佛祖歷代通載 8.89

8.89

(43) Crown Prince Wenhui of Qi and Prince of Jingling Xiao Ziliang both deeply loved the Buddhist teachings. Jingling composed the *Jingzhuzi* in four sections and twenty fascicles to propagate Buddhism. There was a Daoist of Wuxing named Meng Jingyi who enjoyed considerable contemporary renown. The Crown Prince summoned him to the Xuanpu garden, where a grand assembly of monks was gathered. Ziliang bade Jingyi pay homage to the Buddha, but Jingyi would not. Ziliang sent him the *Daśabhūmika Sūtra*. Jingyi then composed the *Treatise on Zhengyi*, which stated in summary: "The Buddha expounded the Dharma with a single voice; Laozi embraced the One to be the model for all under Heaven. The wonder of the One: emptiness and mystery transcend the realm of existence, and divine transformation provides inexhaustibly. It acts for the ten thousand things yet remains non-acting; it resides within the single number yet has no number. None can name it, but it is forcedly designated as the One. In Buddhism it is the true mark; in Daoism it is the mysterious female. The Dao's Great Image is none other than the Buddha's Dharmakāya. By preserving the Dharmakāya through non-preservation, one holds the Great Image through non-attachment. Yet living beings have eighty-four thousand practices, and teachings comprise eighty-four thousand dharmas. Dharmas extend to the countless, and practices reach the boundless. Gradations follow conditions, but all paths must return to the One. Returning to the One is none other than dedication; turning toward the correct leaves no deviation. Once deviant views are dispelled, hundreds of millions of good deeds renew daily. The three, five, four, and six are applied according to need; standing alone and unchanging, one ends study and frees oneself from worries. Sages of distant kalpas collectively honor this One. Laozi and Śākya never had a permanent distinction; the confused divide them and have not united them. Cultivating hundreds of millions of good deeds comprehensively, one attains sagehood through complete cultivation. Though praised with ten titles or a thousand names, they can never be exhausted. If they can never be exhausted, how could they be conceived?"