弘明集 12.37

12.37

Your subjects, He Chong, Prefect of the Masters of Writing, Champion General, Pacifying Army, and District Marquis; Chu Yi, Cavalier Regular Attendant, Left Vice Director, and Earl of Changping; Zhuge Hui, Cavalier Regular Attendant, Right Vice Director, and Earl of Jian'an; Feng Huai, Master of Writing, Intendant, and Marquis within the Passes; and Xie Guang, Master of Writing and Viscount of Anchang, say: The imperial decree is as stated to the right. We subjects are benighted and deficient, insufficient to praise and elevate Your sagely intent or to broadcast and propagate the great principle. Prostrating ourselves and reviewing the enlightened decree, we are shaken with fear and apprehension. We have investigated and deliberated together: whether there is a Buddha or no Buddha is assuredly not something that your subjects can determine. Yet examining the surviving texts and delving into their essential purports, the prohibitions of the five precepts truly assist the royal transformation. They disparage glaring reputations and conduct, and value hidden, dark integrity. The practice of virtue lies in forgetting one's body, embracing the subtle sentiment of a single mind. Furthermore, since its rise in the Han era down to the present day, although the teaching has experienced rises and declines, in terms of abuses there have been no妖 or delusion; in terms of spirits enduring through time, there has been no parallel. Even when there is harm, there must be benefit; how much more so when there must be benefit! The foolish sincerity of your subjects truly desires that the insignificance of dust and dew may add moisture to Mount Song and the ocean; our humble circumstances lower us before the imperial ultimate. If now we make them bow in a stroke, their Dharma will be ruined, causing the custom of cultivating the good to be abolished in a sagely age; when habit becomes nature, it will surely bring sorrow and dread. Concealing this within our subjects' hearts, we privately feel uneasy. Although we are blind and ignorant, how could we dare use a partial view to deceive the sagely hearing? We merely maintain that through three generations of reigns, the people have experienced enlightened sages. If now we do not make regulations for them, there will be no defect in the royal law, and the patterns of the unseen realm may remain free of obstruction. Therefore we state our foolish sincerity again, begging You to deign to examine and inspect it. Respectfully submitted.