鐔津文集 15.24

15.24

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?