北山錄 10.2.2

10.2.2

Conduct serves as the model for the times (The Buddha Dharma is entrusted to kings and ministers. Whenever officials in office or scholars of talent and learning offer their protection, the Three Jewels wherever present especially rely on being supported and honored. Their great talent and exalted rank are valued for propagating and guarding the religion. It means a plumbline; a model law). Those who accord are guided and assisted; those who rebel are struck and combated (Assisted means taking by the arm. Those who have faith and accord are taken by the arm and led; those who lack faith are struck, combated, and reprimanded). This enables the weak and lost to know where to turn, and like those who 'eat mulberries, to cherish a sweet voice' (When the yellow oriole eats mulberries its voice becomes beautiful; this is like hearing the Dharma and faithfully revering it). This forms the solid defense of metal walls and boiling moats for the Buddha Dharma (Relying on honored officials as external protectors, the Buddha Dharma has defenses like walls and moats), so that those who attack it never fail to be defeated, their discipline broken and their armies destroyed (If an external faction attacks, they are invariably and spontaneously overthrown and broken). Now, when difficulties are raised against the lineage of Śākya, why is it that Buddhists themselves cannot avert them? (When outsiders raise difficulties against the teachings of Śākya and one cites Śākya's teachings in response, what is the reason that they cannot avoid or deflect the difficulty?) This is like yin erring in its seasonal order, which requires the blazing sun to dry it; or yang erring in its seasonal order, which requires torrents of rain to shower down upon it (Protracted rain is an error of yin, which must have bright weather to be resolved. Protracted drought is an error of yang, which must have sweet rain to resolve it). If yin is aided by yin, or scalded water is aided by yang, then the nine years of flood and the seven years of drought would not be considered excessive (Yao suffered nine years of flood; Tang had seven years of drought). Therefore, as for the worthy and virtuous of antiquity: without status, how could they have authority? Without rewards, how could they bring joy? Without eloquence, how could they inspire faith? In their responses and counterarguments, many cited the teachings of Śākya as proof, which conversely fueled their opponents' arrogance (If in answering difficulties one only cites one's own teaching as evidence, it is like aiding yin with yin or aiding yang with yang). Thus, smoothing out difficulties, pacifying violence, bringing back the confused, and taking advantage of disorder, they thwarted the eloquence of Gongsun Long (Smoothing out means pacifying. Taking advantage of disorder means seizing victory. Gongsun Long was a man of Zhao. Yu Xiang thought to request the enfeoffment of Pingyuan on account of Handan; Long dissuaded him through quick eloquence. Later accounts state that Long had the debate of the 'White Horse') and cut short the slander of Shusun (Shusun Wushu slandered Zhongni [Confucius]. Zigong said, 'The Master cannot be slandered. The worthiness of others is like mounds and hills; the worthiness of the Master is like the sun and moon: none can surpass them'). Although there are those in square robes [monks], none compare to those who wear the ceremonial caps [court scholars] (Those who wear ceremonial caps are Ruist scholars; when someone slandered the Master, they could immediately counter it. How could Buddhist disciples in square robes, when encountering slander of their teacher, fail to offer an answer? Is this not shameful? They must rely on learning. Square robes refers to the kāṣāya). Formerly, He Chengtian composed the *Treatise on Penetrating Nature*, and Yan Yanzhi refuted it (Both were court officials of the Song; Yan was Guanglu Daifu. He had literary talent and was fond of drinking wine). Fan Zhen constructed the doctrine of the extinction of body and soul, and Shen Yue interrogated it (He was a worthy scholar of the Liang dynasty; the text is in the *Hongming ji*). Therefore, jackals and wolves cannot be subdued without a lion, and serpents and swine cannot be cut down without the sword Moye. When the scriptures refer to 'external protectors', if a person is truly like this (Truly like this means relying on a faithful mind as external support, being verified as such), then they do not lose