佛祖歷代通載 12.78

12.78

(Thirty-three) In this year, the expenses for Wu Zetian's casting of the image were nearly complete. Senior Grand Master Li Qiao submitted a memorial of remonstrance, saying: 'I have heard that the Buddha's Dharma is compassionate and protective, aspiring only to benefit all sentient beings, rather than relying on the construction of earth and timber. I have humbly heard that the taxes for casting the image are not levied on households, but that the money comes from monks and nuns; yet without relying on the service of prefectures and counties, it cannot be accomplished. Moreover, among the registered households under heaven, the poor and weak are numerous: some work as hired laborers to earn provisions, while others sell their fields and mortgage their dwellings to provide for royal corvée. Now, the money collected for making the image has already reached one hundred and seventy thousand strings of cash. If this were distributed to broadly deliver the destitute, granting one thousand cash per person, it could relieve one hundred and seventy thousand households. It would deliver them from the distress of hunger and cold, spare them the strain of forced labor, accord with the compassionate mind of all Buddhas, and expand the sovereign's intention to halt afflictions; then humans and spirits would both rejoice, and the merit would be boundless.' Wu Zetian did not accept the petition. That winter, the image was completed, and she led the hundred officials in paying homage and offering sacrifice.