廣弘明集 9.28

9.28

Your servant laughs, saying: In the 'Sanyuan pin', the three palaces, nine bureaus, nine offices, and one hundred and twenty bureaus of heaven, earth, and great waters record sins, blessings, merits, and conduct; the examining officials write them down without the slightest error. The good have their longevity increased; the wicked have their lifespans curtailed. How could it be that without depending on karma and conduct, merely by using five chi of silk, one can cause the departed souls of nine generations of ancestors to enter the Heaven of Radiant Light and after thirty-two years return to their former bodies? That this is an impossible assertion can be seen from this. If we calculate the text of the 'Five Refinements', it appeared before heaven and earth were separated; if applied down to the present day, then after thirty-two years they should have bored through their tombs and emerged. In all that ears and eyes have known, why is it that from the time of Fuxi onwards, no one has heard of Daoist corpses or nine generations of ancestors emerging from the ground? That this is impossible is truly laughable. Nowadays, ancient tombs in the open countryside also have holes opened in them—could these not be the places where the ancestors of Daoists were reborn? This also can make one smile.