釋氏稽古略 3.217

3.217

The True Body and Buddha Relic of Protecting the Nation: In the first month of the fourteenth year of Yuanhe, a jihai year [819 CE], the Emperor dispatched the palace envoy Du Yingqi, carrying incense and flowers, to the Stūpa of the True Body of Protecting the Nation at Fayun Monastery in Fengxiang Prefecture to invite a finger-bone relic of Śākyamuni Buddha into the inner palace. The Emperor attended at the Anfu Gate to welcome and prostrate before it, and kept it in the forbidden palace to make offerings to it. After three days, a five-colored light appeared, and all the officials offered congratulations. It was successively escorted to various monasteries. The dignified bearing of the Buddhist order, together with the music of the Court of Imperial Sacrifices and Chang'an and Wannian counties, presented a magnificent and extraordinary spectacle of banners, flags, drums, and wind instruments. Han Yu, Vice Minister of the Ministry of Justice, submitted a memorial presenting his remonstrance, citing antiquity and discussing the present, asserting that it would not prolong the Emperor's lifespan or the nation's dynastic fortunes. The Emperor was furious, showed the memorial to the chief ministers, and intended to condemn him to death. Pei Du and Cui Qun pleaded on his behalf, and he was demoted to Prefect of Chaozhou. When Han Yu first arrived at the prefecture, he submitted a memorial mourning and apologizing, urging the Emperor to perform the imperial sacrifices at Mount Tai in the east. Having received no response for a long time, he was depressed and unhappy. Hearing that there was a Chan Master Dadian in the prefecture whose virtue and reputation were deeply respected, he invited him with a letter. After three invitations, Dadian arrived. Dadian's discourses were transcendent and supreme. He stayed for several tens of days, occasionally entering samādhi for several days before rising. Han Yu respected him greatly. When the master took his leave, Han Yu sacrificed to the deities on the coast and then climbed Mount Ling to visit the master's dwelling. He asked, 'This disciple's military and prefectural affairs are vexatious; please grant a single word on the most essential point, Master.' The master remained silent for a long time and did not look at him. Han Yu was at a loss. At that time, Sanping was serving as the attendant, and he struck the edge of the meditation seat once. The master said, 'What are you doing?' Sanping said, 'First stirring with concentration, then pulling out with wisdom.' Han Yu then bowed to Sanping and thanked him, saying, 'The Venerable's tradition is lofty and steep; I have found an entryway through the attendant.' The master asked Han Yu, 'Your appearance is gloomy, as if you are discontented. Why is this?' Han Yu replied, 'When I was employed at court, my salary and honors were bountiful. Suddenly, because my loyal words were not adopted, I was banished and driven eight thousand leagues, crossing mountain ranges and seas, losing my daughter, while poisonous mists and miasmas break out morning and night. Now degraded to an uninhabited land, how could my life be preserved? When I came here, my path led past the temple at Guangling and I prayed to it; fortunately, by its power, I ended up unharmed. Since the sovereign has achieved the merit of dynastic revival, I have already memorialized it, urging him to tour Mount Tai in the east and report his merit to August Heaven. If he has any intention toward this, he might perhaps recall me to compose records of virtue and offer them at the suburban sacrifices and ancestral temples. Morning and night I wait for it, but it has not come. Hoping for one chance in ten thousand for a swift return, how could I be contented?' Dadian said, 'When you spoke forthrightly at court, were you loyal to the ruler without regard for yourself? Or did you still care for yourself and speak forcefully merely to chase fame? If your words were heeded, you would have gained the name of loyalty and uprightness and enjoyed the benefits of your counsel; if they were not heeded, banishment was certain to come. Why harbor resentment in your chest? If you feared banishment, why did you not simply remain silent? I have heard that a minister does not choose where he is placed to find peace, nor does he weigh the circumstances before acting. Now that you meet banishment and are discontented, chasing the trends of the times to seek your own ends, this is hardly the rectitude of a minister! Furthermore, are not your life and death, calamity and fortune, suspended in Heaven? You should rather cultivate yourself within and entrust your fate to what is without. Could that Guangling deity truly grant you good fortune? The sovereign was busy punishing treacherous officials who betrayed the nation and could scarcely conquer them; the nation's wounds are not yet healed. At such a time, you wish to perform the feng and shan sacrifices to report merit, stirring up turmoil across the realm, while your real intention lies in your own desire to return. How can you bear this? Moreover, to panic in distress and sacrifice to spirits shows ignorance of destiny; to stir up the realm without regard for