鐔津文集 15.24

15.24

韓子以上書斥佛骨得罪。謫之潮陽。舟過洞庭湖。懼謫死。乃求祐於黃陵二妃之廟。韓子自謂比之聖賢正直不狥邪斥佛何遽乞靈於婦人之鬼耶。昔孔子疾病。子路請禱。子曰。丘之禱久矣。夫聖賢乃自信其誠素合乎天地神祇也。不待禱而求福。韓子禱之。其亦有所未合乎。及其得還乃出財治其廟。以具禮物祀之。為書以誌其事。夫黃陵廟者。古今相傳云。二妃從舜南巡有苗道死。遂瘞洞庭之山。由是廟焉。然此但世俗相傳耳。雖稍有所見。皆雜家或辭或志。非六藝備載。舜典唯曰陟方乃死。檀弓亦止曰舜葬蒼梧之野。蓋二妃未之從也。他書或曰二妃葬於衡山。或曰洞庭山二女所居。自天帝之女也。非舜之妃也。韓子自負師經。為聖人之徒。當此宜執經以正其世之疑訛可也。反從事而益為其說。孔子曰。非其鬼而祭之者諂也。二妃其事未正。復非己祖禰。而韓子事之。韓子不信佛而方遭毀佛骨之譴。何苟欲鬼神之福也如此。而不畏夫孔子之言耶。

Master Han committed an offense by submitting a memorial criticizing the Buddha's bone relic and was banished to Chaoyang. When his boat crossed Dongting Lake, he feared dying in exile and thereupon sought divine assistance at the shrine of the Two Consorts at Huangling. Master Han compared himself to sages and worthies, being upright and not yielding to heterodoxy; having denounced the Buddha, why did he so hastily beg for spiritual help from the ghosts of women? In antiquity, when Confucius was seriously ill, Zilu asked leave to pray. The Master said: 'My praying has been for a long time.' The sages and worthies were confident in their own sincerity, which naturally harmonized with heaven, earth, and the spirits; they did not wait upon prayer to seek blessings. That Master Han prayed to them—did he not have something that failed to harmonize? When he was fortunate enough to return, he spent money to repair their shrine, preparing ritual offerings to sacrifice to them, and wrote an essay to commemorate the matter. As for the Huangling Shrine, it has been handed down from antiquity to the present that the Two Consorts followed Shun on his southern inspection tour to Youmiao, died on the road, and were subsequently buried in the mountains of Dongting, whence a shrine was established for them. However, this is merely a popular transmission. Although it appears occasionally, it is all in miscellaneous writings, verses, or records, and is not fully recorded in the Six Classics. The 'Shundian' only says, 'He ascended into the distance and died'; the 'Tan Gong' also merely says, 'Shun was buried in the wilderness of Cangwu.' The Two Consorts evidently did not follow him. Other books say either that the Two Consorts were buried at Mount Heng, or that Dongting Mountain was the dwelling of two maidens, who were daughters of the Heavenly Emperor, not Shun's consorts. Master Han took pride in modeling himself on the classics and being a follower of the sages; at this juncture, he should have upheld the classics to correct the worldly doubts and falsehoods, which would have been proper. Yet instead he complied with them and further propagated their lore. Confucius said: 'To sacrifice to a ghost that does not belong to you is flattery.' The affair of the Two Consorts is not authentic, nor were they his own ancestors, yet Master Han served them. Master Han did not believe in the Buddha and had just incurred chastisement for destroying the Buddha's bone relic; why did he so improperly covet the blessings of ghosts and spirits like this, and have no fear of the words of Confucius?