辯正論 2.4

2.4

The Master of Penetrating Knowledge said: "Since I tied my hair and followed a master, I early attended the village schools and district academies. I fully examined the hundred schools and personally practiced the Three Mysteries. From the creation of the world down to the Han and Wei, I have not heard of a monarch revering the Dao and instituting the fasts of the Three Registers on behalf of the state, nor enacting the rituals of the Seven Grades to ward off heavenly disasters. If one were to say that these rituals were already practiced in the world in ancient times: long ago, when the great flood surged to heaven and the four classes of people drowned in misery, or when the blazing heat melted stone and the six directions were engulfed in fire, at those times why were Daoist fasts not used to go and rescue them, instead of looking on at such distress? If they could be rescued by it, then when King Wen was released from Youli or King Wu's illness was cured, should these too have been brought about by the power of the fasts? If they could not rescue them, is it not further proof that Daoist fasts are baseless and false? I have perused Daoist scriptures and fully mastered their essentials. I saw that the Xuanzhong jing says: when Daoist masters receive the precepts and talismans, they all arrange the seats of the Five Sacred Peaks, offer wine and dried meat, and bow twice. Furthermore, examining the practices of the Three Zhangs, at the spring and autumn equinoxes they sacrifice to the stove and make offerings to the altar of the soil; at the winter and summer solstices, following common customs, they make offerings to deceased ancestors. When receiving the registers of dioceses, military tallies, and earth pacts, they all speak of matters of generals, clerks, and soldiers. I also saw that the Shangyuan jinlu jianwen weiyi ziran jing says: the Upper Prime oversees the perfected, the Middle Prime oversees the immortals, and the Lower Prime oversees the spirits. Regularly at dawn, facing one's natal star and redirecting the mind, to pay homage to the thirty-three heavens, one shakes the head, points to heaven with both hands, and flies like a phoenix nine times each; one rubs the forehead with hands, presses both shoulders, and then wipes both eyes, pressing up and down on the two nostrils beside the nose, each seven times to receive the register. One uses five ounces of fine gold, five ounces of plain silk, five sheng of edible rice, and five bundles of firewood; or one uses gold men, gold rings, gold dragons, gold fish, silver men, silver rings, silver tubes, and silver flasks. They never fail to display gold and jade extensively and squander silk fabrics lavishly, merely giving free rein to arts of greed and craving, without having ever heard of the way to liberation. Why is this? I have discreetly investigated: the Daoist master Lu Xiujing arbitrarily fabricated and formulated these fast rituals, intending for monarchs to follow his methods. But when Emperor Wu of Liang initiated his dynastic fortune, Daoist transformation was not practiced. How do we know this? Inquiring into Emperor Wu of Liang's ancestry, they served the Dao; in his days as a hidden dragon he personally venerated Laozi. When he reached the third year of Tianjian and had already attained autonomy, on the eighth day of the fourth month he issued an edict renouncing the Dao. Xiujing could not endure his indignation; thereupon, along with his disciples and outlaws from the frontiers, he rebelled and fled into the Northern Qi. He also expended gold and jade to present gifts to noble wanderers, revealing his inner intentions in hopes of reviving the Daoist teachings. Emperor Wenxuan ordered Master Tanxian to blunt his sharp edge; Xiujing's spirit was instantly exhausted and his tongue tied so that he could not speak. That day, his followers all abandoned the erroneous and returned to the correct, begging with grief to renounce household life; those who had not yet generated the aspiration were ordered by imperial edict to dye their robes and shave their heads, just as is recorded in separate biographies." At that time, there was an obstinate Confucian scholar surnamed Liu, who called himself a descendant of the Yellow Turbans of the late Han, and had recently inherited the dregs of Xiujing's heterodox Dao. Hearing the Master of Penetrating Knowledge explain the reasons for Xiujing's rebellion against the Liang and describe his humiliation upon entering the Qi, his face suddenly flared with anger, he rolled up his sleeves, stood up, and said in a harsh voice: "Sir, how can you speak so carelessly? Have you not heard: 'He cleaves to it in times of sudden change; he cleaves to it in times of downfall'? If one examines them, the Three Registers and Seven Grades all stem from the teachings of Lingbao, Ziran, Dongshen, and so forth. They uniquely transcend the origin of birth and death, and equally leave behind the root of grief and suffering. Transmitted down from the past, practitioners mounted as immortals. For this reason, men who enter the Dao wear caps, official dress, and badges, carry talismans and wear seals; holding fast to tablets and registers, they serve in the courts of immortals. They fan the ancient Dao to assist an enlightened era; they cultivate wuwei and exalt supreme virtue. Advancing, they move the gale-wheels to ascend to the golden portals, or turn their flying canopies to roam the Jade Capital. Retiring, they initiate minor good deeds to rescue those in the three evil paths, and exercise great compassion to deliver the six destinies. Such is their state."