佛祖歷代通載 20.97

20.97

(29. Jiazi, 65) In the fourth year of Jiatai, Yuan Yishan (Yuzhi), an Academician of the Jin state, composed the 'Record of Ziwei Abbey'. His text stated: 'The grand lady, mother of Marquis Zhao, the Left Vice-Marshal of Dongping, having grown old, abandoned her home to become a Quanzhen master. Her master was Zhang Zhigang, Master Puhui, a native of Yunzhou, who resided at the Dongqing Hermitage in Guanshi. The scale of the hermitage was at first exceedingly modest. They requested a name from Venerable Master Qiu, who altered its designation to the Ziwei Abbey. For her sake, Marquis Zhao erected halls, pavilions, and chambers, down to the vegetarian kitchen, storehouses, and stables. Whatever was needed to attend upon his mother, as though at home, was fully provided. In the ninth month of the year Guisi, it was completed, and he asked me to record the matter. I gave him this account:

In ancient times, recluses, noble persons, and students of the Dao mostly dwelled in mountain forests, feeding on trees and drinking from ravines, with withered necks and sallow faces, giving themselves free rein beyond the worldly realm, like the venerable Fuweng and the Elder of the River. Later generations sometimes appended them to the Huang-Lao tradition, enumerating them among the ranks of immortals. Ever since Tao the Recluse and Kou Qianzhi, this custom has persisted. When Du Guangting was in Shu, he treated Prince Jin, son of King Ling of Zhou, as the founding ancestor of Wang Jian. Following the precedent of the Kaiyuan era, he advanced the reverence for Lord Yuchen to match the title of Utmost Virtue of Chaos Prime. He established ranks, instituted ceremonial models, and designated them as the official offices of divine immortals, which were so vast, unsubstantial, and illusory that they could not be investigated. Over two or three hundred years, by the end of the Xuanhe and Zhenghe eras, the abuse reached its peak. Daoists clad in yellow caps were granted commissions by the court, bearing titles such as Gentlemen-in-Waiting and Grand Masters. They progressed through ranks and grades without distinction from the ministries and monasteries. Whenever they warned of retribution in the unseen world or initiated future blessings, they simply modeled themselves after what the monks had previously possessed and adopted them across the board. Beginning with the wish to be lofty, they were ultimately degraded by their loftiness; beginning with the wish to be extraordinary, they were ultimately drowned in the extraordinary. When among their followers there were those of high discernment who withdrew to a distance, they too loathed and abandoned it. Thus, those who gave themselves free rein beyond the worldly realm could still be seen in one or two cases.

Since the Zhenyuan and Zhenglong eras, there has also been the teaching of the Quanzhen school. Wang Zhongfu of Xianyang initiated it, and individuals such as Tan, Ma, Qiu, and Liu harmonized with it. It is rooted in doctrines of profound tranquility, lacking the absurdities of Daoist prayers and expiations. Interspersed with the teachings of meditative concentration (dhyāna), it lacks the hardships of dhūta practice and bondage to the vinaya. Plowing fields and digging wells, they provide for themselves by personal labor; extending their surplus to reach others, in comparison with the turbulent turmoil of the world, it seems somewhat simpler and more expedient. Hence, indolent and corrupt people flocked to follow it. To the south it reaches the Huai River, to the north it extends to the northern desert, to the west it faces Qin, and to the east it reaches the sea. Mountain forests and city dwellings face one another; they gather in tens and hundreds, transmitting transmission from generation to generation in unbroken lines, firmly unshakable. The court once feared they might cause an uprising like that of Zhang Jiao or the Five Pecks of Rice, and enacted decrees to prohibit and terminate them. But because generals and prime ministers of the time acted as their champions, what was abolished was restored, and what declined flared up anew. Over the past fifty to seventy years, it has become utterly immovable.

After the turmoil and devastation of the Zhenyou era, the social order and cultural regulations were entirely swept away. The simple common folk had nowhere to turn, and the only teaching available was this one. Today, two out of ten people in the regions north of the Yellow River have fallen into it. They have neither the practice of profound tranquility nor the vocation of meditative concentration. As for taking the monks as their model, they possess that in full. The phenomenon of loathing and abandoning it as seen at the end of the Xuanhe and Zhenghe eras can no longer be found; how much less could one hope for those who append themselves to the Huang-Lao tradition and are counted among the ranks of immortals? Alas! The Way of the ancient sage kings and the governance of the Central Land have been swept from the earth! What sort of people are they, that households venerate and serve them? Could it be that in an age of plunder, contention, and warfare, Heaven established teachings by spiritual ways to pacify the minds of the fierce and bloodthirsty? Or is it that the Three Bonds and Five Constants are about to sink into oblivion, turned topsy-turvy, so that humans and beasts become one? Otherwise, the waxing and waning, flourishing and declining among them must be governed by fate, which is indeed difficult to speak of!

Marquis Zhao's name was Tianxi and his courtesy name was Shouzhi. His reverence for Confucianism and esteem for the Way came from his natural disposition. Although in the military ranks, literature and history never left his hands. Once, while reading Master Shi of Cuolai's *Mirror of Words* with Yang Huanran of Fengtian, when he reached the discussion on Buddhism and Daoism, he sighed deeply, considering them discerning words; he was decidedly not one to be casually swayed by prevailing customs. The construction of this abbey was undertaken solely to nurture his mother's intent.'