佛祖統紀 54.97

54.97

Under Emperor Xianzong of the Tang, when the Buddha bone of Fengxiang was welcomed into the imperial palace, Han Yu, Vice Minister of Justice, submitted a memorial remonstrating, saying: "The Buddha was originally a man of the barbarians. His body has long been dead; withered and decayed bones are the remnants of ill fortune and defilement. How can they be fit to enter the palace precincts? I beg that these bones be committed to water and fire, forever severing the root." The emperor was greatly enraged and demoted him to Prefect of Chaozhou. When Yu arrived in Chaozhou, he heard of the fame of Chan Master Dadian, invited him into the commandery to inquire about the Way, and detained him for ten days. Minister Meng Jian heard that Yu was associating with Dadian and commended him by letter. Yu replied in a letter stating: "Dadian is quite intelligent and understands principle. In this remote land there is no one to converse with, so I summoned him from the mountain to the prefectural city and detained him for several tens of days. He is truly able to detach from his physical form and not be invaded or disordered by external things; it is not that I revere and believe in his Dharma to seek field-of-merit benefits." Jian replied to him again, saying: "The teaching of the Śākya clearly illuminates the diverging paths of good and evil and investigates the manifestations of divine retribution in the world to broaden its Way. Why does Lord Han treat it with the sentiments of foolish men and base rustic elders?" (and so forth). In his preface sending off the monk Haochu, Liu Zongyuan said: "Tuizhi loves Confucianism, but has not been able to surpass the books of Master Yang; yet from Zhuangzi, Mozi, Shen Buhai, and Han Feizi, he drew upon them all. Can it be that the monks are instead inferior to the strangeness, deviousness, peril, and harm of Zhuang, Mo, Shen, and Han? He says it is because they are barbarians. If he truly does not believe in their Way and rejects them, then if [judged merely] by their being barbarians, should one befriend E Lai and Robber Zhi while scorning Jizha and You Yu? This is not what is called casting aside names to seek reality." (and so forth). Han Tuizhi composed the Yuan Dao (Inquiry into the Way), which says: "To take the methods of the barbarians and place them above the teachings of the former kings—how long before we all turn into barbarians together? If so, what should be done? I say: make humans of their people, burn their books, and turn their dwellings into homes; illuminate the Way of the former kings to guide them, and perhaps it may be accomplished." In the Epitaph for Daughter Na, it says: "Yu said as a junior official of the Ministry of Justice: 'The Buddha was a barbarian ghost; his law brings disorder to good governance, and can be swept away in a single stroke.'" (and so forth).