廣弘明集 13.48

13.48

The Bodhisattva says: Confucius went to Zhou, met Lao Dan, and inquired of him about the rites—the Shiji records this fully. Yet as for his being the teacher of King Wen, there is no textual evidence at all. That he appeared at the end of the Zhou can be investigated from the facts, but if he lived at the beginning of the Zhou, the historical texts record nothing of it. Furthermore, examining the official system of the Zhouli, in the reigns of Wen, Wu, Cheng, and Kang there was no title of archivist (zhushi) or keeper of the archives (cangli). He must have been a minor scribe at the end of the Zhou whose office was omitted from the canonical statutes.