廣弘明集 18.61

18.61

初答。事理不同恒成四端。自有小大各得其宜。亦有賢愚違方而處。所謂世同時異物是人非。譬割鷄之政亦有牛刀佩璽而聽。豈皆唐虞。今謂言折體盡於武城。長世皆覃於天下。未之聞也。且俱稱妙覺而國土精粗。不可以精粗國土而言聖有優劣。景迹之應本非所徵矣。

First reply: Phenomenon and principle are different, consistently forming four aspects. There naturally are small and large, each finding its propriety; there are also the wise and the foolish who dwell contrary to their regions. This is what is meant by 'the era being the same while the circumstances differ, phenomena being right while persons are wrong.' For example, in the governance of slaying a chicken, there are also those who wield an ox-cleaver; and among those who wear the imperial seal and grant audience, are they all Tang and Yu? If it were said that words penetrating principle were exhausted in Wucheng, and that long reigns extend universally across all under heaven—this has never been heard of. Moreover, both are proclaimed to possess wondrous enlightenment, yet their lands are refined or crude; one cannot infer superiority or inferiority among sages from the refinement or crudeness of their lands. The manifestation of traces and shadows was originally not the ground for proof.