破邪論 1.25

1.25

The Hou Han shu (Book of the Later Han) states: In the third year of the Yongping reign era of Emperor Xiaoming, the Emperor dreamed of a golden man with the radiance of the sun and moon佩ering round his neck, flying about before the palace hall. He questioned his assembled ministers. The learned Fu Yi replied: “Your servant has heard that in the Western Regions there is a deity whose name is ‘Buddha’; could what Your Majesty saw not be him?” The Emperor dispatched Attendant within the Yellow Gate Cai Yin, General of the Household Qin Jing, Erudite Wang Zun, and others on a mission to Tianzhu to draw his likeness. Yin then returned east to Luoyang together with the śramaṇas Kāśyapa Mātaṅga and Dharmaratna. The presence of śramaṇas in the Central Plains began with this. The “Treatise on Suburban Sacrifices” of the Hou Han shu says: “Buddha” is in the language of the Han “the Awakened One,” meaning one who will awaken all living beings. His teaching is governed primarily by cultivating goodness and a compassionate mind; it refrains from killing living things and focuses exclusively on purity. Those who are perfected in it are called śramaṇas, which in the language of the Han means “resting the mind.” They shave their hair, leave their families, cut off desires, wash away cravings, and return to the unconditioned. Moreover, they hold that when a person dies, the vital spirit is not destroyed, but subsequently receives a form; the good and evil that one has done in this life will all have retribution in a future birth. What they esteem is practicing goodness and cultivating the Way to refine their vital spirit. They refine it without ceasing until they reach non-arising and are able to become a Buddha. His body is sixteen feet tall and golden in color, with the radiance of the sun and moon behind his neck. He transforms without constancy and penetrates everywhere; hence he can transform and permeate all things, broadly rescuing the multitudes of living beings. There are several thousand fascicles of scriptures, taking emptiness and non-being as their fundamental tenet; encompassing both the subtle and the gross, there is nothing they do not unite. They excel at grand and magnificent speech; what they seek is within one’s own body, and what they illumine lies beyond hearing and seeing. Ultimately they return to what is dark, subtle, deep, and far-reaching, difficult to fathom or measure. Therefore, when princes and grandees observe the juncture of birth, death, and karmic retribution, none fails to feel alarmed and lose their composure. The Wei shu (Book of Wei) says: Cai Yin obtained the Scripture in Forty-Two Sections and a standing image of Śākyamuni. Emperor Ming ordered painters to depict the likeness, placing it on the Qingliang Terrace and on the Xianjie Mausoleum. The scriptures were sealed in the stone chamber of the Orchid Terrace. When Yin returned, he loaded the scriptures onto a white horse and came to the Han. Consequently, the White Horse Monastery was established west of the Yong Gate of Luoyang. The main purport of its scriptures generally states that living beings of all kinds all arise on account of actions and karma, and that there are three times: past, present, and future. The stages of cultivating the Way and the gradations of mental practice are not just one; all advance from the shallow to reach the deep, relying on the subtle to manifest the prominent. They generally consist in accumulating benevolence, compliance, dispelling cravings, and practicing emptiness and stillness so as to accomplish penetrating luminosity. In beginning to cultivate the mind, one relies on the Buddha, Dharma, and Saṅgha to receive the three refuges. The three refuges are like the three dreads of the noble person. Furthermore, there are five precepts: cutting off killing, stealing, sexual misconduct, lying, and drinking alcohol. Their general meaning is identical to benevolence, righteousness, propriety, wisdom, and trustworthiness. It is said that by upholding them, one will be born in superior realms among humans and devas, and be freed from the sufferings of ghosts and beasts. It says that the places of good and evil comprise six paths in all. They consist in guarding the mind, rectifying the body and mouth, and cutting off lying; taken together, these are called the path of ten virtues. Those who can fully possess them will in the near term obtain celestial recompense and in the long run attain bodhi. On the night of the eighth day of the fourth month, he was born from his mother’s right side, during the reigns of King Zhao of the Zhou and Duke Zhuang of Lu. His extraordinary marks of appearance numbered thirty-two, and heaven sent down auspicious portents to correspond to them, also thirty-two. After the Buddha passed away, his disciples cremated his body with fragrant wood. His sacred bones were broken into fragments as small as grains; their color was red and white. Striking them could not break them; burning them could not char them; they constantly manifested radiant, miraculous proofs. One hundred and sixteen years after his demise, there was King Aśoka, who through divine power divided the Buddha’s śarīra and ordered spirits and ghosts to build eighty-four thousand jewel pagodas. Today, in Luoyang, Pengcheng, Fufeng, Shu Commandery, Guzang, Linzi, and elsewhere, there are pagodas, all possessing