釋氏稽古略 2.272

2.272

The Zhou Emperor summoned Chan Master Sengwei to the capital, personally received precepts and instructions from him, and decreed that his empress, consorts, dukes, and ministers all receive the ten good precepts. He decreed that [the master] reside at Tianbao Monastery in the capital, and when he returned east, he decreed him to be the tripiṭaka master of An Prefecture. The Zhou Emperor had previously revered Buddhism with deep devotion, building monasteries, erecting stupas, ordaining monks, and copying more than a thousand sections of Buddhist scriptures. Suddenly deluded by the Daoist Zhang Bin, he began to harbor the intent to destroy the teaching. On the seventeenth day of the fifth month of the jiawu year, he issued an edict abolishing Buddhism. Soon, an edict also abolished Daoism. Dharma Master Jing'ai went to the palace gates to see the Emperor and was granted an audience. He earnestly set forth the impropriety of destroying the teaching, as well as the doctrine of retribution of misfortune and blessing. For his sake the Zhou Emperor changed his countenance, but seeing that the deed was already done and the edict had already been promulgated, it could not be reversed. He therefore politely dismissed him. Ai withdrew into Mount Taiyi and composed the Record of the Three Jewels (Sanbao lu) in twenty fascicles, which circulates in the world (Fangzhi).