廣弘明集 11.50

11.50

It is answered: According to the Historical Records, the Diwang jian mulu, Tao Yinju's Chronicles, and other texts: The Baoxi clan had a serpent's body and a human head; the Dating clan had a human body and an ox's head; the Nüwa clan also had a serpent's body and a human head; and Qin Zhong's [descendant] Da Yan had a bird's body and a human face. Yu of Xia was born among the Western Qiang; King Wen was also born among the Western Qiang. Jiandi swallowed a swallow's egg and gave birth to Xie; Boyu emerged by cutting open his mother's chest and back; Yi Yin was entrusted to birth from a hollow mulberry tree; and the Yuan clan rulers of Wei were also born among foreign barbarians. Yet all answered the luminous mandate of Heaven: some faced south and styled themselves rulers, while others reigned over the myriad states. Though their birthplaces may have been remote and lowly, and their appearances crude and coarse, each wielded Heaven's majesty and harbored sage-virtue within. Laozi was also borne by a shepherd woman and born among the lowly commoners; how could one hold that because his origin was humble, he was no sage? The Master said: 'If a gentleman dwells there, what uncouthness can there be?' How true these words are! All declare: 'Where there is the Way, there is nobility; how could one distinguish high from low?' Thus we know that the sage's responses have no fixed direction, manifesting according to the capacity [of beings]. Looking into Śākyamuni's ancestry, he was the grandson of a thousand generations of wheel-turning kings and the crown prince of a kṣatriya king. When the prophesied omens foretold his coming and things were moved, his form manifested in the center of the trichiliocosm, in the great land of Jambudvīpa in the south. In conferring teachings and establishing methods, his sole foundation was benefiting sentient beings. If one claims that being born among the Qiang and barbarians or emerging from foreign tribes makes one evil, then Taihao and Wenming were not sages, and Laozi and King Wen are not worthy of reverence. According to the 'Treatise on Geography' and the 'Account of the Western Regions', the 'Western Barbarians' are merely thirty-six states east of the Congling mountains, having nothing to do with India, the land of the Buddha's birth. If he knew this and spoke falsely, how profound is his offense! If he did not know and prated recklessly, even in death he bears remaining blame.