弘明集 8.44

8.44

The Treatise on the Three Destructions says: "These methods of the three destructions are not applied in the Middle Kingdom; originally, they were used to rectify the Western Regions. Why say so? The barbarians have no duplicate [nature]; they are stubborn, unyielding, and devoid of propriety, no different from birds and beasts, and do not believe in emptiness and non-being. When Laozi passed through the pass, he therefore devised the teaching of images to convert them. It also says: 'The barbarians are crude and ferocious; wishing to cut off their evil seed, he therefore commanded that men not take wives and women not marry.' When an entire country submitted to this law, they naturally went extinct."