廣弘明集 13.152

13.152

The gentleman said: The Daoist Daxiaoyin shu, Wushang zhenshu, and the like state that the Unsurpassed Lord of the Great Dao governs above the Jade Capital in the fifty-five-fold Limitless Grand Net Heaven, on a mysterious terrace of seven jewels, attended by immortal boys and jade maidens beside a golden couch and jade table, residing beyond the thirty-two heavens and outside the three realms. According to the Shenxian wuyue tu, the Heavenly Worthy of the Great Dao governs the Capital of Great Mystery, the Province of Jade Light, the Commandery of Golden Truth, the County of Heavenly Protection, the Township of Origin Light, and the Village of Fixed Will, which disasters cannot reach. The Lingshu jing says: 'Grand Net is the highest heaven above 505,555 heavens.' The Wuyue tu says: '"Capital" means "to behold." The Lord of Spiritual Illumination of the Supreme Great Dao, the Dao within the Dao, abides most quietly in the Capital of Great Mystery.' The Neiyin of All Heavens says: 'Heaven and the immortals sound the drums of Loudu, feasting at the Jade Capital to delight the Lord of the Dao.' Inferring from this erroneous discourse, the Lord of the Dao is merely a spirit of heaven; since he belongs to provinces and counties, the Heavenly Worthy is further just an ordinary subject of heaven! According to Buddhist sūtras and treatises, beyond the three realms is termed 'transcending birth and death,' where there is no corporeal form of fragmented existence and one is free from the sphere of form and mind. How could there still be jeweled terraces, jade mountains, provinces, commanderies, townships, and villages? The extremity of its falsehood is increasingly difficult to excuse! However, Daoist fabricated accounts have no true traces to inspect, but custom has made them habitual for a very long time, and the heterodox schools contend in their narrations, differing from one another. If one wishes to rectify names, one must investigate the principles thoroughly. Now I will briefly set forth their origins and judge them accordingly. According to the Rites of Zhou, before the time of Yao there were no commanderies or counties. When Shun toured the five peaks, the names of provinces first appeared. The 'Tribute of Yu' in the Classic of History first set forth the designations of provinces. In the Spring and Autumn period, counties were large and commanderies were small, and commanderies were subordinate to counties. Ever since the rise of Han, counties have been subordinate to commanderies. As clarified in the canonical scriptures, 'The nine provinces were the traces of Yu; the hundred commanderies were united by Qin' refers to this. Even if there were a Dao in heaven, it should still be unconditioned in all things; why would it be registered in households and reside in townships, no different from commoners? Since there are provinces and counties, there must be officials and subjects. What are the family names and personal names of the provincial shepherds and commandery governors? Whose sons and whose brothers are the township chiefs and village heads? These were all made up by narrow-minded Daoists and ignorant Yellow Turbans who do not understand past and present and have never peered into the classics and histories: seeing that humans establish commanderies and counties, they also claimed that heaven is identical to the worldly system! To cling to the false as true is truly shameful. Its roots, branches, beginnings, and endings are all laid out in detail in the Xiaodao lun. The scholar versed in antiquity said: Zhuang Zhou said, 'I investigated her beginning: originally she was not born; not only was she not born, but originally she had no form; not only had she no form, but originally she had no qi. In the midst of indistinctness, a change occurred and there was qi; the qi changed and there was form; the form changed and there was life. A human's life is a gathering of qi: when it gathers, there is life; when it disperses, there is death. Therefore it is said: Being and non-being produce each other. The ten thousand things are one. What is meant by "one"? The world is a single qi.' Inferring from this discourse, there is no separate Dao residing high in Grand Net that alone claims supremacy.