弘明集 9.8

9.8

My maternal cousin Fan Zizhen composed the Treatise on the Extinction of the Spirit to demonstrate that there is no Buddha. He considered himself able to crush the mouths of the multitude with his debate and subdue a thousand people daily. In my mind there were still doubts. I merely wished to diminish his hesitation and inquire into what he had not awakened to. In the treatise up to the present, what is maintained is corporeal form and spirit, and what is contested is subtle principle. As for the ancestral temples established for the spring and autumn filial sacrifices, he considers them to be the Sages' establishing teachings and setting up rituals through the way of the spirits to guard against the foolish. Du Bo drawing his bow and Boyou donning armor, he again claims that strange beings naturally exist between heaven and earth, and that it is not that dead humans become ghosts. If so, one cannot interrogate him with the Odes and Documents or verify it with past events. One can only debate their separation and union within corporeal form and spirit. If corporeal form and spirit are of one essence, with no difference in their existence and extinction, then Master Fan's vigorous stride and metal ramparts would be far beyond reach. If the wondrous spirit and material substance diverge, and their emergence and destruction are distinct, then I will overcome the foe and obtain distinction, and my capable task will be complete. Furthermore, although I clarify that there is a Buddha, my realization of the Buddha is not identical to that of the common world. I concurrently state my original intent, appending it to the left of the treatise.