破邪論 1.9

1.9

Your subject [Fu] Yi states: Your subject has heard that the governance of [Fuxi], Shennong, Xuanyuan, and Zhuanxu accorded with the ethos of Li Lao. (Rebuttal: The *Classic of Poetry* states: 'Those above use the winds [of influence] to transform those below, and those below use poems to criticize those above.' Laozi was an archivist in the Zhou, like the present directors of the imperial library; he was originally not the Son of Heaven. What transforming ethos did he possess that would cause high sovereigns like Fuxi and Shennong to govern in accordance with him?) The administrations of Yu, the Xia, Tang, and the Ji [clan of Zhou] corresponded to the teachings of Zhou and Kong. (Rebuttal: The Duke of Zhou and Confucius were both ministers of the state. They expounded the teachings of Yu and the Xia above, and transformed the frivolous populace below. They were neither kings of men nor could they become founders of teachings on their own. How could the four lords of Yu and the Xia have corresponded instead to the teachings of Zhou and Kong?) Although sages may come earlier or later, their Dao and virtue do not differ; though monarchs have succession and change, their methods of governance remain the same. I have heard in private that eighty-year-old elders beat the earth and sang, while fifteen-year-old youths clapped their bellies in joy. Farmers could yield the boundaries of their fields, and things dropped on the roads were not picked up. Filial sons sustained the household, and loyal ministers filled the state. Thus, when the ruler of the state faced peril, they sacrificed their lives to repay the enemy; (Rebuttal: Since the state was entirely filled with loyal ministers, how could there be peril? The treacherous ministers of the six clans surely should not have rebelled!) when parents fell ill, they waited upon them at their side for the rest of their lives. Were they not companions of Zeng Shen and Min Ziqian? Schools formed a forest; they were peers of Mo Di and Geng Gong, coming in turn to support like wings! (Rebuttal: In thirty-nine generations there was only one Zeng Shen; before Han Gaozu, Min Ziqian alone was exalted. The statement that they 'formed a forest' lacks truth; the memorial claiming they 'supported like wings' is fundamentally baseless. It exaggerates the facts excessively!) There were those who held to the Dao and harbored virtue, free of desire and seeking nothing; (Rebuttal: Zhouyu and Shuduan could not hold to the Dao; King Jie of Xia and King Zhou of Yin engaged solely in greed and seeking!) they were startled by favor as well as disgrace, and took up positions in the imperial court. (Rebuttal: Pan Chong and Yi of Youqiong were never willing to be startled; the Ji clan and Yang Huo also held seats in the court rows!) Upon the cauldrons of Mount Jing, they climbed alongside the ascending dragon; beside the altar of Goushi, they followed in the retinue riding the crane. Envoys from the Queen Mother of the Jade Pond arrived at court with full propriety; the deity Wuyi of the Azure Sea traveled throughout to have audience with the emperor. Why was this so? It was because at that time, all revered the teachings of Li [Lao] and Kong, (Rebuttal: The Yellow Emperor's ascent upon the dragon belonged to the era of the Three Sovereigns; the Queen Mother of the Jade Pond belonged to the time of King Mu of Zhou. Calculating this, it was before Li Lao had emerged and during the days when Confucius did not yet exist. They could not conversely have revered Lao[zi]'s teachings or studied Kong's books!) and there was no barbarian Buddha! (Rebuttal: Since you claim there was no Buddha, neither could there have been the Dao!) Ever since Emperor Ming of the Han lay down at night and the golden man entered his dream, Fu Yi answered the edict and analyzed it, saying: 'It is a barbarian god.' (Rebuttal: If he had not already arrived in the Zhou era, how would Fu Yi have known there was a Buddha? Clearly he had arrived before; earlier on, members of the Fu clan already knew of him and their ancestors spoke of the Buddha. Yet you contrarily claim there was none; such fivefold heinous karma brings eternal aeons of retribution upon oneself!) In the Later Han, the Central Plains did not yet have faith in him; (Rebuttal: These empty words are excessive!) while during the Wei and Jin, among the barbarian captives, only a small fraction believed. (Rebuttal: Propriety, music, caps, and robes were first perfected in the Jin dynasty; since you slander them as 'barbarian captives', who then was in the central Huaxia?) Ze Rong made a pretext of Buddhist vegetarian feasts to initiate a revolt, and fled in exile east of the Yangtze. Lü Guang feigned a campaign against the barbarians to rebel against his lord, and stood entrenched in the western territories. (Rebuttal: People of that era were jealous of Rong, so they slandered him as having gathered [insurgents]; Lü Guang returned from his campaign, his sovereign Fu [Jian]'s state was destroyed, and so he dwelt right of the River and established hegemony in Liangzhou. His rebelling and dwelling in the western territories was likewise not due to monks!) From that time onward, the sorcerous barbarians grew increasingly luxuriant, mixing with more than half of China. (Admonition: Permeated by compassion, they emerge in the final aeon; in an evil world, those with karmic conditions are delivered precisely in this!) Within the gates of officials, they contrarily receive the bald scoundrels' heterodox precepts; in the studies of Confucian scholars, they inversely utter the sorcerous barbarians' reckless talk. (Admonition: Officials don the robes of forbearance; Confucian scholars value the speech of the Golden Mouth.) Their melodies resemble vulgar songs—hearing them causes one to lose one's foundation; their stench is