集古今佛道論衡 3.7

3.7

when Emperor Taizong reviewed the treatises, he tested him with the punishment of empirical proof. Falin responded with correct principles, speaking to the utmost, and the Sovereign asked no further questions. He was transferred to a Buddhist temple in Yizhou. When he reached Bailao Pass, he died of illness at the age of sixty-nine. In total, the treatises he authored were compiled into more than thirty fascicles. Because in the intersecting debates between Buddhism and Daoism his particular aim was broad propagation, he firmly ensured that the literary evidence was remarkably clear and comprehensive from beginning to end, so that later worthies who quoted them did not need to search elsewhere. He was indeed an enlightened being who protected the Dharma in the degenerate age! At the time, his contemporaries slighted each other, but after his death they lamented his loss. The rest of minor trivialities are not worth discussing. His repeated face-to-face debates will be expanded below; here we merely describe his character and background.