辯正論 5.4

5.4

After a long while, the Confucian scholar argued again, saying: “If one traces Buddhism's [arrival] in China, it has been fewer than six hundred years; only since the Jin and Song dynasties has its influence begun to flourish. Yet people still say its merit is peerless and the world cannot name it. How much more so for the teaching of Laozi in China, whose eras are so remote! The classics and histories record it fully, and it can be known in outline. According to the Daoist scripture Yuanhuang li (Calendar of the Primal Sovereign): ‘In the first year of the Pure and Turbid, the first month, on the day jiazi, I descended to be the teacher of Fuxi; when the state was ruled in Great Peace, [he] ascended to heaven in broad daylight.’ It also says: ‘In the first year of the Undivided, the eighth month, on the day jiachen, I descended to be the teacher of Shennong. In the first year of Taiyuan, I descended to be the teacher of Yu (one edition reads Songrong). In total passing through twelve dynasties, transforming into seventeen bodies, beginning with Xuanlao and ending with Fangshuo.’ The Yinzhen lun (Treatise on Concealing the True) says: ‘Existing prior to heaven and earth, he did not consider it elder; living after myriad antiquities, he did not consider it long. Responding and changing with the times, he transformed together with all things.’ Examining his wandering the world and assisting the state, the eras and seasons can be known. As for guiding the common folk and fashioning all things, how could they ever be chronicled? In a rough calculation, it has already passed more than two million seven hundred thousand years!” (A critique says: At the time of Great Simplicity, qi and forms only began to be complete, and the pure and turbid were not yet separated; this is named Chaos. When the two poles were not yet divided, the Three Powers were also faint and unseen. Beyond the six eras that ordered destiny, Fuxi was just then born among the four surnames; at the end of Suiren's era, Shennong was first born. How could the two sovereigns Fuxi and Shennong emerge in the world of the pure and turbid, and how could Ni, Rong, and the six jia arise before the undivided? Books of the alleys and lanes are not worthy of belief!) “Therefore it is said: ‘The constant Dao is not the Dao that can be spoken; the nameless is not the name that can be named.’ Having been described as silent and void, it is called elusive and vague. Entrusting himself to the Zhou dynasty, he served as the Archivist; residing in the Han dynasty, he became a high minister. Playing in the water, he rode a fish; wandering through the void, he mounted a snow goose. In the jade well moist with richness, delicious is the subterranean springing fountain; from the golden furnace rising with smoke, blazing are the earthly flames of fire. In curtains of white pearls across the Three Palaces, he sometimes ingested sweet mushrooms; upon steps of green lattice carved with nine flowers, he constantly consumed refined marrow. Trees of rose-gem and amber radiate light without the sun; branches of lapis lazuli and agate ring of themselves without the wind. A skull was able to speak, once answering Zhuang Zhou's questions; white bones returned to life—how could the matter of Xu Jia be empty talk? The jade-patterned dates of the Queen Mother of the West were borne forth by sacred maidens; the golden pears of the Eastern Sea were offered up by immortals. His form had no fixed place, manifesting various appearances; his feelings had disparate ways, opening countless traces. Leaping across rivers and striding over seas, how could he rely on boats and rudders? Entering markets and climbing mountains, he was at ease according to his mind. Continuous and unfathomable, remote and hard to track, none failed to benefit devas and humans, serving as a model for past and present. The transformations of the Śākya clan have not lasted many suns and moons; how can they be compared with the Dao?” The Bodhisattva rebuked him, saying: “Your learning lacks investigation into antiquity, and you are hindered by relying solely on your own mind. Unable to choose the good and return from delusion, you guard the tree-stump and put faith in [false] measures. I have heard that when wisdom leaves nothing unencompassed, one is called a sage; when transformations cannot be measured, one is called divine. Being difficult to track near or far, with beginning and end beyond investigation—does it not lie precisely here? Why seek to fix your mind upon it? Since your doubts are still obstructed, I shall explain it again. Why is this so?