廣弘明集 7.7

7.7

Ji's memorial stated: 'Among edicts examining antiquity, I have never heard of repeated commands honoring heterodoxy. At the seasonal dī and xiá sacrifices, Your Majesty has never personally partaken of the offerings; bamboo dried meat and dough animals shamelessly deceive the ancestral temple. Discarding the honor of the yellow canopy, you attend to the menial work of a bonded servant. Morning and night, you revere the deceitful barbarian ghosts; bending your body, you make offerings to greedy and lecherous bald thieves. Indulging in belief in heterodox barbarians, flattery-offerings, and improper sacrifices—I fear this is not the intelligent and upright that can bring blessings and protection to Your Majesty.' When Ji uttered these words, it was deliberately to incite anger. The Liang progenitor made offerings at the new and dark moons, and throughout the four seasons attended to heating and cooling; his shedding of tears moved his ministers, and his poetic expressions arose from filial thoughts. Thus, in the Jingyang Terrace and the Hall of Utmost Reverence, offerings to Ancestor Wen and Empress Xian were all laid out; how could one say he never personally partook? Hence [Ji] inverted previous affairs and gave free rein to his emotions to revile him. Bamboo dried meat and dough animals replaced sacrificial animals; were algae and spring sacrifices only practiced during the Liang? For the exalted to humble himself is a rarity in ten thousand generations; discarding the throne like cast-off sandals—could that be an empty fabrication among a hundred kings? Were it not that his practice encompassed the eight constants and his status bordered on supreme patience, how could he practice compassion and sever desire in his prime years, and observe perpetual fasting with exhaustive sincerity unto his very end?