釋氏稽古略 4.26

4.26

In spring, on the sixteenth day of the second month, the Emperor's Changchun Festival, an edict permitted monks from across the realm to submit memorials to enter the palace courtyard and compete in tests on the three learnings. An order was given to the Commissioner of Merit and Virtue of Kaifeng Prefecture to dispatch monks to examine on ten items concerning the meaning of the sūtras, vinaya, and treatises. Those who fully mastered them were granted the purple robe and titled 'Watch-monks'. In the fourth year of Taiping Xingguo under Taizong, the Commissioner of Merit and Virtue memorialized that since the world is one family, 'watch-monks' were no longer needed. From then on, on the Emperor's birthday, the grand councilors, imperial princes, surveillance commissioners, and prefects each recommended monks of the three learnings known to them. Only those recommended by the Monastic Rectors of the Two Streets entered the palace on that day to receive certificates from the Chancellery, called 'Pre-Curtain Master Titles', and were still granted purple robes, called 'Pre-Curtain Purple Robes'. After these were distributed, they were immediately granted a banquet. As for those recommended by other princes and nobles, [their titles] were issued on alternate days. Those recommended by military commissioners, surveillance commissioners, and regional governors were successively demoted before being granted (Seng shi lüe).