[Pramāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/) › [Indian literature](https://indike.org/pramana/in) › [Buddhist Literature](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha) › [Taishō Tripiṭaka (Chinese Buddhist canon)](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho) › [辯偽錄](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.2116) › 3.2.4 # 辯偽錄 3.2.4 辯偽錄 3.2.4 - **Language:** Classical Chinese ### [3.2.4](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.2116.3.2.4) 共丞相鉢刺海親王貴戚等譯語合剌合孫并學士安藏。 帝御正座對面窮考。 按圖徵詰。 志常一詞罔措。 拱身叉手唯稱乞兒不會而已。 推以不知。 少林讓曰。 汝既不知。 何以掌教。 志常又默無言。 少林因曰。 道士欺負國家敢為不軌。 今此圖中說李老君生於五運之前。 如此妄言從何而得。 且史記老子與孔子同時出衰周之際。 故唐初秀才胡曾詠史詩云。 七雄戈戟亂如麻。 四海無人得坐家。 老氏却思天竺住。 便將徐甲去流沙。 此則周末時人明矣。 何乃妄搆此說謾昧主上乎。 志常曰。 此是下面歹人做來。 弟子實不知也。 少林又曰。 老子既是大賢。 宜當佐國安民匡君不逮。 何乃坐視亂亡西去流沙忍而不救乎。 自己家鄉而不能整。 且欲遠化羌胡。 不亦謬哉。 此同頭上火燒而不能却。 且欲遠救他山之火。 縱是愚人亦知迂誕。 志常拱默無言面𧹞汗出。 少林重奏曰。 道士欺謾朝廷。 遼遠倚著錢財壯盛。 廣買臣下取媚人情。 恃方凶愎占奪佛寺。 損毀佛像打碎石塔。 玉泉山白玉石觀音像先生打了。 隨處石幢先生推倒。 占植寺家園果梨栗水土田地。 大略言之。 知其名者可有五百餘處。 今對天子悉要歸還。 而志常情願吐退別無詶答。 少林又曰。 此化胡圖本是偽造。 若不燒板難塞邪源。 志常唯言情願燒却。 更無伸說。 上曰。 我為皇帝。 未登位時舊來有底。 依古行之。 我登位後先來無底。 不宜添出。 既是說謊道人新集。 不可行之。 時勝講主瞋目詈之。 指為畜類。 塊然無對。 帝謂群臣曰。 道士理短不敢詶答也。 少林翌日。 復上表云。 和林上都北少林寺嗣祖雪庭野人誠惶誠恐頓首頓首謹言。 聞舉直錯諸枉能使枉者直。 舉枉錯諸直能使直者枉。 此二者賞罰之源。 治亂之機。 莫不發乎其中矣。 自生民以來淳朴未散。 故三皇五帝垂拱南面。 其政教不肅而成。 不嚴而治。 是以聖人觀天文以察時變。 觀人文以化成天下也。 及三代以降姦宄日萠。 故聖賢間生應時設教。 或洗之以道德。 或封之以仁義。 以防微後世之弊也。 於是我釋迦大覺以周第五主昭王二十四年甲寅四月八日生於天竺。 父曰淨飯皇帝。 母曰大術聖后。 夢感白象駕日輪忽墜於懷。 覺時乃娠誕彌厥月。 聖母攀枝右脇神化而生。 列宿襯於紅蓮。 九龍沐以香水。 三十二相以嚴體。 八十種好以隨形。 指天地以稱尊。 現吉祥而應世。 四門觀苦午夜逾城。 六年苦行。 以圓曠劫之因。 萬德周身。 以克多生之果。 教談三百餘會。 化揚八萬之門。 受波旬請而入涅槃。 順眾生機而示圓寂。 由是道超凡聖化被人天。 凡聲教所及。 莫不波蕩風靡而從之。 冠其位於列聖之首也。 學其道者持五戒則備於五常。 修十善則杜其十惡。 存者安於王道。 亡者託於人天。 其大則頓息生死之源。 獨出聖凡之表也。 繼有東夏賢者。 是曰老君。 以周第二十二帝定王二年丙辰九月十四日生於楚國苦縣厲鄉曲仁里。 父曰韓乾。 母曰精敷。 孕八十一年而生於李樹下。 因以姓李名耳字伯陽。 身長四尺六寸。 額凸眉麁反脣騫鼻。 髆尖胯闊聃耳鬅頭。 生而皓首故曰老聃。 以疑獨之道祕于心。 以三寶之德資于用。 曰慈曰儉曰不敢為天下先。 至簡王二年。 官至守藏吏十四年遷太史。 及景王二十三年己卯。 以七雄分霸天下擾攘。 老氏不忍坐視其弊。 有紫氣浮關。 欲西涉流沙。 而訪至函谷得關令尹喜。 授以道德二篇。 深造妙道之理。 已而弗克流沙。 死於槐里。 即而葬焉。 乃京兆之興平也。 後之學其道者。 虛心實腹。 游於道德黜於聰明。 高蹈煙霞逈出塵世。 聲利不能屈。 刑勢莫能移。 雖二聖賢時有先後教有淺深。 觀其聖賢之心。 未嘗有間也。 > Together with Chancellor Bolad, the imperial princes, and royal relatives, the interpreters Qaraqsun and Academician Anzang \[were present\]. The Emperor sat on the main throne, thoroughly examining and cross-examining \[the texts\] face to face. Following the illustrations, they interrogated and probed. \[Li\] Zhichang was at a loss for words; clasping his hands and crossing his arms, he could only claim to be an ignorant pauper who did not understand, brushing it off as ignorance. \[The Elder of\] Shaolin reproached him, saying: 'Since you do not understand, how can you direct the teachings?' Zhichang remained silent and said nothing. Shaolin then said: 'The Daoists deceive the state and dare to commit treasonous acts. Now, these illustrations say that Lord Lao, Li, was born before the Five Epochs. From where did such reckless fabrications come? Moreover, according to the Records of the Grand Historian, Laozi and Confucius were contemporaries who lived during the decline of the Zhou. Thus, the early Tang Xiucai Hu Zeng wrote in his Poem on History: "Halberds and spears of the Seven Heroes tangled like hemp; / Across the four seas, no one could sit at home in peace. / Master Lao thought instead to dwell in India, / So he took Xu Jia and headed for the shifting sands." This clearly shows he was a man of the late Zhou period. Why make up such fabrications to deceive the sovereign?' Zhichang said: 'This was made by bad people below; your disciple truly did not know.' Shaolin said again: 'Since Laozi was a great worthy, he ought to have aided the state, pacified the people, and corrected the sovereign's shortcomings. Why then did he sit by watching chaos and ruin, head west to the shifting sands, and unfeelingly refuse to save them? If he could not even put his own homeland in order, yet wished to go far away to convert the Qiang and Hu barbarians, is that not absurd? This is like having fire burning on one's own head that one cannot put out, while wishing to run far off to extinguish a fire on another mountain. Even a fool would know this is preposterous.' Zhichang stood with folded hands in silence, sweating with shame all over his face. Shaolin submitted another memorial, saying: 'The Daoists deceive the court. Relying on immense wealth from afar, they lavishly bribe ministers to curry human favor; relying on their regional arrogance and obstinacy, they encroach upon and seize Buddhist monasteries, defacing Buddhist statues and smashing stone stupas. The white jade statue of Avalokiteśvara at Yuquan Mountain was smashed by Daoists; stone dhāraṇī-pillars everywhere have been toppled by Daoists. They have seized and planted orchards, pears, chestnuts, waters, and estates belonging to the monasteries. Generally speaking, those whose names are known amount to more than five hundred places. Now before the Son of Heaven, we demand that all of them be returned.' Zhichang was willing to surrender them and offered no other reply. Shaolin said further: 'This Picture of the Conversion of the Barbarians was originally a forgery. If the printing blocks are not burned, it will be difficult to block the source of heterodoxy.' Zhichang only said that he was willing to burn them, offering no further defense. The Emperor said: 'As Emperor, what existed of old before I ascended the throne shall be followed according to antiquity. What did not exist before I ascended the throne should not be added anew. Since this was newly compiled by lying Daoists, it cannot be put into practice.' At that time, Lecturer Sheng glared and reviled them, pointing at them as beasts. They were dumbstruck like clods of earth with nothing to say. The Emperor said to his ministers: 'The Daoists are lacking in reason and dare not reply.' The next day, Shaolin again submitted a memorial, stating: 'The successor ancestor of the northern Shaolin Monastery in Shangdu of Qaraqorum, the rustic Xue Ting, sincerely fearful and trembling, knocking his head again and again, respectfully states: I have heard that promoting the upright and setting aside the crooked can make the crooked upright; promoting the crooked and setting aside the upright can make the upright crooked. These two are the fountainhead of reward and punishment, the pivot of order and chaos; nothing fails to spring from within them. Since the birth of humankind, original simplicity had not yet scattered; thus the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors sat facing south with arms folded in their robes, and their governance and teachings were accomplished without severity, and ordered without strictness. For this reason, the sage observes the heavenly patterns to discern seasonal changes, and observes human patterns to transform and complete the realm under heaven. Coming down to the Three Dynasties and thereafter, treacherous villainy sprouted daily; thus sages and worthies appeared at intervals, establishing teachings in response to the times—either washing them with Dao and De, or fortifying them with benevolence and righteousness, so as to nip in the bud the corruptions of later ages. Thereupon our Great Awakened One, Śākyamuni, was born in India on the eighth day of the fourth month in the twenty-fourth year, jia-yin, of King Zhao, the fifth ruler of the Zhou. His father was Emperor Śuddhodana; his mother was the Sage Queen Mahāmāyā. In a dream she perceived a white elephant bearing the sun-disc suddenly descending into her bosom; upon waking she was pregnant, and when her months were fulfilled, the Sage Mother grasped a branch, and he was miraculously born from her right flank. Constellations supported his feet with red lotuses; nine dragons bathed him with fragrant water. With the thirty-two marks he adorned his body; with the eighty minor characteristics he was endowed. Pointing to heaven and earth, he proclaimed himself supreme; manifesting auspiciousness, he responded to the world. Observing suffering at the four gates, he scaled the city wall at midnight; through six years of ascetic practice, he perfected the causes cultivated over vast kalpas; with ten thousand virtues adorning his person, he achieved the fruits of many lifetimes. He taught at more than three hundred assemblies, and propagated the eighty thousand gateways \[of the Dharma\]. Receiving the entreaty of Pāpīyas, he entered nirvāṇa; following the capacities of sentient beings, he manifested complete extinction. For this reason, his Way surpasses the ordinary and the holy, and his transformation covers humans and devas. Wherever his teachings reached, none failed to sway like waves and bend like grass to follow him, placing his rank at the head of all sages. Those who study his Way: upholding the five precepts, they are replete with the five constant virtues; cultivating the ten virtues, they block the ten non-virtues. The living are set at peace within the kingly way; the deceased rely upon him for rebirth among humans and devas. In its greatness, it suddenly extinguishes the source of birth and death, uniquely transcending the realm of sages and commoners. Following this, there was a worthy of the Eastern Xia, called Lord Lao. He was born in Quren Hamlet, Li Village, Ku County, State of Chu, on the fourteenth day of the ninth month in the second year, bing-chen, of King Ding, the twenty-second emperor of the Zhou. His father was Han Qian; his mother was Jingfu. She was pregnant for eighty-one years, and he was born under a plum tree; because of this, his surname was Li, his given name was Er, and his courtesy name was Boyang. He was four feet six inches tall, with a protruding forehead, thick eyebrows, upturned lips, an elevated nose, pointed shoulders, broad hips, long earlobes, and disheveled hair. Because he was born with white hair, he was called Lao Dan. He kept the Way of standing alone hidden in his heart, and drew upon the virtues of the Three Treasures for his practice, namely compassion, frugality, and not daring to be first in the world. By the second year of King Jian, he served as the Keeper of the Archives; in the fourteenth year, he was promoted to Grand Historian. Coming down to the twenty-third year, ji-mao, of King Jing, because the Seven Heroes divided hegemony and the world was in turmoil, Master Lao could not bear to sit by and watch its decay; with purple vapor floating over the pass, he wished to travel west across the shifting sands. Arriving at Hangu, he met the Pass Keeper Yin Xi, and transmitted to him the two chapters on Dao and De, probing deeply into the principles of the marvelous Way. Thereafter, he was unable to cross the shifting sands and died in Huaili, where he was buried, which is Xingping of the Jingzhao commandery. Those who studied his Way in later times emptied their minds and filled their bellies, wandering in Dao and De and dismissing cleverness, soaring high amid mist and rosy clouds, far transcending the dust of the world; fame and gain could not bend them, and punishment and force could not sway them. Although these two sages differed in time as earlier and later, and their teachings varied in depth, if we examine the minds of these sages, there was never any difference between them.' > — English (machine translation) (machine translation) - [Previous: 3.2.3](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.2116.3.2.3) - [Next: 3.2.5](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.2116.3.2.5) - [Up: 3.2](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.2116.3.2) ## Translations (1) - [English (machine translation)](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.2116~en-mt.3.2.4) — English, machine translation ## Linked texts (1) - [折疑論](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.2118.5.44) — Classical Chinese --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.2116.3.2.4](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.2116.3.2.4) · Pramāṇa