佛祖歷代通載 8.42

8.42

高宗文成帝即位。乃太武之孫也。群臣勸請興復釋氏。下詔曰。夫為帝王者。必祇奉明靈顯彰仁道。其能惠著生民濟益群品雖在往古猶序其風烈。是以春秋喜崇明之禮。祭典載功施之族。況釋教如來功濟大千惠流塵境。尋生死者歎其達觀。覽文義者貴其妙門。助王政之禁律。益仁智之善性。排撥群邪開演正覺。故前代已來莫不崇尚。亦我國家常所尊事。世祖太武皇帝開廣邊荒德澤遐被。沙門道士善行純誠。如惠始之倫。無遠不至。風義相感往往如林。夫山海之深。寧免奸婬之儔得容假託。講寺之中。致有兇黨。是以先朝因按假亹戮其有罪。所司失旨一切禁斷。景穆皇帝每為慨然。值軍國多事未遑修腹。朕承鴻緒君臨萬邦。思述先志以隆斯道。今制諸州郡。眾居之所各聽建佛圖一區。其有好樂道法欲為沙門。性行素篤鄉里所明者。聽出家。於是天下承風朝不及夕。往時所毀圖寺經像。並還修復。有罽賓王種沙門師賢者。東游涼城。至魏值罷教。權假藥術守道不改。於復教日即為沙門。同輩五人。高宗親為下髮。命師賢為僧統。明年有旨。於五級大寺為太祖已下五帝鑄釋迦文像五尊。各長丈有六尺。用赤金二十五萬斤云（出魏書佛老志）。

Gaozong, Emperor Wencheng, ascended the throne; he was the grandson of Taiwu. The assembled ministers urged and petitioned him to revive the Buddhist teaching. He issued an edict stating: "He who is an emperor or king must reverently honour the luminous spirits and make manifest the humane Way. When one's beneficence is manifest to the living people and aids the myriad creatures, even in ancient times their heroic legacy was commemorated. For this reason, the Spring and Autumn Annals rejoiced in rites that exalted brilliance, and the sacrificial canons recorded clans that conferred merits. How much more so the Śākya teaching of the Tathāgata, whose merit aids the great trichiliocosm and whose beneficence flows into the dusty realm! Those who investigate life and death admire its thorough insight; those who examine its texts and meanings prize its wondrous gate. It assists the prohibitory laws of royal governance and augments the virtuous nature of benevolence and wisdom; it repels the myriad heterodoxies and opens and expounds right awakening. Thus, down from past dynasties, none have failed to revere it; it is also that which our state has constantly honoured. Emperor Shizu Taiwu opened and expanded the remote frontiers, his virtuous moisture reaching afar. Monks and Daoists of pure and sincere good conduct, of the sort of Huishi, arrived from afar without exception, their inspiring righteousness moving each other, often thick as forests. Yet in the depths of mountains and seas, how can treacherous and licentious folk be prevented from finding shelter? Within lecture monasteries, violent gangs came to exist. Thus the late court, investigating the false and deceitful, executed those who were guilty; but the officials lost the imperial intention and prohibited everything completely. Emperor Jingmu was constantly grieved by this; but encountering many affairs of military and state, he had no leisure to repair and restore it. We have inherited the grand lineage and rule over the myriad states; we contemplate recounting our predecessor's will to promote this Way. Now we decree that in the various prefectures and commanderies, in places where communities dwell, each is permitted to establish one Buddhist stūpa. Those who take delight in the Dharma and wish to become monks, whose nature and conduct are habitually sincere and known to their localities, are permitted to undergo pravrajyā." Thereupon the world received the influence, each fearing to be late; the stūpas, monasteries, sūtras, and images that had previously been destroyed were all restored. There was a monk of the royal line of Jibin named Shixian, who travelled east to Liangcheng. Arriving in Wei, he encountered the abolition of the teaching; he temporarily adopted medical arts and guarded the Way without wavering. On the day the teaching was restored, he at once became a monk. With five peers, Gaozong personally tonsured him and appointed Shixian as Controller of Monks. In the following year, an imperial decree ordered that five Śākyamuni images be cast for the five emperors from Taizu downward at the Five-Storey Great Monastery, each sixteen feet tall, using two hundred and fifty thousand catties of red gold. (Drawn from the "Treatise on Buddhism and Daoism" in the Book of Wei.)