廣弘明集 9.34

9.34

Your servant laughs, saying: The Wenshi zhuan says: 'The Dao is born of eastern wood, male; the Buddha is born of western metal, female.' Now, inferring through the Five Elements, metal can carve wood; wood regards metal as official/ghost, and metal regards wood as wife/wealth. Inferring from this, the Buddha is the official/ghost of the Dao, and the Dao is the wife/wealth of the Buddha! It also says that 'the Dao produces the Buddha,' but the principle is not so. In yin-yang and the Five Elements, how could there be wood that produces metal? Hence we know the Dao does not produce the Buddha. That Buddhist monks sit in large assemblies is because they are the official bureau of the Dao; that Daoists sit in small assemblies is because they are pressed from above by the officials. That Buddhist monks are exempt from military service and taxes is because of their original royal clan, and thus they are exempted; for Daoists, being of common and lowly status, military service and taxes are standard. If the Daoist scriptures are like this, then exempting them from military service and taxes would violate Daoist teachings! Moreover, the Lingbao dajie says: 'Daoists shall not drink wine, nor shall they curry favor with the noble.' How can they deliberately violate this great precept? What follows is a confused babble entirely without point. It also says: 'Daoists consider fasting to be a method of death, and therefore do not fast'—why then do they not gorge themselves all day long to nourish this physical frame, rather than taking up the cessation of grain and ingestion of qi to seek the arts of longevity? In the end, nothing comes of it; it is merely an argument of chasing shadows! It also says: 'Buddhist monks sleep alone, while Daoists lodge together.' Based on this, can the Yellow Book of sexual joining be false?