miraculous phenomena. The Han faben neizhuan (Inner Chronicle of the Origins of the Dharma in the Han) says: Emperor Ming dispatched Attendant within the Yellow Gate Cai Yin, General of the Household Qin Jing, Erudite Wang Zun, and others, eighteen in all, to the country of Tianzhu. Together with Kāśyapa Mātaṅga and others, they brought back a standing image of Śākyamuni, which was made by the fourth master of King Udayana. When they returned, Emperor Ming asked Mātaṅga: “When the King of the Dharma appears in the world, why did his transformation not reach here?” Mātaṅga replied: “The kingdom of Kapilavastu is the center of the three-thousand-great-thousandfold world system with its billions of suns and moons. The Buddhas of the three times are all born there. Regardless of whether they are devas, dragons, ghosts, or spirits, those who possess the power of vows and deeds are all born there, receive the Buddha’s true transformation, and all attain enlightenment to the Way. Living beings in other places lack the conditions to move the Buddha, so the Buddha does not go there. Although the Buddha does not go there, wherever his light reaches—be it five hundred years or one thousand years—after one thousand years, there are always holy persons who transmit the Buddha’s voiced teachings to transform them.” On the first day of the first month in the fourteenth year of the Yongping reign, during the court assembly for the New Year, Daoist masters from the Five Peaks and various mountains said to one another: “The Sovereign has abandoned our Daoist teachings and gone far away to seek the barbarian teachings. Taking advantage of our presence at court, let us each bring the scriptures and texts established by the Supreme Heavenly Worthy, exhaust our abilities, and jointly submit a memorial.” The memorial said: “We, Chu Shanxin and others, six hundred and ninety Daoist disciples of the Three Caverns of the Supreme from the eighteen mountain abbeys of the Five Peaks, under penalty of death submit this memorial: Your servants have heard that the Supreme is formless and nameless, limitless and unsurpassable, the void, natural, and primal head of the Great Way. Since creation, the Way and Virtue have arisen from it; it is the unsurpassed, unconditioned venerable one and the father of nature. From high antiquity it has been revered in common, and through a hundred kings it has not changed. Now Your Majesty’s Way surpasses that of the Sovereign Fuxi and your virtue exceeds that of Yao and Shun; your light illuminates the four seas, and the eight extremities submit to your benevolence. Your servants have heard that Your Majesty has abandoned the root to chase after the branches, seeking teachings from the Western Regions. We observe that what is served in the Western Regions is a barbarian deity, and what is spoken does not accord with Huaxia. Moreover, you have invited barbarians to translate their words, falsely making them resemble Han speech. Your servants reflect that although Your Majesty has had these words translated, we fear it is not the Great Way. If you do not believe us, we pray that Your Majesty forgive our transgression and allow us to hold an empirical test. Among the Daoist masters of the Five Peaks and various mountains, many are intelligent, wise, and widely versed in the classics. From the Primal Sovereign onward, we thoroughly understand the scriptures and practices of the Supreme; we are completely enlightened in the talismans and incantations of the Great Void. Some can swallow talismans and ingest qi; some can command ghosts and spirits; some can enter fire without being burned; some can tread on water without drowning; some can ascend to heaven in broad daylight; some can conceal their forms in the earth. As for recipes, medicines, and occult arts, there is nothing we cannot do. We pray that Your Majesty permit us to compare and contend with them. First, it will set the Sage Sovereign’s mind at rest; second, it will distinguish the true from the false; third, the Great Way will have where it belongs; fourth, Chinese customs will not be thrown into disorder. If in this comparison we are inferior, we submit to whatever severe judgment Your Majesty decides. If we are victorious, we beg that the false and bogus be eliminated.” An imperial decree was issued ordering the Prefect of the Masters of Writing Song Xiang to usher them into the Changle Palace. An edict said: “On the fifteenth day of this month, a great assembly will take place outside the south gate of the White Horse Monastery.” The Daoist masters together erected three altars, each altar having twenty-four gates opened. Chu Shanxin and others, seventy Daoist masters of the Southern Peak, brought scriptures including the Lingbao zhenwen (True Text of Numinous Treasure), the Taishang yujue (Jade Instructions of the Supreme), the Kongtong lingzhang (Numinous Stanzas of Kongtong), the Shengxuan buxu (Ascending to the Mystery and Pacing the Void), the Taishang zuoxianren qingwen ziran wucheng (Questions of the Supreme Left Immortal on the Spontaneous Five Praises), and the Zhutian neiyin (Esoteric Sounds of the Heavens), a total of one hundred and three fascicles. Liu Zhengnian and others, seventy Daoist masters of the Mount Hua Peak, brought the Zhihui dingzhi (Wisdom and Resolved Mind), the Zhihui shangpin jie (Upper Grade Precepts of Wisdom), the Xianren