佛祖歷代通載 22.12

22.12

辨曰。案後漢西域傳三國志魏隋書西域志（圖六十卷。志四十卷。合一百卷成西域志）並紀西天五印。有佛聖跡。或幢或柱。咸勒其事。不說老君曾留名字。初張騫西來。始傳浮圖之號。至於今代。國使往還無慮百人。並不見老君西化之說古谷皇帝西征盡海所到之地。唯有佛僧。行近西北海。有一國土。城中佛塔森然若林。彼國君王唯是和上。又唐王玄策奉使西行。至摩竭陀國。於耆闍崛山及佛成道處。咸述碑銘。讚佛聖化。未聞說有老君之事（上之銘贊在王玄策傳中）又湛然居士扈從太祖。西征于闐及可弗叉國。越天山過雪嶺。風化具詳。亦未知有老子之事。即今煦烈大王皇帝親弟鎮守西域。不尋思干西南雪山之西使命往還來往不絕。除親諮詢老化。並云無聞。則老子神異道書偽出。既非通論。何足信哉○欽奉。

Critique: According to the 'Memoir on the Western Regions' in the Book of the Later Han, the Records of the Three Kingdoms, and the Records of the Western Regions of the Wei and Sui dynasties (with sixty fascicles of illustrations and forty fascicles of memoirs, making one hundred fascicles in total as the Record of the Western Regions), all record that the Five Indies of the Western Heaven possess the holy traces of the Buddha. Whether on stone banners or pillars, their events were all inscribed; none mention that Lord Lao ever left his name. When Zhang Qian first came west, the name of the Buddha [futu] was first transmitted. Down to the present dynasty, state envoys traveling back and forth number no fewer than a hundred persons; none have ever seen the claim of Lord Lao converting the west. To the places reached by Emperor Güyük during his western expedition to the sea, there were only Buddhist monks. Traveling near the northwestern sea, there is a country where Buddhist pagodas in the city stand dense as a forest, and the ruler of that country is solely an upādhyāya. Furthermore, in the Tang, Wang Xuance was dispatched on an embassy westward to Magadha; at Mount Gṛdhrakūṭa and the place where the Buddha attained awakening, he inscribed stele inscriptions praising the Buddha's holy conversion, but never heard tell of Lord Lao's affairs (the above inscriptions and praises are in Wang Xuance's biography). Furthermore, Layman Zhanran accompanied Taizu on his western expedition to Khotan and the Qipchaq realm, crossing the Tian Shan and snowy ranges, detailing all their customs, and likewise knew nothing of Laozi's affairs. At present, Great King Hulegu, the Emperor's own brother, guards the Western Regions; from Samarkand to the west of the southwestern snowy mountains, envoys travel back and forth without cessation. Aside from inquiring in person about Laozi's conversion, all say they have heard nothing of it. Thus, the miracles of Laozi in Daoist books are forgeries. Since this is not a universally accepted view, how could it be worthy of trust? We respectfully uphold: