唐護法沙門法琳別傳 3.9

3.9

'If Your Majesty unleashes your fiery wrath, then a million executions would not suffice to gratify your feelings; if Your Majesty restrains your autumn-frost majesty, then one word may perhaps be recorded. Lightly offending the imperial gaze, my soul takes flight; staining your majestic presence, my mind and spirit lose their composure.'

The Emperor was at that time greatly enraged, with eyes staring wide. He again questioned the Dharma Master: 'We have heard that in the ancestral alliances of the Zhou, those of different surnames took the rear; honouring ancestors and esteeming kin truly originates from ancient times. Why do you chase after their defects, hesitating like a bird or rat between two ends, broadly citing specious sayings and setting forth disrespectful analogies in full? Plucking out all the hairs to count your crimes would still be lighter than this; using up all the bamboo slips to write your transgressions would still not compare! You claw and destroy Our ancestors, and slander Our forebears! Such intimidation of the sovereign cannot be pardoned in principle.'

The Dharma Master replied: 'Lin has heard that King Wen was a great sage and the Duke of Zhou was a great worthy. In pursuing the distant and carefully attending to the end, even the vast heavens could not answer them. The utmost of filial piety and fraternal duty penetrates to the divine beings. Although there was the ancestral Zhou, in principle they did not fight for seniority. Why is this? August Heaven has no affections; it aids only virtue. The ancients were partial to principle, but not partial to kin. They did not put themselves first, nor did they put themselves last; they did not fail to reward the distant, rewarding those with merit; and they did not fail to execute kin, executing those with guilt. We prostrate ourselves.'