集沙門不應拜俗等事 3.31

3.31

The Sui house received the mandate; through two emperors over thirty-seven years, Emperor Wen revered and believed, repeatedly reviving the Buddha-Dharma. Pagodas were erected throughout more than one hundred prefectures within the seas, all manifesting auspicious omens as fully recorded in illustrations and biographies. When Emperor Yang succeeded to the throne, he reformed the previous dynasty's ways; although he ordered them to pay homage, the monks never yielded after all. Since the eastward transmission of the great transformation over six hundred years ago, it has suffered eradication three times and five times been ordered to pay homage. This both violates the canons of governing the state and is not the governance of a glorious and enlightened reign. The cruelty of dismembering and decapitating fell upon chaotic dynasties; the etiquette of suppressing and curbing was promoted in eras of ruin. Therefore, when circumstances and principles departed from the norm, they soon returned to the old track. Truly, the Three Jewels are the foundation of refuge and precepts, and the five assemblies occupy the position of the field of merit. Although faith and slander take turns to appear, and calamities and blame come and go, this is merely because humans have their declines and rises; as for the Way, it has never known waxing or waning. For this reason, more than a thousand great sages appear in the grand period of the Bhadrakalpa, with a lifespan of sixty thousand years, to sustain the correct Dharma of the Śākya teaching. How much more so when the sixteen venerable ones carry out transformation in the three continents, and nine hundred million worthy of offerings protect the fourfold assembly! Based on this narration, the destined era is not yet ended; how could arbitrary judgment equate it to the Confucian canons? Furthermore, the Gu hexagram of the Book of Changes states not to serve kings and marquises, and the 'Conduct of the Scholar' in the Rites states that one does not act as a subject to the Son of Heaven. Even among the four ranks of laypeople, there are still those who do not bend; how much less should those who abandon the secular to follow the Way be held to the etiquette of subjects and concubines! Furthermore, to the Sovereign on High of Vast Heaven and the spiritual deities of mountains and rivers, none among the rulers of men fails to bow down when offering sacrifices. Now the monks receive the Buddha's precepts, and their forms are equipped with the Buddha's deportment. The eight classes of devas and nāgas venerate their Way and submit to their appearance; none among them fails to bow down to the monks. Thus unseen blessings and manifest proofs, and variegated auspicious signs, are heard of throughout earlier biographies. How could this be equated to Master Lao placing kings and marquises on par with the Three Greats? Thus, in the śramaṇa's dwelling of life, wealth and sex are disregarded, glory and stipend hold no sway; he views the worldly times like floating clouds and understands physical life to be like a mirage. For this reason he is called a renunciant (pravrajita). Therefore, renunciation does not preserve the etiquette of householders, and leaving the secular does not partake in the decorum of dwelling in the secular. Its Way is manifest, an excellent canon unaltered through a hundred generations. Its scope is exceedingly broad, so it is only briefly narrated here.