辯偽錄 4.2.4

4.2.4

Even if water has a capacity, it behaves with the basest gluttony: encroaching on the fertile lands of the common people, seizing the rich estates of the Buddhists, buying the favors of the powerful, and obstructing the correct Path of the Buddhist gate. This originated with Old Qiu and finally burst its banks with Zhichang. Though they indulged their treacherous hearts, they were ultimately laughed at by the wise. How excellent are the words of Secretariat Zhanran in his Xiyou lu, which state: 'A guest asked the Upāsaka: "Most people who leave household life nowadays merely evade corvée labor and scheme for food and clothing. If they shave their heads, it is difficult to return to secular life; hence few become monks, while many enter Daoism. Since the war and fires, fine monasteries and famous monastic parks have generally been destroyed. If Daoists did not occupy them, they would also be taken over by powerful families or torn down for firewood. What benefit would there be in that?" The Upāsaka replied: "A person of intelligence and exceptional insight would certainly not do this. If there are those who do, they are merely foolish and vulgar men—what value is there in taking them [as an example]? Having claimed the title of a home-leaver, they turn instead to the deeds of petty men: converting monasteries, destroying statues, and usurping mountain forests. This is why the noble person demands perfection of the virtuous. These fellows began by dwelling in cloisters that had no statues, and later destroyed monasteries that did; at first they seized hermitages in the mountain forests—did they not harbor designs on monasteries within city walls? Advancing from far to near, from few to many, they harbored profound cunning to take possession entirely, and what they plotted was no small matter. Suppose there is an ancient mound or old grave, and someone loves the majestic beauty of its hills and the lushness of its wooded foothills, saying: 'If I do not clear this grave, others will do so later; I shall dig up its bones, cast them into ditches and gullies, and bury my own parents here.' Compared with human sentiment, what would you say of this? The ancients praised the man who wore a sheepskin coat in midsummer and would not pick up lost gold; having become people of the Way, could they bear to commit acts of violent robbery? These fellows initially took the pretext of repairing monastery buildings and protecting holy statues; having resided there long, they gradually destroyed the venerated statues and soon changed the plaque names, thoroughly intending to obliterate the Buddha's teachings. Is this what those who repair and protect monastery buildings do? If they truly wished to propagate their own teachings, they ought naturally to have selected lands, established affinities, and founded temples and abbeys—would that not be the glory of the Daoist gate? For a great man to steal another's halls and dwellings and destroy another's ancestors, taking it as his own accomplishment—how does this differ from the deeds of petty thieves? Is it not shameful to accomplish one's ends through others? Matters of war and fire have seen rises and falls in every age, but there has never been a case of converting monasteries into Daoist abbeys. Did they despise the Imperial Court so much as to dare commit such unlawful acts? In former times, Lin Lingsu relied on the supernatural and deceptive power to gain employment under the Song; he may be called the chief villain and greatest monster, yet he did not dare convert monasteries into abbeys, or destroy statues to promote Daoism. Now the deeds of these fellows far exceed Lingsu! Was it not the wrath of the divine beings that shortened Master Qiu's life? Indeed, things quickly achieved swiftly perish; what is late to mature reaches a good end. Formerly, since the Buddhist teachings came to the west, for over two thousand years enlightened monarchs and worthy ministers have all revered them without exception; eminent monks and extraordinary masters have emerged in every age—in what era was there no National Preceptor? Fotudeng was National Preceptor to the Later Zhao; Wei Dao'an was deeply esteemed by Fu [Jian of the Former] Qin; Kumārajīva was revered as master by the Yao Qin; Fatuo was the house master of the Yuan Wei; Master Lang was venerated by all states; the Northern Qi reverently honored the Chief Administrative Monk; the Sui dynasty attached great weight to Tiantai; under the Great Tang there were Old An, Huizhong, Shenxiu of the