佛祖歷代通載 9.92

9.92

（四十二）　敘曰。元魏將季其祚分崩。肅宗孝明帝崇尚佛法。胡太后親臨國政。一紀之內天下晏然。及帝崩太后死。高歡誅賊爾朱榮於鄴燒洛陽宮室。奉清河郡王立于鄴。凡一十七載扶翼魏朝。至太清三年武帝崩。歡亦先殞。世子澄襲相王位。未幾而殂。魏靜帝乃遜位於高洋。即歡之第三子也。世族武川。仍都鄴下。神用卓詭智愚混兼。十餘年間教法中興。僧至二百餘萬。寺院凡四萬餘所。六主相承二十有八年。為周所滅。齊書。著作王劭述佛曰。釋氏非管窺所及。率爾妄言之。又引列禦寇書。述商太宰問孔子聖人事。又黃帝游華胥氏之國。華胥氏之國在佛游神而已。此之所言髣髴於佛。石符姚世經譯遂廣。蓋欲柔伏人心。故多寓言以方便。不知是何神異。浩蕩之甚乎。其說人身心善惡世事因緣。以慈悲喜捨常樂我淨。書辨至精明如日月。非正覺孰能證之。凡在順首莫不歸念。達人則謹其身口修其定慧。平等解脫究竟菩提。及僻者為之。不能通理。徒務費竭財力功利煩濁。猶六經皆有所失。未之深也已矣。

(42) The narrative says: When the fortunes of the Yuan Wei were drawing to an end, its mandate broke into pieces. Emperor Xiaoming, Suzong, revered the Buddhadharma, and Empress Dowager Hu personally oversaw the governance of the realm; within a twelve-year cycle, the world was peaceful. When the emperor passed away and the Empress Dowager died, Gao Huan executed the rebel Erzhu Rong in Ye and burned the palaces of Luoyang, setting up the Prince of Qinghe Commandery in Ye; for a total of seventeen years he assisted the Wei court. In the third year of the Taiqing era, Emperor Wu passed away, and Huan had also died earlier. His heir Cheng succeeded to the title of Chancellor and King, but passed away before long. Emperor Jing of the Wei then abdicated the throne to Gao Yang, who was the third son of Huan. The family hailed from Wuchuan, and they still made Ye their capital. His spiritual functioning was extraordinary and erratic, combining both wisdom and folly. During the span of more than ten years, the teaching was revived: monks reached more than two million, and monasteries totaled more than forty thousand. Six rulers succeeded one another for twenty-eight years, and it was destroyed by the Zhou. In the History of the Northern Qi, Editorial Director Wang Shao related concerning the Buddha: "The Śākya teaching cannot be reached by peeping through a tube, yet people recklessly make wild statements about it." He also cited the book of Lie Yukou, relating the matter of the Prime Minister of Shang asking Confucius about sages, and also the Yellow Emperor wandering to the land of the Huaxu clan; the land of the Huaxu clan was merely where the Buddha wandered in spirit. What this said resembles the Buddha. Under Shi, Fu, and Yao, scriptural translations broadened widely. As they wished to soften and tame people's minds, they mostly used parables as skillful means; who knows what sort of divine anomaly or immense vastness it is? Its explanation of the good and evil of human body and mind, and of worldly causes and conditions, takes kindness, compassion, sympathetic joy, and equanimity, as well as eternity, bliss, selfhood, and purity. Its texts and analyses are exquisitely clear like the sun and the moon; who other than the Correctly Awakened could testify to it? Whoever turns toward it with a yielding mind places faith and refuge in it. The accomplished person guards his body and speech and cultivates his concentration and wisdom, attaining equal liberation and ultimate bodhi. When eccentric people practice it, they cannot penetrate the principle; they vainly exhaust their wealth and labor, becoming mired in worldly gain and vexatious pollution, just as the Six Classics all have their shortcomings; this is merely not having plumbed it deeply.