辯偽錄 2.16

2.16

辯曰。夫根深果茂源遠流長。虎嘯風生龍吟霧起。聖人利見皆有深源。昔植善因今感妙果。我佛世尊三無數劫積行累功。六度無捨而求菩提。棄身命如恒河沙。捐國城如微塵數。莊嚴世界誘掖群生。然後應然燈記補迦葉位。下生中印託化王宮。七步周行指天地而獨貴。三十二相映日月而爭輝。四王捧足出塵寰。六年行滿而成道。現身百億國土。說法四十九年。播聲教於人天。摧外道於雙樹。化緣事畢却返無為。應物適時如是示現。何待老子始化尹喜變身。掩他神功衿為己勝。佛生周昭之代。老降定王之朝。世隔一十七帝年經三百餘祀。化已滿於天下。教已滿於龍宮。家仰仁慈之風。國遵釋氏之範。豈假李耳重整煩陀再現。援前著後諂誑庸愚。昔日過關。雇徐甲而為從。奚有天人侍衛乎。乘鹿柴車。何有七寶之座乎。廣顙聃耳。焉有萬丈之身乎。狡佞不經欺賢誷聖。鯤化為鵬蓋緣自變。蛇蛻為雉非假他功。此皆物理自然。陰陽感召待時而發。非他使然。老子自是凡人。身為臣子何能別生神聖。更使尹喜作佛。昧自心靈瞎他眼目。悖禮慢聖殃報拔舌。善惠仙人將登八地。遇然燈佛受無生記。此乃世尊往生之號。既然成佛功成果滿。化緣事畢入於涅槃。遷神常樂之鄉。永入無為之境。豈可作佛事畢更作善惠仙人。將後著前一何錯亂。妄竊不真壞人視聽。夫人天雖樂終是輪迴。不免三災之殃。難逃五衰之苦。聖人超出生死苦樂兩忘。高超三界之津。獨步六塵之表。何返歸天上却入囂塵。雜污我聖人欺慢我大覺。此同棄天子之尊嚴。慕廝養之賤役。捨華堂之廣廈。悅蔀屋之茅簷。汝欣賈奕之榮。我恥糞土之辱。隋大臣楚國公楊素行經樓觀。見壁間畫像問道士曰。此何圖也。道士對曰。老子化胡成佛圖。素曰。承聞老子化胡。胡人不受。老子變身作佛。胡人方受。是則佛能化胡。道不能化。何言老子化胡也。道士不能加答。善哉楊素之言。此通人之論也。若胡人不先知有佛。詎肯受佛之化乎。以此考之則印度先有佛矣。而言尹喜作佛老子始變。何欺吾門之深乎（樓觀尹喜故宅。在關之南今道士居之仍在）。

The refutation states: When roots are deep, the fruit is abundant; when the source is far, the stream runs long. When the tiger roars, the wind arises; when the dragon chants, the mists gather. The auspicious appearance of a sage always has a deep source: planting good causes in the past, one now receives the marvelous fruit. Our Buddha, the Bhagavān, accumulated practices and piled up merit over three incalculable eons; practicing the six perfections without relinquishing, he sought bodhi. He gave up body and life as many times as the sands of the Ganges, and abandoned realms and cities as numerous as fine dust motes, adorning realms and guiding sentient beings. Only then did he receive the prediction of Dīpaṅkara and succeed to the position of Kāśyapa. He descended to be born in Central India, taking birth through transformation in the royal palace. Walking seven paces in all directions, he pointed to heaven and earth as uniquely noble; his thirty-two marks rivaled the sun and moon in brilliance. The Four Heavenly Kings held his feet as he left the worldly dust; with six years of practice fulfilled, he achieved the Way. He manifested bodies in hundreds of millions of lands and expounded the Dharma for forty-nine years, spreading sound teachings among gods and humans and crushing non-Buddhists beneath the Twin Trees. When his conversion tasks were completed, he returned to non-action (asamskṛta). He manifested thus in response to beings and fitting to the time. Why would he need Laozi to first transform Yin Xi to change his body, concealing another's divine merit and arrogating it as his own triumph? The Buddha was born in the era of King Zhao of Zhou; Lao[zi] descended in the reign of King Ding. They were separated by seventeen emperors and a span of more than three hundred years! His conversion had already filled the world; his teachings had already filled the dragon palaces; every household revered his compassionate ways, and every state observed the Śākya model. Why would he rely on Li Er to reorganize it or Fantuo to appear again, dragging the prior into the posterior to flatter and deceive the foolish and ignorant? When [Laozi] crossed the pass in former days, he hired Xu Jia as his servant—how could there be heavenly beings as an escort? He rode a rough deer cart—where was there a seven-jeweled throne? With a broad forehead and drooping ears, how could he have a body of myriad zhang? Deceitful and absurd, he cheated the worthy and slandered the sages. That the kun transforms into a peng is due to its own change; that a snake molts into a pheasant does not borrow the merit of another. These are all the spontaneous workings of nature: when yin and yang stimulate and respond, they emerge when the time comes, not caused by another. Laozi was originally an ordinary mortal; being a minister and a subject, how could he give birth to another divine sage, let alone make Yin Xi become a buddha? Blinding their own minds and gouging out the eyes of others, rebelling against propriety and slighting the sages, the retribution of disaster is the pulling out of their tongues! The immortal Shanhui (Sumedha) was about to ascend to the eighth stage when he met Dīpaṅkara Buddha and received the prediction of non-arising. This was an epithet of the Bhagavān in a past life! Since he had become a buddha, his merit achieved and his fruit perfected, his conversion tasks completed, he entered nirvāṇa, shifting his spirit to the realm of eternal bliss, permanently entering the sphere of non-action. How could he, after completing the buddha's tasks, become the immortal Shanhui again? Placing the later before the earlier—how utterly confused! Falsely stealing what is not genuine corrupts the eyes and ears of men. Now, heavenly and human realms, although pleasant, are ultimately cyclic existence; one cannot escape the catastrophe of the three disasters, nor flee the suffering of the five decays. Sages transcend birth and death, forgetting both suffering and pleasure; soaring high above the ford of the three realms, walking alone beyond the six dusts, why would he return to heaven and enter back into clamorous dust? Staining our sage and slighting our Great Awakened One! This is identical to abandoning the dignity of the Son of Heaven to yearn for the base labor of grooms and cooks, or leaving the vast halls of a magnificent mansion to delight in the thatched eaves of a humble hut. You rejoice in the glory of the Jiayi Heaven; I am ashamed of the humiliation of dung and dirt. When Yang Su, the Duke of Chu and high minister of Sui, was passing through Louguan, he saw the portraits on the wall and asked the Daoists, 'What picture is this?' The Daoists replied, 'It is the picture of Laozi Converting the Barbarians and Becoming a Buddha.' Su said, 'I have heard that when Laozi converted the barbarians, the barbarians would not accept it; only when Laozi transformed his body into a buddha did the barbarians accept it. Thus the Buddha can convert the barbarians, but the Dao cannot. Why say Laozi converts the barbarians?' The Daoists could make no reply. Excellent were Yang Su's words! This is the discourse of an understanding person. If the barbarians did not already know that there was a buddha, how would they be willing to accept the conversion of a buddha? Examining it by this, India already had the Buddha beforehand. Yet to say that Yin Xi became a buddha and only then did Laozi transform—how deeply do you deceive our tradition! (Louguan is the former residence of Yin Xi, south of the pass, where Daoists still reside today.)