廣弘明集 8.73

8.73

Answer: How shallow your words are! When a sovereign ruler arises, it is not brought about by deceit and force; there must be a divine mandate to respond to heaven and humanity. As for auspicious tokens and omens, they are not without gradations: above are the Yellow River Chart and the Luo River Writing; next are turtles, dragons, qilins, and phoenixes. These are the tallies and registers of emperors. Now the Great Zhou governs the cosmos, receives the calendar, and receives the chart; emerging from the Zhen trigram as a spirit, lightning and chariots stream radiance. Above, it proclaims [virtue] in the ancestral chambers; below, it opens the spirit terrace. Arraying the three luminaries, it wields the two handles. Its virtue equals antiquity, and the animate and inanimate manifest numinous efficacy; its benevolence rivals the two realms, and both the unseen and visible offer auspicious blessings. Therefore, the true countenance and outward marks do not need to be sought on Mount Jici; the limpid illumination of profound plans need not rely on Xiangwang. It encompasses speech and silence, dismisses designations, transcends being and non-being, and far surpasses 'this' and 'that'. Treating the myriad affairs as straw dogs, it cannot be called 'being'; showing filial benevolence to the myriad people, it cannot be called 'non-being'. The four seas being one family, it cannot be called 'that'; the nine provinces being vast and far, it cannot be called 'this'. Hence, those who roam it cannot fathom its shallowness or depth; those who tread it cannot exhaust its thickness or thinness. Furthermore, three-legged [birds], nine-tailed [foxes], red sparrows, and green turtles—felicitous omens follow upon each other, arriving unsummoned. This is the great Dao extending benevolence, its brilliance filling the four quarters, blessings and spirits converging together, and abundant good fortune without end. How could the pure tranquility of sage virtue and the many talents of the celestial court still believe in the talk of ghost-registers, or still transmit the tales of shamans? In the past, when a spirit bestowed the fields of Guo, it was like the beginning of seeking fields; when people offered the Zhao sparrow, it was the omen of first receiving rank. These are all base words from the back alleys; which you should not accept.