others merely to benefit oneself shows ignorance of humaneness; to force advice to solicit a reputation for loyalty, and then sink into gloom when encountering hardship, shows ignorance of righteousness; to proclaim disorder as good governance to August Heaven shows ignorance of propriety. Why do you act thus? Furthermore, when you met degradation, what matter did you speak of?' Han Yu said, 'The sovereign welcomed the Buddha's bone into the inner palace. I consider the Buddha merely a doctrine of the barbarians. The Three Dynasties had no Buddha, yet their dynastic spans were enduring; during the Jin, Song, Liang, and Wei, those who served the Buddha were either short-lived or met disorder. Fearing that the sovereign would be led astray by this, I disregarded my own person and rebuked it.' Dadian said, 'If so, then your words are mistaken. The Buddha is a great vessel that covers both devas and humans. His Way speaks through the subtlety of things; his words exhaust the principles of nature and destiny; his teachings abandon evil and strive toward good, casting off the false and returning to the true. He looks upon the world as a father does upon his son. Yet you defame him—this is like a son raising a blade against his father! I have heard that one who observes people well observes where their Way resides, rather than measuring the place where they dwell. The rulers Jie and Zhou, and the robbers Zhi and Qiao, were all men of the Central Plains; yet they cannot be taken as models because they lacked the Way. Shun was born among the Eastern Yi; King Wen was born among the Western Yi; You Yu was born among the Rong; Jizi of Yan emerged from the Man. Could those two sages and two worthies be dismissed as barbarians and not taken as models? Now you do not observe the Way of the Buddha, but merely dismiss him as a barbarian; how crude your words are! Do you refuse to emulate him because the Buddha did not exist in high antiquity? If so, then Confucius and Mencius were born in the declining Zhou, while Chiyou and Gusou were born in high antiquity. How could one abandon the sages and worthies of the declining Zhou to model oneself upon the violent and stubborn of high antiquity? You claim that during the eras of the Five Emperors and Three Kings there was no Buddha and thus people lived long. Yet Wai Bing reigned for two years and Zhong Ren for four years; why were they so short-lived? The "Against Luxurious Ease" chapter in the Book of Documents says: "From that time onward, none were able to enjoy longevity; some reigned for ten years, others for four or five years." If you say that sovereigns between the Han and Jin were short-lived and disorderly, then Emperor Ming of the Han was an outstanding sovereign of his generation, and Emperor Wu of the Liang lived to the age of eighty-six. Must they all have been short-lived and disorderly?' Han Yu said, 'I say that the Buddha did not speak the lawful words of the former kings, but falsely promoted the doctrine of saṃsāra and life and death; in his person he did not practice humaneness, righteousness, loyalty, or trustworthiness, but deceitfully fabricated accounts of retribution, calamity, and blessing. He lacked the righteousness between ruler and minister, and the natural affection between father and son, destroying the Way of the former kings. How could I remain silent and not rebuke it?' Dadian said, 'How great is your lack of understanding! Suppose someone counts to ten all day long without knowing two times five; people would certainly consider him mad. Your speaking all day of humaneness, righteousness, loyalty, and trustworthiness while not knowing the Buddha's words on eternity, bliss, self, and purity is truly no different. Furthermore, as you chant the Buddhist scriptures, can you recite any part that you suspect differs from the former kings?' Han Yu said, 'What leisure have I had to read his scriptures?' Dadian said, 'If you have never read the Buddha's scriptures, how do you know they do not speak the lawful words of the former kings? Is it not that, having read Confucius's writings, you simply suspected his doctrine to be wrong? Or, hearing others say it is wrong, did you simply follow them in considering it wrong? If you suspect it to be wrong merely because you have read Confucius's writings, you are like Shun's dog; if you follow others in declaring it wrong merely because you heard them say so, you are like a concubine. In the past, Shun kept a dog, and the dog saw only Shun. One day Yao passed by and it barked at him—not because it loved Shun and hated Yao, but because Shun was what it always saw and it had never seen Yao. Moreover, I have heard that when a daughter marries, her mother sees her off and says, "When you go to your home, you must be respectful and cautious, and do not disobey your husband." Thus, following another is the affair of women and concubines. How can you follow others in deeming him wrong without investigating why they deem him wrong? Saṃsāra and life and death are not falsely fabricated; this is the ultimate order of Heaven and Earth, the subtle principle of the hidden and manifest. Observing through the principles of things: when the roots and stalks of