辯正論 8.59

8.59

老子鼻有雙柱兩耳參漏頭尖口高厚脣疎齒。脚蹈二五之畫。手把十字之文。戴法天之冠。曳像地之履。髮白面皺顏老色衰。陶隱居內傳云。在茅山中立佛道二堂隔日朝禮。佛堂有像道堂無像。所以然者。道本無形但是元氣。養生經云。道者氣也。保氣則謂得道。古來通儒以氣為道。無別道神。若言有者。古來書籍曾所不載。今作道形依何取則。如其有者昔所未傳。

Laozi's nose has two columns, his two ears have three piercings, his head is pointed and his mouth is high, with thick lips and sparse teeth. His feet tread upon markings of two and five; his hands hold the patterns of the character for 'ten'. He wears a cap that models heaven and drags shoes that emulate earth. His hair is white, his face is wrinkled, his countenance is aged, and his complexion is withered. The Esoteric Biography of Tao Hongjing says: 'In Mount Mao he established two halls, for the Buddha and the Dao, paying morning homage to them on alternate days. The Buddha hall had images, but the Dao hall had no images.' The reason for this is that the Dao is fundamentally formless, being merely the primal qi. The Scripture on Nourishing Life says: 'The Dao is qi; preserving qi is called attaining the Dao.' From ancient times, versatile Ruists regarded qi as the Dao; there was no separate spirit of the Dao. If one says there was, the books of antiquity never recorded it. Now when fashioning a form for the Dao, on what model is it based? If such a form existed, it was never transmitted in the past.