弘明集 4.38

4.38

[Zheng Daozi] explains: The analogy of the shadow and gnomon was used to prove resonance and retribution. In your inquiry, you suspect they need not correspond and doubt they have any measured ratio; this amounts to abolishing karmic response altogether. Karmic response is born from nothing other than the movements of qi and fate. If karmic response is eliminated, then qi and fate would cease to exist. You dedicate your effort to pacing out verification, yet turn around and attack what you already know. I believe that anyone whose mind is set upon trusting the Dao would certainly not go this far. If you say that failing to show loving-kindness towards decorations of wood and earth is worse than killing according to the seasons, are you not greatly misjudging the minds of those persons? The yellow carriage-canopy and jade seal were not necessarily the private desire of Yao and Shun; how could grand dwellings and sumptuous provisions have been the intention of Śākyamuni? To interrogate the rewards of the heavenly palaces and investigate the punishments of the hells is quite like the former queries of Zhou Yafu and Ying Bu. There is deep flavor in your words! These are matters understood in detail by those who have pacified their minds, so I may pass over them briefly.