廣弘明集 8.9

8.9

He also ordered the Grand Master of the Metropolitan Directorate, Zhen Luan, to thoroughly evaluate the two teachings of Buddhism and Daoism, to determine their depth and discern their truth and falsehood. In the fifth year of Tianhe, Luan submitted the three-fascicle *Xiaodao lun* (Treatise Laughing at the Dao), using it to mock the names of the Three Caverns. On the tenth day of the fifth month, the emperor held a grand assembly of his ministers to examine the treatise Luan had submitted; considering it to be an injury and ruin to the Daoist teaching, which the emperor had personally received and which ran contrary to his original intention, he immediately had it burned and destroyed in the palace court. At that time, Dharma Master Dao'an also submitted the *Erjiao lun* (Treatise on the Two Teachings), speaking of the internal teaching and the external teaching: the method of training the mind is called the Three Vehicles, which is the internal teaching; the method of preserving the physical form is called the Nine Currents, which is the external teaching. Daoism possesses no separate teaching, but is subsumed within the Confucian current; this indeed represents the utmost modesty of the *Book of Changes*. The emperor read the treatise and questioned his court ministers, but none could counter it; thereupon the matter was shelved. Five years passed, and on the seventeenth day of the fifth month in the third year of Jiande, the year being jiawu, [the emperor] first banned both the Buddhist and Daoist teachings, ordering both monks and Daoist masters to return to secular life. The meritorious property of the Three Jewels was distributed to the ministers and subordinates, and the monasteries, abbeys, and temples were bestowed upon princes and dukes. The rest is as described elsewhere. At that time, the Prince of Wei could not bear the matter; he went straight into the palace and set fire to the Qianhua Gate, attacking the emperor without success. He retreated to Hulao, where he was captured and brought to the capital; the twelve fathers and sons, along with their fellow conspirators, were all executed.