弘明集 4.32

4.32

釋曰。神農定生周人備教。既唱粒食。又言。上藥既用犧牢。又稱蘋蘩祭膳之道。故無定方。前舉市庖之外復有御養者。指舊刳瀹之滯。以明延性不一。非謂經世之事。皆當取備草石。然芻豢之功希至百齡。芝朮之懿亟聞千歲。由是言之。七十之老何必謝恩於肉食。但自封一域者捨此無術耳。想不頓去於世。猶是前釋所云不能頓奪所滯也。始獲符同敢不歸美。既知不可頓去。或不謂道盡於此。

Explanation: Shennong determined livelihoods, and the people of Zhou completed teachings. Having initiated grain eating, they also spoke of superior medicines; having used sacrificial beasts, they also praised duckweed and water-pepper. The way of sacrificial banqueting thus has no fixed prescription. Previously, citing that outside the market kitchens there are further nutritional foods was intended to point out the stagnation of old butchering and boiling, so as to clarify that prolonging life is not singular; it did not mean that the affairs of ordering the world should entirely procure grass and stones. However, the efficacy of domestic animals rarely reaches a hundred years of age, whereas the excellence of lingzhi and atractylodes is frequently heard to bring a thousand years. Judged from this, why must an elder of seventy owe gratitude to a meat diet? It is only that those who confine themselves to a single domain have no technique other than this. I expect that 'not abruptly eliminating it from the world' is still what was said in the previous explanation: being unable to abruptly deprive people of their fixations. Having just achieved agreement, dare I not praise its goodness? Since you know it cannot be abruptly eliminated, perhaps you do not claim that the Dao ends here.