廣弘明集 8.49

8.49

I reply: The purport of Laozi takes emptiness and non-being as its foundation, and softness and weakness as its application. Blending thoughts into the celestial origin, he rose tranquilly above the human world; with vast qi nourishing harmony, he remained unchanged in gain or loss. In poverty he did not plot for success, and in success he did not plot for himself. This is why scholars inquire into and admire his remaining tradition, whose Way seems to survive. As for refining and ingesting golden elixirs, feeding on vapors and ingesting jade, ascending spiritually with molted feathers, and undergoing corpse deliverance and bodily transformation—all these diverge especially from the fundamental principles established in the words of Laozi and Zhuangzi. Their declining into corrupt streams is not of the class of the Dao; though records of anomalies mention them, those who speak of the Dao do not adopt them. Long ago, Emperor Wu of the Han was fond of occult arts, and so arose the sorcery of Luan Da; Emperor Guangwu believed in apocryphal prophetic books, which led to the protest of Huan Tan. The books are categorized under occult arts and do not enter the stream of the ancient canons; the men are occult masters and have nothing to do with what is elegant and correct. Why, Sir, do you abandon the great to follow the small, turning your back on reason to rush toward absurdity?