辯偽錄 3.2.4

3.2.4

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.'