廣弘明集 9.53

9.53

Your servant laughs and says: The Hanshu states that Zhang Ling was a person of the time of Emperor Shun of the Later Han. He was a visiting student in Shu, and upon entering Mount Heming, was swallowed by a serpent. Reckoning Emperor Shun, he was the seventh-generation descendant of Emperor Ming; by principle, he could not have lived over a hundred years before Emperor Ming! Furthermore, it says that Emperor Ming dispatched Zhang Qian to search for the source of the Yellow River; this is also a fabrication. According to the Hanshu, Zhang Qian searched for the source of the Yellow River on behalf of Emperor Wu of the Former Han. How could Emperor Ming of the Later Han have dispatched him to search again? One wonders what kind of long-lived immortal Qian was, that he was sent on missions generation after generation—what suffering! Its reckless citation is also laughable.