廣弘明集 25.10

25.10

When the August Tang initiated its mandate, all teachings flourished together, yet in the Buddha-Dharma it was especially deep in faith and veneration, giving up the former residence in the capital to establish Xingsheng Temple; other monasteries, such as Huichang, Shengye, Cibei, Zhengguo, and Jixian, were constructed in succession, while Daoist abbeys were unheard of among the common folk. In the fourth year of the Wude era (621 CE), the Grand Astrologer Fu Yi, who had previously been a Daoist yellow turban and harboured deep envy of the black robes, grew all the more aggrieved upon seeing the special veneration shown [to Buddhism] by the state. He thereupon submitted an eleven-point memorial to abolish the Buddha-Dharma, saying: 'The Buddhist scriptures are preposterous and false, their words demonic and their affairs secretive. They bring harm to the state and ruin to families, and have never been heard to benefit the world. We request that the barbarian Buddha’s heterodox teaching be driven back to India, and that all śramaṇas be released to return to their home villages. Then families and the state will prosper, and the teachings of Laozi and Confucius will prevail.'