qingwen benxing yinyuan (Questions of the Immortal on the Conditions of Original Conduct), the Mingzhen ke (Rules of Bright Truth), and others, sixty-two fascicles. Huan Wendu and others, seventy Daoist masters of the Northern Peak, brought the Benye shangpin fake (Rules on the Upper Grade of Original Deeds), the Zuifu mingzhen ke zhaiyi (Purification Rituals and Rules of Bright Truth on Sin and Blessing), and the Taishang dongxuan zhenwen (True Text of the Supreme Cavernous Mystery), a total of eighty fascicles. Jiao Dexin and others, seventy Daoist masters of the Eastern Peak, brought the Zhutian lingshu duming (Numinous Writings of the Heavens for Delivering Life), the Jiutian shengshen zhang (Nine Heavens’ Stanzas on Generating the Spirits), the Taishang shuo ji taixu ziran miedu wulian shengshi du ziran quanyi (Rituals of the Spontaneous Contract of the Supreme Teaching the Ultimate Great Void and Spontaneous Deliverance through Fivefold Refinement of the Corpse), and others, a total of eighty-five fascicles. Lü Huitong and others, one hundred and forty Daoist masters of the Central Peak, brought the Taishang anzhi shangpin (Upper Grade of Settling the Mind of the Supreme), the Sanyuan pinjie (Precepts of the Three Primes), the Taiji zuoxiangong shenxian benqi neizhuan (Esoteric Biography of the Origins of the Divine Immortals of the Left Immortal Lord of the Grand Ultimate), and the Fuyu wuya lichen zhaoxi chaoli yi (Rituals for Morning and Evening Audiences through Ingesting the Five Sprouts), ninety-five fascicles. Qi Wenxin and others, two hundred and seventy Daoist masters from the eighteen mountain abbeys including Mount Huo, Mount Tianmu, Mount Wutai, and Mount Bailu, brought the Taiji zhenren fu lingbao wen (Text on Promulgating Numinous Treasure by the Realized Person of the Grand Ultimate), the Taishang dongxuan lingbao tianwen (Celestial Text of Numinous Treasure of the Supreme Cavernous Mystery), the Wufu jing (Scripture of the Five Talismans), the Buxu wen (Pacing the Void Texts), the Shenxian yaofa (Divine Immortals’ Methods for Medicine), the Shijie pin (Section on Corpse Deliverance), the Shangtian fulu chijin (Charms and Injunctions of the Upper Heavens), and others, a total of eighty-four fascicles. Altogether there were five hundred and sixty-nine fascicles, placed on the western altar. The scriptures and books of twenty-seven masters, including Mao Chengzi, Xu Chengzi, Liezi, Huangzi, Laozi, Zhuangzi, and Huizi, amounting in total to two hundred and thirty-five fascicles, were placed on the middle altar. Food, offerings, and sacrifices to the hundred spirits were placed on the eastern altar. Emperor Ming set up a seven-jeweled traveling palace west of the road outside the south gate of the White Horse Monastery, where the Buddha’s relics, scriptures, and images were enshrined. On the fifteenth day, when the fast ended, the Daoist masters surrounded the western altar with firewood and reeds mixed with sandalwood and aloeswood, piled around the scriptures, and weeping, made an announcement: “Your servants report above to the Supreme Limitless Great Way, the Heavenly Worthy of the Primordial Beginning, and all the immortals and hundred spirits: Now the barbarian deity brings disorder to the Xia, and the ruler of men believes in the heterodox. The true teaching has lost its path, and the mysterious lineage has fallen into decline. Your servants, respectfully relying on the method of the Three and Five Pacing the Dipper, dare to place the scriptures on the altar and test them with fire, wishing to enlighten those who have not heard and distinguish the true from the false.” Thereupon they set fire to burn the scriptures. The scriptures were transformed by the fire and completely turned to ashes. When the Daoist masters saw the fire consume the scriptures, they were greatly terrified in their hearts. Those who had previously ascended to heaven could no longer ascend; those who had previously concealed their forms could no longer conceal themselves; those who had previously entered fire could no longer enter it; those who had previously been adept at binding incantations summoned and commanded spirits to no reply; of those who previously had various powers, not a single one proved effective. The Daoist masters were deeply ashamed. At that time, Grand Tutor Zhang Yan said to Chu Xin: “What you have tested today has no efficacy; this shows it is false. You ought to turn to the true Dharma of the Western Regions.” Chu Xin did not reply. The Daoist master of the Southern Peak Fei Shucai died of self-reproach in the midst of the assembly. At that time, the Buddha’s relics radiated five-colored light, shooting straight up into the air and whirling like a canopy, completely covering the great assembly and eclipsing the sun. Dharma Master Mātaṅga, having previously attained the fruit of an arhat, sprang up into high flight by the power of benevolence and compassion. He walked and reclined in midair, transforming miraculously at will, then returned to sit in his original place, remaining serene. At that time, the heavens rained down precious flowers onto the Buddha hall and above the assembly of monks. Celestial music was also heard, moving people’s feelings; the great assembly gazed in delight and marveled at this unprecedented event. Dharma Master Dharmaratna then spoke a verse in the midst of the great assembly: