辯偽錄 1.10

1.10

Refutation: I have heard that in the texts of dragon charts and bird script, the classics of turtle writings and tadpole characters, the records of jade tablets and jade registers, the writings of golden cords and golden caskets, the compositions of the Qin, Han, Wei, and Jin, and the bamboo slips of the Song, Qi, Liang, and Chen, which chronicle events and record history with straightforward brushes and upright words, one never sees the name of the 'Emperor of the Void' (Xuhuang), nor does one hear the title of 'Primal Beginning' (Yuanshi). How could there be one holding a jade tablet, wearing a yellow robe, with white hair flowing from his crown, wearing a golden cap on his head, uniquely titled Heavenly Worthy, who with hands clasped in reverence perches high above the Three Clarities (Sanqing), solely claiming to be the Lord of the Teachings and presiding over the Palaces of the Nine Floras? Even if there is the name 'Heavenly Worthy' (tianzhun), it is entirely stolen from Buddhist scriptures. Ancient scriptures refer to the Buddha by the title of 'Heavenly Worthy'; it has nothing to do with the Daoist Lords. Stealing another's glorious epithet and arrogantly venerating oneself to win credibility among the learned—such claims are utter nonsense! Examining Liezi and the Yi gouming jue, both say: Before heaven and earth were born, there was the Supreme Change (taiyi), the Supreme Beginning (taichu), the Supreme Origin (taishi), the Supreme Pristine (taisu), and the Supreme Ultimate (taiji). Commentators all say: The Supreme Change is when pneumatic vapor (qi) has not yet appeared. The Supreme Beginning is the origin of pneumatic vapor. The Supreme Origin is the origin of physical form. The Supreme Pristine is the origin of substance. The Supreme Ultimate is when substance and form are already complete, but chaos is not yet divided. After the Supreme Ultimate, the two modes are born, which are called Heaven and Earth. Now, names arise from actualities, and actualities are made manifest by names. Once name and actuality are clear, their way operates. Before the Supreme Change, it was profoundly empty and cavernous, murky and indistinct, originally devoid of sound and form. How could they recklessly claim that nine breaths falsely gave birth to four people? Generating the void upon the void is like knocking on emptiness to seek an echo; raising falsehood out of falsehood is like chasing a shadow to find footprints. Have they not considered: once a name is established, it must have a substance; once a substance is established, it must have a clan and lineage? And tell me: by whom were the Emperor of the Void and Primal Beginning born? Where did their clan and lineage arise, and where did they dwell? If there is an ancestral lineage, in what book does it appear? If there is no origin, then it is a fabricated fiction. Furthermore, before the great cavernous void there were originally no year-counts; now marking years only further reveals its utter fabrication. For numbers originated with Fuxi, and the sexagenary cycle was initiated by the Yellow Emperor. Conflating the present to chronicle antiquity—how inverted can it be? Furthermore, do the three venerables above have form or are they formless? If they have form, they cannot be prior to the Supreme Change; born from parents, they must have dates, times, places, surnames, clans, and personal names. The preceding text said they were born from the conjoined virtues of three breaths; then that is using breath to generate breath, not different from breath—how could they have form and name? If they are formless, originally having no name or rank, then why does the seventh transformation below state: 'On the second day of the ninth month of the first year of Shanghuang, Lord Lao went out to travel the Western River, and met the Heavenly Worthy of Primal Beginning riding an eight-scenery jade carriage drawn by nine-colored dark dragons, guided and followed by a host of immortals holding floral banners, with lions and white cranes calling and singing harmoniously, meeting together above the Western River to bestow upon Lord Lao the Jade Talisman of the Cavern-Mystery'? Who is this? Seeking through both alternatives of form and formlessness yields no standard whatever; hence one knows that these empty tales of the sea-dates have names but no reality, and carving ice and chiseling snow are a waste of literary words. They are not contained in the Shanhai jing, nor recorded in the Dahuang jing; how could the clever embellishments of the foolish and ignorant be worthy of belief? Lord Lao was an archivist of the declining Zhou, yet they mendaciously claim he was the ancestor of Chaos; he fled the disorder of the Zhou and passed through Hangu Pass, yet they falsely claim he was the father and mother of Heaven and Earth. Since their own words contradict themselves, why do the cuirass-maker and arrow-maker attack each other? Covering one's ears to steal a bell only makes it more exposed the more one tries to conceal it. The chapter of the Daodejing says: 'I have three treasures; I treasure and maintain them. The first is compassion, the second is frugality, the third is not daring to take the lead in the world.' Lord Lao presented the barbarian king with his wife and children and engaged in fierce combat with barbarian soldiers—where is the compassion in that? Riding a jade-balance carriage and seated within golden gates, draped in garments of nine-colored pattern and shaded by canopies of nine-radiance perched cranes—where is the frugality in that? Born in the beginningless and arising without cause, being the vanguard of all Dao and the ancestor of primordial breath, observing Chaos before it was divided and discerning the pure and turbid before they separated, acting as the teacher of emperors and kings and the mother of Heaven and Earth—where is there 'not daring to take the lead in the world'? Gao Xian of Liaoyang, styled Zhongchang, visited the Baihe Guan in Dongjing. Seeing the statues of the Three Clarities, he pointed to the right and asked, 'Whose statue is this?' The abbey master replied, 'The statue of Lord Lao.' He asked, 'A person of which dynasty?' The master said, 'The time of King Ding of Zhou.' He pointed to the left again and asked, 'Whose statue is this?' The master said, 'The statue of the Daoist Lord.' He asked, 'A person of which dynasty?' The master was flustered and could not answer. Xian pointed to the central venerable and said, 'Let us let this Heavenly Worthy of Primal Beginning off the hook for now!' Those who heard it passed it on as a laughingstock.