plants wither, they sprout again; what is strange about their cycle? Confucius said, "By tracing things to their origins and pursuing them to their ends, one understands the teachings on life and death." Zhuangzi said, "The myriad things emerge from the loom of change and return to the loom of change." Jia Yi said, "Transforming into another kind of creature, what is there to worry about?" These are all doctrines of saṃsāra, evident without waiting for the Buddha. How can you call them false? Furthermore, you consider karmic retribution of calamity and blessing to be deceitful fabrication; this especially shows your error. The retribution of good and evil is the natural response of spiritual principle. The Book of Changes says: "A family that accumulates good will have an abundance of blessings; a family that accumulates evil will have an abundance of calamities." It also says: "The spirits harm the haughty and bless the humble." Zengzi said: "Beware, beware! What proceeds from you will return to you." These are all teachings on karmic retribution. Only the Buddha, feeling compassion for the calamity and fortune of human beings, clearly and distinctly expounded this inevitable principle so that they would not fall into ruin. How could it be a deceitful fabrication? Furthermore, you say the Buddha lacked the righteousness of ruler and minister and the affection between father and son; this is indeed beyond your grasp. Matters inherently exist within the bounds of society, and they exist beyond the bounds of society. What is within the bounds is preserved in common by ordinary people; what is beyond the bounds cannot be attained except by the most spiritual under Heaven. Therefore, when the sages spoke, in some cases they spoke to preserve what is common to all people, and in other cases they spoke to exhaust the utmost spirituality under Heaven. Each has its appropriate place. When Confucius spoke of the Way, at its utmost it was "without thought and without action, tranquil and unmoving, yet responding immediately when stimulated"; this is not a teaching preserved in common by ordinary people. If ordinary people were without thought and without action, the principles of the world would almost cease to exist! When the Buddha spoke to ministers, he always relied on loyalty; when he spoke to sons, he always relied on filial piety. This is the teaching preserved in common by ordinary people. When his words reached the utmost, he went as far as no-mind; not only no-mind, but as far as no-self; not only no-self, but as far as non-arising. Then the order of yin and yang cannot disrupt it, and the cycles of Heaven and Earth cannot enslave it. Thus, the roles of ruler, minister, father, and son are inherently preserved therein. How could this be explained to one of narrow views and shallow learning? Now I tell you: the principle of the Buddha has no spatial limitation; it has no concrete form; it is subtle beyond subtlety. It may be compared to Heaven. Suppose someone praises Heaven all day long: Heaven gains no glory; if someone abuses Heaven all day long, Heaven suffers no loss. Thus, those who praise it and those who abuse it are both in error. From the Han dynasty down to the present, a great span of years has passed; the transformations in affairs under Heaven have been so numerous; rulers, ministers, scholars, and commoners have been so multitudes; the spirits of Heaven and Earth are so impossible to deceive. Yet the teaching of the Buddha has flourished in their midst without anyone daring to refute and abolish it. It must surely be able to cover Heaven and Earth without shame, and be measured against a hundred sages without embarrassment, with subtle principles residing within it, before it could reach such a point! Why do you not reflect deeply on this? Now I tell you: a learner must examine the far-reaching aspects of the Way. When the Way is far-reaching, my own intention cannot fathom it; then I must draw near to those who are more worthy than I. If those more worthy than I consider this to be right, yet I contrarily consider it wrong, it is because there is something my mind has not fully known. Therefore, if you reflect deeply on what they consider right and strive to seek it, you may perhaps attain some awakening. Now you are preoccupied with the realm of physical forms, scurrying after sounds, sights, profits, and desires; if something falls slightly short of your ambitions, you become resentful, sorrowful, and agitated, as if your life could not be borne. How is this any different from mosquitoes and gnats fighting over filth among heaps of weeds?' Thereupon Han Yu stared blankly and was speechless, dispirited and downcast, utterly lost as if having lost himself. Hesitating, he said to Dadian, 'Are your words exhausted here?' Dadian said, 'What I have told you was tailored to your capacity; it is not the ultimate of the ultimate.' Han Yu said, 'I am unworthy, but might I be fortunate enough to hear the ultimate?' Dadian said, 'Make your mind sincere, exhaust your nature, fathom the principles of things, and reach the utmost of Heaven's mandate—only then may you hear it. Begone; I shall speak no more.' Han Yu hurried out. (Hanzi waichuan)