like a dried-fish market—those passing by lose their fragrance. (Rebuttal: It is you who give voice to vulgar sounds, and you who spread the stench of dried fish! Hearing you, one will surely lose one's foundation; passing by you, how could one not lose one's fragrance? Spitting at the sky with an upturned face, one incurs the disgrace upon oneself—how true these words are!) In addition, they widely establish saṅghārāmas, magnificent beyond measure, (Admonition: This creates karma for rebirth in heaven and plants the causes for escaping suffering!) toiling artisans merely to seat a clay barbarian; (Admonition: They eagerly work their hands and bodies to fashion the image of the Holy Sovereign!) they strike the grand bells of the Huaxia to assemble the counterfeit masses of barbarian monks; (Admonition: They ring divine bells forged a hundred times to summon the three thousand holy assemblies!) they stir the ears and eyes of the simple folk to demand bribes of private gain; (Admonition: They inspire the ears and eyes of the faithful to bring forth offerings from greed and ignorance!) they take the silk and brocade woven by women and cut them into banners for wanton sacrifices; they use the gold and silver of clever smiths and disperse them to engrave tombs for śarīra. (Admonition: They take the silk and brocade woven by women to make life-prolonging banners; they use the gold and silver of clever smiths to erect pagodas for the fragmented relics!) They lavishly lay out nonglutinous rice, fine grain, and flour for assemblies of monks and nuns; they squander fragrant oil and wax candles to falsely illuminate the halls of barbarian gods. (Admonition: They eagerly present nonglutinous rice, fine grain, and flour for assemblies of the field of merit; they offer fragrant oil and wax candles seeking to illuminate the halls of compassion!) They strip away the people's wealth and cleave the treasury of the state; yet the noble ministers of the court have never awakened to this—how truly lamentable! (Rebuttal: The imperial court investigates antiquity, abandons the mundane to return to the real, and reveres the gate of Śākya; it is not like these wrong views!) I prostrate myself hoping that Your Majesty, having determined the opening and closing of Heaven's gate, renewed the precious throne, resolved the obstruction and adversity of the myriad things, and renourished the black-haired people, will spread the unconditioned ethos of Li Lao so that the populace naturally transforms themselves, and uphold the etiquette of love and respect of Kong Qiu so that all under Heaven become filial and kind. Furthermore, the sūtras and teachings of the Buddha wildly preach of sin and merit; (Admonition: The origin and reason for the teachings is to show people the gate of severing evil and open for people the path of practicing good!) soldiers and commoners flee their corvée and shave their heads to hide among them, not serving their two parents and exclusively practicing the ten non-virtues. (Admonition: They renounce the affection of their two parents to cultivate the benevolent breeze of the ten virtues, tolerating a small disobedience to achieve great compliance!) With the passage of time without eradication, their treachery and fraud become ever more extreme. I have surveyed the records from Paoxi down to Han Gaozu: across twenty-nine dynasties and over four hundred rulers, one hears only of the suburban sacrifices to the High God; (Rebuttal: The suburban sacrifices at the Circular Mound do not escape the blame of slaughtering living beasts. How could that compare to the Buddhist precepts, which take non-killing as primary? Measuring the right and wrong, this is readily understood!) the officials governed and the populace was scrutinized, yet never were temple halls and bronze statues seen to establish the altars of the land or bring peace to the state. I request that the barbarian Buddha's heterodox teachings be banished back to Tianzhu, (Admonition: Arising when karmic conditions respond, they cease when the task of salvation is done; their coming and going responds to things, remaining hidden or manifest according to the times!) and that all śramaṇas be sent back to their native places, so that those who evade taxes will universally delight in delivering grain, and those who avoid corvée will constantly rejoice in dedicating their service. Do not ordain shaved juniors who bow from afar to the state! (Rebuttal: In antiquity, Yan Ziling did not bow to the Son of Heaven, and Zhao Yuanshu bowed with folded hands before the Minister of Works; the canonical texts praise their nobility. How much more so is the śramaṇa an otherworldly field of merit, and the clan of Śākya lofty men beyond worldly things! To wish to make them pay obeisance brings deep harm and injury; in principle, it is unacceptable!) If there are sufficient loyal ministers to keep night-watch over the ancestral temple, then the Great Tang will be pacified and secure, acting as the master of creation, and the common people will be untroubled, becoming the people of Sovereign Xi. (Rebuttal: In the era of creation, people did not pay grain taxes; the people of Sovereign Xi patted their bellies and slept. With the sage and illuminated above, how could he believe the words of Cui Hao and Jiang Bin?) Your subject Yi is truly terrified and fearful. (Rebuttal: In serving the sovereign, one must be utterly loyal and truthful in speech. When an imperial memorial is untrue, the blame has its consequence; deceiving the state will ultimately bring execution by the sword—how could terror and fear resolve it?) Respectfully I present eleven articles on benefiting the state and profiting the people, as set forth to the left. Respectfully submitted. (Rebuttal: As in what you memorialized, harming the state and injuring the people is impermissible!)