鐔津文集 2.4

2.4

Preface: In the past, taking the five precepts and ten virtues as corresponding to the five constants of the Confucians, I wrote *Yuanjiao* (Tracing the Teachings to their Source), in urgent desire to resolve the contemporary Confucians' slander against the Buddha. As for our Sage's great foundation in establishing the teachings, though I presented its general outline, I lacked the leisure to speak of it exhaustively, intending to wait and write a separate work to expand upon it. Seven years after *Yuanjiao* had circulated, it happened that Changji of Danqiu sent a letter urging me to complete it. Although I drafted it, because the arguments did not attain [the desired standard], I burned it. Just recently I completed this book, coming close to capturing the mind of the Sage. When I first wrote *Yuanjiao*, taking the *Avataṃsaka Sūtra* as a model, I first laid out the bodhisattva vehicle, adopting what it calls the 'approach of relying on the fundamental to give rise to the derivative.' Modeling upon the *Mahāprajñāpāramitōpadeśa* (*Dazhidulun*), I separated and combined the five precepts and ten virtues. Yet the establishing of words naturally has its own proper form; people did not understand this and rather reproached and marvelled at it, so at that time I altered it for their sake. The present book, however, first lays out the human and heavenly vehicles, also following what the *Avataṃsaka* calls the 'approach of gathering the derivative and returning to the fundamental.' How profound! As for the five precepts and ten virtues, I do not list their names and numbers again. The reason I composed these two books was that I wished to elucidate the great lineage of the former Sage's establishment of the teachings, so as to instruct those worldly Confucians who do not understand the Buddha. Therefore, its words aim for literary grace and its principles aim for simplicity; the circumstance did not allow for branched phrasing and rambling discourse. If one were to make intricate distinctions among the doctrines of the various scriptures, the verse-and-chapter exegetes are already there for that. Whether they understand me or deride me—will it not be on account of *Yuanjiao* and *Guang yuanjiao*? *Guang yuanjiao* consists of twenty-five essays in all, totaling more than eight thousand one hundred words. In this year, *bingshen*, I took up my brush at the Yong'an mountain lodge of Lingyin.