Northern School, National Preceptor Qingliang, and Tripiṭaka Master Amoghavajra; the Great Liao had National Preceptor Zhu; the Great Jin had National Preceptor Yuantong Shan. Among such famous teachers, not one ever converted a Daoist abbey into a Buddhist monastery. Therefore, the Path of the Buddhas and Patriarchs is deeply rooted and firmly founded, unshakeable and solid. If Buddhists, gaining their ambition, were to seize Daoist abbeys, and Daoists, gaining power, were to destroy Buddhist monasteries, then the winds of dispute would not cease for a single day! Now, the laws of the realm and the ancient institutions of the Han and Tang are not the laws of a single generation; they are truly the laws of myriad generations. Rulers of the time and lords of the world all take them as models and use them; like the compass and square of a master builder, they cannot be abolished. The Miscellaneous Statutes prescribe severe penalties for destroying statues, and the imperial decrees record clear regulations prohibiting heterodoxy. Now these fellows have destroyed the temple of the Propagating Sage and torn down the statues of Śākyamuni; idle vagrants flock to them like a marketplace, and diners seeking food gather daily at their gates. Making no distinction between good and bad, they take in all alike; this is what is called a harbor and haven for fugitives. Surely they will collapse of themselves without being attacked! Alas, gentlemen of the forests and springs do not contend with worldly things; to obscure one's light and conceal one's traces—even this people find shameful. How much more so to arrogate talismans and seals, suppress the authority of the magistrates, seize the subjects of the magistrates, personally inspect tributes, and hang placards high and low to curry favor with the sovereign—how could they be tolerated in the world? Proved by this, their perverse, deceptive, and unlawful deeds are known to everyone; why wait for my chatter? In the beginning of Möngke Khan's reign, in the spring of the renzi year, an imperial edict was issued ordering the Present Sovereign to campaign against Tibet, Huama, Dali, and other states. The Sovereign obtained śarīra and a golden pagoda about two feet high in the state of Dali; morning and night he made reverent offerings to them and bore them in his vanguard. On his return to Mount Liupan, the present Hermitage Master Lord Wen was appointed Overseer of the Teaching, gathering famous monks from across the realm at Mount Qingliang to establish a hundred-day grand assembly and present offerings to the Great Sage Mañjuśrī. The officials supplied the necessities, and the extraordinary omens and auspicious signs were too numerous to record fully. Returning on the road to Qinchuan, the Sovereign saw a Hall of the Three Teachings in which Lord Lao sat in the center while the Buddha attended at his side. He said to his attendants: "Laozi was merely a worthy among worldly people; his teaching is of little use, he did not attain the principle of a sage, and he can hardly cross the ford of birth and death. For him to sit together with the Buddha is unbefitting in principle; how much worse to usurp the place of honor—this is all the more unacceptable." The following year, when he reached the Sun and Moon Mountain, he ordered Elder Zhi of Qianming Monastery in Zhongshan Prefecture to take the imperial edict and ride by relay courier to correct [these shrines] everywhere, totaling forty-nine places: statues were smashed and paintings were washed away, and all perversities were eliminated and changed. At Hezhong, Jingzhao, Jiangzhou, and Pingyang Prefectures, steles were erected in four places to manifest their falsity and deceit.' The compiler states: The ancients said that when the roots are deep, the fruit is abundant; when the source is distant, the stream runs long. Truly these words are trustworthy! Formerly, our Dharma King accumulated merit and amassed virtue across three incalculable eons; when his fruit was achieved and his Path was perfected, he then manifested his body simultaneously in a hundred billion worlds. Preaching the Dharma for forty-nine years, he delivered hundreds of thousands of myriads of koṭis of beings. Brahmā and Śakra bowed their heads with devoted hearts; heterodox outsiders and heavenly māras prostrated themselves and lost heart. He assembled myriad holy ones within the Bodhimaṇḍa and subdued the six masters beside the Hiraṇyavatī River. When the conditions for his conversion were complete, he returned to the Lotus Womb.