弘明集 6.28

6.28

正曰。侯王得一而天下貞。莫議仙化。死而不亡者壽。不論無死。億說誣濫辭非而澤。大道既隱小成互起。誠哉是言。其諸誣詭倍慢。欲以苟濟其違。求之聖言固不容譏矣。今之道家所教。唯以長生為宗。不死為主。其練映金丹飡霞餌玉。靈升羽蛻尸解形化。是其託術驗之而竟無覩其然也。又稱其不登仙死則為鬼。或召補天曹。隨其本福。雖大乖老莊立言。本理然猶可無違世教。損欲趣善乘化任往。忘生生存存之旨。實理歸於妄而未為亂常也。至若張葛之徒。又皆雜以神變化俗怪誕惑世。符呪章効咸託老君所傳。而隨稍增廣。遂復遠引佛教證成其偽。立言舛雜師學無依。考之典義不然可知。將令真妄渾流希悟者。永惑莫之能辯。誣亂已甚矣。

The correction says: 'Princes and kings attained the One, and all under Heaven became upright'—here there is no discussion of immortal transformation. 'To die but not perish is longevity'—here there is no talk of deathlessness. Countless explanations are deceptive and excessive, their words false yet embellished. 'When the Great Dao fell into obscurity, minor attainments arose everywhere.' How true are these words! Those various fraudulent and insolent claims seek merely to give cover to their transgressions; examining them against the words of the sages, they certainly do not brook criticism. The teachings of the Daoists today take longevity alone as their principal doctrine and deathlessness as their main goal. Their refining of cinnabar, ingesting of vapor, swallowing of jade, ascending as spirits, shedding like feathers, corpse-liberation, and bodily transformation are methods on which they rely; yet in the end, no one has ever witnessed this to be so. They also claim that those who do not ascend as immortals become ghosts at death, or are summoned to fill posts in the heavenly bureaus according to their original merit. Although this greatly diverges from the original principles of the teachings of Laozi and Zhuangzi, it still might not violate secular teachings: diminishing desires, tending toward goodness, riding transformation, according with passing away, and forgetting about life so that life may be preserved—such an intent, while in actual principle reduced to delusion, does not yet throw regular human relations into chaos. As for the followers of Zhang [Daoling] and Ge [Xuan], they have thoroughly mixed this with transformations of spirits, vulgarizations, and bizarre absurdities to delude the world. Their tallies, incantations, and petitional efficacies are all alleged to have been transmitted by Lord Lao, and have been gradually amplified over time. They then went on to cite Buddhist teachings from afar to corroborate their fabrications, creating utterances that are chaotic and contradictory, relying on teachings without canonical authority. Examining them against the canonical doctrines, their falsehood can be known. This causes truth and falsehood to mingle in the same stream, so that those who hope for awakening are perpetually deluded and none can distinguish them. The deception and disorder are already extreme.