廣弘明集 9.65

9.65

臣笑曰。化胡經云。老化罽賓一切奉佛。老曰。却後百年。兜率天上更有真佛。託生舍衛白淨王宮。吾於爾時。亦遣尹喜下生從佛。號曰阿難。造十二部經。老子去後百年。舍衛國王果生太子。六年苦行。成道號佛。字釋迦文。四十九年欲入涅槃。老子復見於世號迦葉。在雙樹間。為諸大眾請啟如來三十六問訖。佛便涅槃。迦葉菩薩焚燒佛屍。取舍利分國造塔。阿育王又起八萬四千塔。即以事推。老子本不作佛。若作佛者。豈可老還自燒老屍而起塔耶。且可一笑。且老子諸經多云作佛。或作國師。豈可天下國師。與佛必待伯陽乎。度人化俗。要須李耳耶。若云佛不能作要須道者。從始氣以來。獨一老子。不許餘人悟大道而為國師耶。是則老為自伐惟我能也。然佛經。人人行行皆得佛果。道經不述。惟一老君。如何佛教如此之弘。道經如斯之隘乎。且妄言虛述首尾無據。蜀記。張陵蛇噉。而注白日昇天。漢書。劉安伏鉞。乃言長生不死道家誣老子作佛。詎可怪哉。

Your servant laughs and says: The Huahu jing says that Laozi converted Kashmir so that all revered the Buddha. Laozi said, "One hundred years hence, in the Tuṣita Heaven there will be another true Buddha, who will entrust his birth to the palace of King Śuddhodana in Śrāvastī. At that time, I will also dispatch Yin Xi to be born below and follow the Buddha, named Ānanda, who will compile the twelve divisions of scripture." One hundred years after Laozi departed, the king of Śrāvastī indeed bore a crown prince, who practiced asceticism for six years, attained the Way, was titled Buddha, and styled Śākyamuni. After forty-nine years, when he was about to enter nirvāṇa, Laozi appeared again in the world under the name Kāśyapa. Among the twin trees, he posed thirty-six inquiries to the Tathāgata on behalf of the great assembly, and when finished, the Buddha entered nirvāṇa. The Bodhisattva Kāśyapa cremated the Buddha's corpse, took the relics, divided them among the kingdoms, and built stūpas; King Aśoka then raised 84,000 stūpas. Deducing from these matters, Laozi originally did not become the Buddha. If he had become the Buddha, how could Laozi have returned to burn his own corpse and erect stūpas? This is truly laughable! Furthermore, various scriptures of Laozi mostly say that he became the Buddha, or became an imperial preceptor. Can it be that every imperial preceptor and Buddha under heaven necessarily had to wait for Boyang? In delivering humans and converting the world, must it strictly require Li Er? If one says that a Buddha cannot do it and it strictly requires the Dao, then from the Primal Qi onward, was there solely one Laozi, with no others allowed to awaken to the Great Dao and serve as imperial preceptors? If so, then Laozi was merely boasting of himself: 'Only I am capable.' Yet Buddhist scriptures state that everyone through their respective practices attains the fruit of Buddhahood. Daoist scriptures do not state this, having only the single Lord Lao. Why is the Buddhist teaching so vast, while Daoist scriptures are so narrow? Moreover, their absurd words and empty narrations have no basis from beginning to end. The Shu ji says that Zhang Ling was eaten by a serpent, yet they annotate that he ascended to heaven in broad daylight. The Hanshu says that Liu An was executed by the broadax, yet they claim he had long life and never died. That Daoists falsely claim Laozi became the Buddha—how could that be surprising?