辯偽錄 2.32

2.32

Formerly I saw a Tang author ridicule Daoist priests, saying: 'Their utterances are base, vulgar, fraudulent, and untrue. They cause those who venerate them to become unbenevolent and unfilial, giving birth within families to children who are owl-like and beast-like monsters, bereft of propriety and unfilial to kin, producing sons in the world like leopards and wolves.' I also saw newly tonsured Daoist priests cursing the house of Changchun Palace, saying: 'When the sect is untroubled, you enjoy honour; when the sect suffers calamity, you cause us to suffer disgrace. Styled "directors of the teachings" and clad in blue robes, not a day passes without meatless fare being shunned, and not a month passes without fine banquets! Powders and kohl fill their eyes with revelry; moths' antennae and cicadas' heads indulge in clandestine pleasure through the long night! You feast on delicacies from others' superior shares, and receive their deepest bows of folded respect. Deceiving Heaven with insolent hearts, today you bring retribution upon yourselves!' When I first heard these words, I thought them untrue; viewing matters today, they were not overstatements. Laozi was born in the township of Liyang and died in the lands of Huaili. Yet his ancestral grave has been abandoned and left uncared for, surrendered to the desolation of brambles and thorns, and left to the trampling of foxes and hares. At the year-end winter sacrifices, who ever hears of Daoist priests presenting the steamed and roasted offerings? When the new year arrives or autumn harvests come, one never sees Daoist nuns performing the seasonal libations. Wayfarers weep for it, and onlookers take pity upon it. Yet they freely spin the monstrous lore of 'converting the barbarians', claiming that he drifted into foreign realms and never returned! Wang Fu burst forth from this perverse cavity, and Zhijing again raised a foul stench, causing Laozi's profound gateway of twofold mystery to be swept clean to the ground and utterly destroyed. Furthermore, of the present eighty-one transformations, over fifty plagiarise the Buddha in grotesque imitation, and over twenty are mere hearsay from the streets. There is only a single transformation stating that Laozi transmitted to Yin Xi the true formula of Dao and De, wholly taking the merging of pneumas and circulation of essence as the establishment of merit—not taking purity and tranquility as the heart, but exclusively taking sexual union as the Way. If one prays for blessings by this means, how could blessings arise? If one expels calamities by this means, how could calamities be eliminated? I, Xiangmai, respectfully relying on imperial grace, unworthily serve as a son of Śākya. Cleansing my heart and guarding the Way, I closed my gates and dwelt in leisure, waiting out my remaining breath in the twilight of my years, seeking no disputation between the heterodox and the orthodox. Yet, incensed by the treachery and deceit of [Li] Zhichang and admiring the discernment and clarity of [Elder Yu of] Shaolin, who purged the foul talk of converting the barbarians and restored the seized monasteries and temples, shedding brilliance on the Buddhist standards and assisting the true vehicle—merit surpassing the mending of heaven, and deeds exalted as upholding the ultimate axis! Though Mātanga was lauded during the Han dynasty and Fashang won overflowing fame in the Qi era (Fashang debated with Daoist priests during the Datong reign of the Northern Qi, and the Daoist priests shaved their heads), when comparing the present to antiquity, how could they even be deemed sufficient to mention? What is more, His Majesty is sagacious and enlightened, thoroughly comprehending the Buddha-mind, knowing the difference between jade and stone, and discerning the contrasting aromas of sweet basil and noxious weed. The Buddha is the Great Sage among sages; Lao[zi] is the great worthy among worthies. Since they differ as heaven and earth, they also differ in worth as pearls and gravel. Thereupon His Majesty specially cast his celestial gaze to inspect the real and the empty, stilling that turbid wind and illuminating this sun of wisdom. Having participated in this auspicious gathering, my spirit leapt with joy. Yearning for the pure dust of bygone eras and venerating the grand paradigms of ancient philosophers, I forthwith relied on classical canons to refute and crush the contemporary pictorial charts, uprooting the stems and roots of fraudulent doctrines and breaking the deceptive sophistry of Zhijing. The roots were overturned, the branches fell, and they dissolved like tiles breaking and ice melting. Not only is this a model for a thousand years, it also displays a marvel of our age. While I dare not intersperse it into the Dragon Canon, it may well serve to continue the Hongming [ji]. Proclaiming these words without shame, I hope that the gifted and capable will appreciate them; those who merely pluck my surface blossoms will find it difficult to converse with me. Brush put down in the first month of spring in the shanyu year of Zhiyuan (1291). Recorded by Bhikṣu Xiangmai, floor-sweeper of the Chan Monastery of Dayunfeng on Mount Daozhe.