[Pramāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/) › [Indian literature](https://indike.org/pramana/in) › [Buddhist Literature](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha) › [Taishō Tripiṭaka (Chinese Buddhist canon)](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho) › [佛祖歷代通載](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.2036) › 15.35 # 佛祖歷代通載 15.35 佛祖歷代通載 15.35 - **Language:** Classical Chinese ### [15.35](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.2036.15.35) （二十七）　是年正月丁亥。詔迎鳳翔法門寺佛骨入于京師。帝御安福門迎拜。留禁中供養三日。乃送諸寺。王公士庶奔走膜拜。具釋部威儀及太常長安萬年音樂。旌幢皷吹騰沓係路。刑部侍郎韓愈上表曰。佛者夷狄之一法耳。自後漢時流入中國。上古未甞有也。昔黃帝在位百年。年百二十歲。少昊在位八十年。年一百歲。顓頊在位七十九年。年九十八歲。帝嚳在位七十年。年一百五歲。帝堯在位九十八年。年一百一十八歲。帝舜及禹年皆百歲。此時天下太平百姓安樂壽考。然而中國未有佛也。其後湯亦百歲。湯孫太戊在位七十五年。武丁在位五十九年。書史不言其壽。推其年數。蓋不減百歲。周文王年九十七歲。武王年九十三歲。穆王在位百年。此時佛法亦未至中國。非因事佛而致然也。漢明帝時始有佛法。明帝在位纔十八年。其後亂亡相繼運祚不長。宋齊梁陳元魏已下。事佛漸謹。年代尤促。惟梁武在位四十八年。前後三捨身事佛。宗廟之祭不用牲牢。盡日一食止於菜果。後為侯景所逼餓死臺城。國亦尋滅。事佛求福反更得旤。由此觀之。佛不足信亦可知矣。高祖始受隋禪則議除之。當時群臣識見不遠。不能深知先王之道。古今之宜推闡聖明以救其弊。其事遂止。臣常恨焉。伏惟睿聖文武皇帝陛下神聖英武。數千百年已來。未有倫比。即位之初不許度人為僧尼。道士不許別立寺觀。臣當時以為高祖之志必行於陛下。今縱未能即行。豈可縱之令盛也。今陛下令群僧迎佛骨于鳳翔。御樓以觀\[臼/丌\]入大內。又令諸寺迭加供養。臣雖至愚。必知陛下不惑於佛作此崇奉而祈福祚也。直以豐年人樂。徇人心為京都士庶設詭異之觀戲玩之具耳。安有聖明若此而肯信此等事哉。然百姓愚冥易惑難曉。苟見陛下如此。將謂真心信佛。皆云。天子大聖尚一心信向。百姓微賤於佛豈合更惜身命。以至灼頂燔指十百為群。解衣散錢自朝至莫。更相放効唯恐後時。老幼奔波棄其生業。若不即加禁遏。更歷諸寺必有斷臂臠身以為供養者。傷風敗俗傳笑四方。非細事也。佛本夷狄之人。與中國語言不通。衣服殊制。口不道先王之法言。身不服先王之法服。不知君臣之義。父子之情。假如其身尚在。奉其國命來朝京師。陛下容而接之。不過宣政一見禮賓一設賜衣一襲衛而出之於境不令惑於眾也。況其身死已久。枯朽之骨。凶穢之餘。豈宜以入宮禁。孔子曰。敬鬼神而遠之。古之諸侯弔於其國。必令巫祝先以桃茢袚除不祥然後進弔。今無故取朽穢之物。親臨觀之。巫祝不先桃茢不用。群臣不言其非。御史不舉其失。臣實恥之。乞以此骨付之水火。永絕根本。斷天下之疑。絕後代之惑。使天下之人知大聖之所作為出於尋常萬萬也。佛如有靈能作禍祟。凡有殃咎宜加臣身。上天鑒臨臣不怨悔。表入。 > (XXVII) In the first month of this year, on the dinghai day, an edict was issued to welcome the Buddha's bone from Famen Monastery in Fengxiang into the capital. The Emperor proceeded to the Anfu Gate to welcome and pay homage to it; he kept it within the forbidden palace to make offerings for three days, and then sent it to the various monasteries. Princes, dukes, gentry, and commoners hurried to pay obeisance and prostrate. Equipping the ritual paraphernalia of the Śākya order together with the music of the Court of Imperial Sacrifices, Chang'an, and Wannian, banners, standards, drums, and wind instruments thronged and crowded along the roads. Han Yu, Vice Minister of the Ministry of Justice, submitted a memorial, stating: 'The Buddha is merely one foreign doctrine. From the time of the Later Han it flowed into China, but in high antiquity it never existed. Formerly, the Yellow Emperor occupied the throne for one hundred years and lived to one hundred and twenty; Shaohao occupied the throne for eighty years and lived to one hundred; Zhuanxu occupied the throne for seventy-nine years and lived to ninety-eight; Emperor Ku occupied the throne for seventy years and lived to one hundred and five; Emperor Yao occupied the throne for ninety-eight years and lived to one hundred and eighteen; and Emperors Shun and Yu both lived to one hundred. At this time the realm was at peace, the common people were content and attained great longevity, and yet in China there was no Buddha. Later, Tang also lived to one hundred; Tang's grandson Taiwu occupied the throne for seventy-five years, and Wuding occupied the throne for fifty-nine years. The historical records do not state their ages, but deducing from the number of their years, it was probably not less than a hundred. King Wen of Zhou was ninety-seven years old, King Wu was ninety-three years old, and King Mu occupied the throne for a hundred years. At this time the Buddhadharma had also not reached China, and it was not because of serving the Buddha that this was brought about. In the time of Emperor Ming of the Han, the Buddhadharma first appeared. Emperor Ming was on the throne for only eighteen years; thereafter disorder and ruin followed one after another, and the dynastic fortune was not long. From the Song, Qi, Liang, Chen, and Yuan Wei downward, the service to the Buddha became gradually more devout, but the reigns were especially short. Only Emperor Wu of the Liang was on the throne for forty-eight years; thrice he renounced his body to serve the Buddha; in the ancestral temple sacrifices he did not use slaughtered beasts; and eating only one meal a day, he restricted himself to vegetables and fruit. Later he was besieged by Hou Jing and starved to death in Taicheng, and his state was soon extinguished. Serving the Buddha to seek blessings, he instead brought about disaster. Viewed from this, that the Buddha is not worth believing may well be known. When Gaozu first received the abdication from the Sui, he deliberated abolishing it; but the ministers of the time lacked far-reaching insight and could not deeply understand the Way of the ancient kings, or what was suitable for past and present, so as to advance and clarify imperial wisdom to remedy its abuses; thus the