佛祖歷代通載 10.81

10.81

石室論曰。唐牧之云。昔有相士。稱文帝當有天下。後果篡奪得之。周末楊氏為八柱國。公侯相繼久矣。一旦以男子偷竊位號。不三十年。老壯嬰兒皆不得其死。彼知相法當曰此為楊氏禍。乃可謂善相者。牧之之論誠為警絕。然文帝削平天下混一海字。君臨萬國者二十四年。剏置禮樂法度。多為唐所遵用。仁壽間天下戶至八百七十萬。以唐疆宇之廣。歷五朝至天寶末。纔九百餘萬戶。隋文開統而身及太平。固一代之英主也。惜其末年任一楊素而弗獲其終。嗚呼豈唯隋文而已哉。凡魏晉以來符石姚劉二蕭陳高宇文楊氏十三朝。興亡因果循環之驗。皆毫末無差。吾教所以誕敷六合有大益於天下國家者。其言因果報應之事。與天道大合。有以助天為勸沮也。故鴻經廣論深切著明。必欲人人自信。因即如是。果亦如之。莫可逭也。儒雖曰其事好還。然未伸勸沮之理。此所以牧之唯詆隋文而不遠推累朝積習循環之弊。獨唐家之興則異於彼。故其運祚靈長。益足以為天下之至鑑右隋三主凡三十八年。

The evaluation of the Stone Chamber says: Du Muzhi of the Tang said, 'Formerly there was a physiognomist who claimed that Emperor Wen would possess the realm, and later he indeed usurped and gained it. At the end of the Zhou dynasty, the Yang clan had been among the Eight Pillar Generals, and dukes and marquises had succeeded one another for a long time. Suddenly a single man stole the imperial title; in less than thirty years, old and young, infants and all, failed to die a natural death. Had that man understood physiognomy, he ought to have said, "This is a calamity for the Yang clan"; then he could be called a good physiognomist.' Muzhi's discussion is truly startling and exceptional. Yet Emperor Wen subjugated the realm, unified the four seas, and reigned over the myriad states for twenty-four years; he created rites, music, laws, and regulations, many of which were followed and applied by the Tang. During the Renshou era, the households of the realm reached 8,700,000. With the vastness of the Tang's territory, through five reigns down to the end of Tianbao, there were barely over 9,000,000 households. Emperor Wen of the Sui founded the lineage and personally achieved great peace; he was truly the heroic ruler of an age. It is regrettable that in his final years he employed a single Yang Su and did not attain his proper end. Alas! How could it be only Emperor Wen of the Sui? All the thirteen dynasties since the Wei and Jin—the Fu, Shi, Yao, Liu, the two Xiao, Chen, Gao, Yuwen, and Yang clans—the verification of the cycle of cause and effect in their rise and fall, did not err by a hair's breadth. The reason our teaching is widely spread throughout the universe and brings great benefit to the state and realm is that its statements on cause and effect and karmic retribution greatly accord with the Way of Heaven, assisting Heaven in encouraging [good] and discouraging [evil]. Therefore, the grand sūtras and extensive treatises are deep, poignant, and manifest, strictly intending everyone to have faith in themselves: if the cause is like this, the effect will also be like that, and cannot be escaped. Although Confucians say that 'actions tend to return upon oneself', they have not fully unfolded the principle of encouraging and discouraging. This is why Muzhi only disparaged Emperor Wen of the Sui without extending his reflection to the defects of the accumulated habits and cycles of successive dynasties. The rise of the Tang house alone was different from them; hence its dynastic fortunes were auspicious and long-enduring, increasingly sufficient to serve as the ultimate mirror for the world. The above covers the three rulers of the Sui, thirty-eight years in all.