集沙門不應拜俗等事 2.49

2.49

The guest said: "How profound is this treatise! Having received instruction in the good Way, I beg leave to withdraw." The commentary says: The authority and power of the two lords Huan and Yu could be described as turning heaven and moving the sun, yet He and Wang upheld the principle and ultimately never yielded. If the Buddhist teachings had been fraudulent and bizarre, and the two lords had not comprehended and awakened to them, who could have defied their ire in this way? Confucius said: 'Only when the year grows cold do we know that the pine and cypress are the last to fade.' How true this was of Master Huiyuan! With an unyielding backbone rarely matched, his prestige was weighty in his day. If he had not presented refined discourses and raised the principle, how could he have swayed the heart of Huan Xuan? Observing his surviving writings, one knows enough: for a man of his stature, even if he must die, I would join his fold and follow him. In the late years of Emperor Xiaowu of the Song, when the phoenix-like virtue had already waned and the common people lost hope, he fell under the agitation of his courtiers, suppressing the traces of those who held aloft their pursuits; yet his proclamations were promulgated but never put into effect. Why was this, if not because it went against principle? The government of the illegitimate Xia was tyrannical, and its cruel punishments exceeded those of King Zhou of Shang; was it not entirely fitting that Imperial Heaven sent down punishment upon it? Wang Jian offered candid words to the ruler of the Qi, and Mingshan presented a trenchant response to the Sui empress. In the end, they preserved intact the integrity of those beyond the realm. Truly, is it not that the Way relies on humans to be propagated? Superior Master Cong's *Treatise on the Field of Merit* is grand and extensive in principle and precedent, magnifying and opening up the doctrinal teachings—how magnificent!