弘明集 4.36

4.36

[Zheng Daozi] explains: The lord who is the Protector with Loving-kindness—I assume you have also long heard of him. Yet you demand to know whose son he was, as if to say that Mañjuśrī and Śākya[muni] are known [merely as ordinary mortals]! You claim that the doctrine of retribution is altogether a provisional teaching. Yet the provisional Dao is profound and hidden; none but a sage can fathom it completely. Although your broad understanding considers it, you have not yet seen its utmost reaches. I wear myself out in seeking it through deduction, while you easily grasp it all on your own—I am truly humbled. If what the provisional teachings say is entirely deceitful and false, then within nature there would be no retribution at all. I am timid when it comes to rendering definitive verdicts, while you place yourself among those who make arbitrary decisions; this too makes me fearful. The spirit looks down from on high and listens to the lowly; how could one deceive it? I assume the “words of the sages” you speak of must refer to the sayings of King Wen, the Duke of Zhou, and Confucius. What we are discussing now are all matters of faithfulness and obedience [taught by them]. Yet you say I have never analyzed them; this is once again a lack of careful reflection. In your argument you establish the Duke of Zhou and Confucius while discarding the Śākya[muni Buddha]; hence I cite the Śākya to tally with the Duke of Zhou. My replies do not stray from your inquiries, nor do I perceive that I have drawn overly upon [the bizarre]. Youyu and Jin Midi were not born in the Central Land, yet how could the realms beyond the Nine Zones be barred from producing those who exhaust principle? To draw a boundary between internal and external is indeed difficult! If you rely solely on your own measure and take yourself alone as teacher, deeming everything beyond your familiar sensory experience to be bizarre and extraordinary, then I have nothing more to say.