Sulin, and was born into the jade palace as a crown prince who left the household and was named Mamo-ni, in order to attest for himself. Their scripture is titled The Two Principles and the Three Moments. The two principles are light and dark; the three moments are the past, future, and present. When the Daoist Canon was compiled during the Dazhong Xiangfu era, a wealthy man, Lin Shichang, bribed the officials in charge to have it incorporated into the canon and deposited in the Mingdao Palace in Bozhou. They also falsely attributed a poem to Bai Letian, which runs: "Quietly perusing the Chronicle of Sulin, / The Way of Mani is truly wondrous. / The two principles unfold in silent stillness; / The five Buddhas succeed in brightness. / Sun and moon are relied upon for reverence; / Heaven and earth are acknowledged as what gave them birth. / If we speak of the aspiration to pure vegetarian observance, / It is fitting that their name be ranked equally with the sons of the Śākya clan." These eight lines were affixed to the head of the scripture. Those who practice it eat one meal at midday, bury their dead naked, and perform worship at the seven periods—these are in fact vestigial customs of the Yellow Turbans.' (I once examined Letian's Changqing ji, and there is no poem about Sulin. Letian understood Buddhism; how could he have composed such uncanonical words?)