matter was halted. I have always regretted this. I humbly consider that His Sagely, Civil, and Martial Majesty's divine sagacity and martial prowess have not had a peer for several thousands of hundreds of years. At the beginning of your accession, you did not permit people to be ordained as monks or nuns, nor did you allow Daoist priests to establish separate monasteries and abbeys. At that time I thought Gaozu's intent would surely be carried out by Your Majesty. Even if it cannot be put into practice immediately, how could you indulge it and let it flourish? Now Your Majesty has ordered the monks to welcome the Buddha's bone at Fengxiang, ascended a tower to view it, and conveyed it into the Great Interior, further ordering the monasteries to make offerings in turn. Although I am utterly foolish, I certainly know that Your Majesty is not deluded by the Buddha, performing this worship to pray for blessings; you are merely taking advantage of an abundant harvest and the people's joy, complying with human sentiments to present an extraordinary spectacle and an amusement for the gentry and commoners of the capital. How could there be one so sagacious as this who would be willing to believe in such things? Yet the common people are ignorant and benighted, easily led astray and difficult to enlighten. If they see Your Majesty do this, they will think you sincerely believe in the Buddha, and will all say: 'The Son of Heaven, a great sage, still turns his mind in faith toward him; how should lowly commoners be sparing of their bodies and lives before the Buddha?' It will reach the point where they burn their heads and scorch their fingers in crowds of tens and hundreds, shedding their clothes and scattering their coins from morning to evening, imitating one another only fearing to be late, old and young running about and abandoning their livelihoods. If this is not immediately prohibited, as it makes the rounds of the various monasteries, there will surely be those who sever their arms and slice their flesh to make offerings. Harming customs and ruining mores, becoming a laughingstock in the four quarters—this is no minor matter. The Buddha was originally a foreigner; his speech did not communicate with China, and his dress was of a different style. His mouth did not speak the standard words of the ancient kings, his body did not wear the standard garments of the ancient kings, and he did not know the righteousness between ruler and minister or the affection between father and son. Supposing his person were still alive and, bearing the command of his state, came to pay court to the capital: when Your Majesty received and entertained him, it would amount to no more than a single audience in the Xuanzheng Hall, a banquet at the Court of State Ceremonial, a bestowal of a single suit of robes, and escorting him outside the borders so as not to allow him to delude the multitude. How much less should this be done when his person has long been dead, and these are withered, rotten bones—the remnants of an ill-omened filth! How could it be fitting to admit them into the imperial palace? Confucius said: 'Respect ghosts and spirits, but keep them at a distance.' When the feudal lords of antiquity went to pay condolence in another state, they always ordered a shaman and invocator to first use peach boughs and reed brooms to exorcise unpropitious influences before proceeding to condole. Now, without reason, a rotten and filthy object has been taken, and you have personally approached to view it; the shaman and invocator did not precede, and the peach boughs and reed brooms were not used. The court ministers do not speak of its error, and the censors do not raise its fault. I am truly ashamed of it. I beg that this bone be handed over to water and fire, forever cutting off the root, severing the doubts of the realm, and ending the delusion of future generations, so that the people of the realm may know that the actions of the Great Sage exceed the ordinary by tens of thousands of times. If the Buddha possesses spiritual efficacy and can bring about calamitous portents, let all disasters and guilt fall upon my body! High Heaven looking down, I will have no resentment or regret.' The memorial was submitted. > — English (machine translation) (machine translation) - [Previous: 15.34](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.2036.15.34) - [Next: 15.36](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.2036.15.36) - [Up: 15](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.2036.15) ## Translations (1) - [English (machine translation)](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.2036~en-mt.15.35) — English, machine translation --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.2036.15.35](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.2036.15.35) · Pramāṇa