that name. Alas! There are Heaven and Earth, there is generation and growth, there are those who believe, and there are those who do not believe (Since Heaven and Earth create and transform, there are myriad things and human relationships. Within human relationships there are believers and non-believers, because their sentiments differ). Among the believers were Han Xianzong (the second ruler of the Later Han, Emperor Ming), Fu Wuzhong (Fu Yi), the Great Emperor of Wu (Sun Quan), Zhi and Kan (Zhi Qian and Kan Ze), and in the Eastern Jin down to the end of its mandate, men like Wang Meng, Xi Chao, Xu Xun, and Xie Shang; in the Song, Wen and Ming, as well as the imperial princes and the peers of He [Shangzhi] and Yan [Yannian]; in the Wei, Zonggong; in the Southern Qi, Liu Qiu; in the Liang, the sovereign and ministers as well as Tao the Recluse (Tao Jingchun, style-name Yinjü, called the Zhenbai Hermit); and in the Northern Qi, Yan Zhitui (these were all men of deep faith). As for the non-believers, there were in the Jin, Cai Mo (style-name Daoming, of the Eastern Jin; the Eastern [Jin] Emperor ordered him to compose a eulogy praising the Buddha, but he firmly refused, speaking slander against the Buddha; he was sent to the judicial court and stripped of rank to become a commoner); in the illegitimate Zhao, Wang Du; in the Song, Zhou Lang and Yu Yuan; in the Wei, Zhang Puji, Li Yang, and Yang Xuanzhi; in the Qi, Liu Zhou; and in the Liang, Xun Ji (these were men who truly slandered the teaching and lacked faith). Now, believers are quiet and focused in one mind, their clarity exhausting the ten thousand transformations; or, not having yet forgotten worldly existence, they seek retribution and give offerings, valuing the principle of cause and conditions and strengthening a reverent and observant mind; in retreat they suffer no cruelty of being cast into a moat, and advancing they attain the beauty of contained brilliance (A moat is a pit; as if being cast into a pit). As for the non-believers, the function of their spirit is not open, their vulgar consciousness and turbid thoughts are petty; or they despise the loftiness and extravagance of banners and pagodas, the vast depth of the Dharma texts, the elevation and purity of monastic dwellings (The character variant means high and clean), and the venerated stature of Dharma followers. Venting their resentment (Venting means expressing), they utter rebellious words, but a team of four horses cannot overtake the tongue; thus they fall into deviant cliques—how lamentable! However, there were also those whose faith went to excess, such as Crown Prince Wenhui and the Prince of Jingling in the Qi; Emperor Gaozu [Wu] of the Liang; Emperors Wen and Xuan of the Chen; Emperors Wencheng, Xianwen, and Xiaowen of the Wei; and Gao Yang of the Qi (Northern Qi; all these accounts of believers appear in the *Hongming ji*). Some expounded golden verses; some cast aside the jewel throne; some permitted the common people to enter the monastic life; and some exhausted their state to build temples (The present Emperor of the Great Song has produced several sets of the Great Canon in gold and silver script, carved over one hundred and thirty thousand printing blocks for the Canon, adorned the temples across the realm, and annually grants ordination certificates from the Ministry of Sacrifices to over eight thousand monks; when Taizong first ascended the throne, he ordained youths registered throughout the realm to leave home). There were also those whose lack of faith went to excess, such as the Tuoba (Emperor Wu [Tuoba Tao] of the Wei), the Yuwen (Emperor Wu of the Northern Zhou), Cui Hao (Later Wei), and Fu Yi (early Tang), who acted as calamity-breeding draught demons and ominous comets. As for sovereigns who deliberated on weeding out the clergy, this was truly the virtue of purifying and promoting the clean; they were not men without faith. Formerly, Huan Xuan issued an edict saying (An edict is an official decree), 'Among śramaṇas, those who can expound the scriptures and decrees, elucidate the doctrinal principles, and maintain the precepts in an orderly manner, suffice to proclaim the great transformation. All those who violate this shall be ordered to leave the monastic life.' Master [Hui]yuan sent a letter to Duke Huan, saying: 'The Buddha's teachings have fallen into decline; corruption and impurities have grown for days on end. Every time my reflections turn to this, indignation fills my breast.'