廣弘明集 26.14

26.14

The Emperor also decreed that imperial physicians must not compound medicines using living creatures, and the official weavers' brocades were all prohibited from depicting the forms of immortals, birds, and beasts, considering that using them for undergarments and cutting them would violate benevolence and empathy. Eventually, he prayed and announced to Heaven, Earth, and the Ancestral Temples, extending the principle of abolishing killing to all conscious creatures. In the suburban altars and ancestral temples, dough was used for sacrificial beasts, and vegetarian food was served when feasting envoys from the myriad states, eliminating living creatures; yet this was not done for the various sacrifices to mountains and rivers. Thereupon, he decreed to the officials: 'Recently, considering that spirits truly love the people and do not hold the ignorant accountable, what is valued is sincerity, not blood and fat. Whenever there are calamities of flood or drought, the blame should be placed on the ruler above, without using sacrificial cattle; one merely informs them and that is all. Yet the common people make petitions with flattering irreverence, and minor deities of mountains and rivers are hard to expect to be upright. If clear weather or rain goes awry, it may cause popular resentment; the obstinate habits of foolish men are hard to change with reason. From now on, petitions and thank-offerings may follow what is used in mundane custom. The ruler taking the blame upon himself shall continue as before.'