辯偽錄 5.4

5.4

In the third month of the twenty-first year of Zhiyuan, an edict was dispatched sending the Grand Master of Virtuous Character, Commissioner of the Bureau of General Regulation, and concurrently Controller of the Office of the Commissioners for Universal Meritorious Deeds, Sanga, to instruct the Hanlin Academy: “Concerning the debate between the Buddhists and Daoists in the wuwu year, and the full account of the burning of the spurious scriptures of the Daoist Canon on the twentieth day of the tenth month of the eighteenth year of Zhiyuan, let these events be recorded hereafter.”

Your servant Pan and the others, having respectfully examined the record of events compiled by the Supreme Chief of the Buddhist Teaching, Qutugh Sayir, [find that] formerly, during the reign of Emperor Xianzong, Daoist practitioners produced a book entitled Scripture of Laozi Converting the Barbarians into Buddhas and the Eighty-One Transformations Diagram, carving printing blocks and distributing it everywhere. Its words were crude, absurd, and extravagant, aimed at disparaging the Buddhist teaching and exalting their own. The Kaśmīran Master Lanma and the Supreme Chief Fuyu of Shaolin memorialised this matter to the throne. At that time, His Majesty was residing in the princely mansion. Emperor Xianzong issued an edict commanding the two traditions, Buddhist and Daoist, to appear before His Majesty to debate and distinguish [truth from falsehood]. The two traditions entered into a mutual compact: if the Daoists won, the Buddhist monks would don topknots and become Daoists; if the Buddhists won, the Daoists would shave their heads and become monks.

A monk questioned a Daoist, saying: “Your book speaks of the Scripture of Converting the Barbarians into Buddhas. Now, what is the meaning of ‘Buddha’?”
The Daoist answered, saying: “ ‘Buddha’ means ‘awakened’ (jue). It means awakening to Heaven, awakening to Earth, awakening to yin, awakening to yang, awakening to benevolence, and awakening to righteousness.”
The monk said: “That is by no means the case. What is called ‘awakened’ means self-awakening, awakening others, and the complete perfection of awakened practice. Because the three awakenings are completely luminous, he is titled ‘Buddha’. How could it merely be awakening to Heaven, Earth, yin, yang, benevolence, and righteousness?”
His Majesty said to his attendants: “I also know in my heart that benevolence and righteousness are the words of Master Kong. To claim that a Buddha awakens to benevolence and righteousness is an erroneous assertion.”

The Daoists then brought forward the Records of the Grand Historian and various other books, wishing through prolix assertions to chance upon a victory. The Imperial Preceptor, the Wise and Penetrating Phags-pa, said: “What books are these?”
[They] said: “Books of the sovereigns and kings of previous dynasties.”
His Majesty said: “Now we are debating religious teachings; what use is there in dragging in the sovereigns and kings of previous dynasties?”
The Imperial Preceptor said: “My India also has historical records. Have you heard of them?”
[They] answered, saying: “Not yet.”
The Imperial Preceptor said: “I shall speak to you of King Bimbisāra of India praising the Buddha’s merits, saying: ‘In heaven above and earth below, none is like the Buddha; in the worlds of the ten directions, there is likewise none to compare. All that exists in the world I have fully seen; in everything, there is none like the Buddha.’ When these words were spoken, where was Laozi?” The Daoists were unable to answer.

The Imperial Preceptor further asked: “Do your Records of the Grand Historian contain the account of converting the barbarians?”
[They] said: “They do not.”
“If so, then what scripture did Laozi transmit?”
[They] said: “The Daodejing.”
“Besides this, what other scriptures are there?”
[They] said: “None.”
The Imperial Preceptor said: “Is the matter of converting the barbarians contained in the Daodejing?”
[They] said: “It is not.”
The Imperial Preceptor said: “Since it is not in the Records of the Grand Historian, and is not recorded in the Daodejing either, its falsity and preposterousness are evident.”

The Daoists were at a loss for words. Minister Yao Shu said: “The Daoists have lost.”
His Majesty ordered the penalty to be carried out according to the compact. He dispatched imperial envoys such as Toghon and Zhang Fan Ziying, seventeen persons in all, to go to Longguang Monastery to shave their heads and become monks. Forty-five spurious scriptures were burned. As for the two hundred and thirty-seven Buddhist monasteries throughout the realm that had been occupied by Daoists, all were thereupon ordered to be returned.

The Jixiang Abbey, occupied by the Daoist Superintendent Gan Zhiquan, was one of them; he occupied it and refused to surrender it. In the summer, the fourth month of the seventeenth year of Zhiyuan, the Buddhist monks again demanded its restitution. The Changchun Daoists plotted harm against the Controller of Monks, Guangyuan, gathering their disciples with weapons to seize and beat the Buddhist assembly, and burning their own granaries. They falsely accused Guangyuan of dispatching monks to set the fire, and claimed that over 3,900 dan of grain, and other goods in corresponding measure, had been burned. The matter reached the Central Secretariat, which exposed their false accusation. Gan Zhiquan and Wang Zhizhen confessed their guilt. An edict was issued dispatching Assistant Commissioner of the Bureau of Military Affairs Bolad and various high officials to reinvestigate; there was no discrepancy in the testimonies. Zhiquan and Zhizhen were executed, and those sentenced to nose-cutting, foot-cutting, and banishment numbered ten in all. Furthermore, the grain and goods they had falsely claimed were ordered to be exacted according to that amount and given back to the Buddhist assembly.

At that time, there were those who reported that spurious Daoist scriptures were still extant, and this came to the hearing of the Crown Prince. In the ninth month of the eighteenth year, Toyin Xiao Yanchi of the Office of Universal Meritorious Deeds memorialised: “Many of the printing blocks and transformation diagrams of the spurious Daoist scriptures burned in former years have been concealed and not destroyed. The various books of their Daoist Canon all disparage the Buddhist teaching and plagiarise Buddhist words; they ought to be carefully scrutinized.”

Thereupon, the Assistant Commissioner of the Bureau of Military Affairs was ordered, together with the former Vice Administrator of the Left in the Central Secretariat Wen Qian, Director of the Palace Library Youzhi, Supreme Chief of the Buddhist Teaching Qutugh Sayir, Chamberlain for Ceremonials Qutuq-yusu, Commissioner of the Bureau of Receptions in the Central Secretariat Dulu, the various monks of the Buddhist Registry and of the Scholastic and Chan traditions in the capital, and your servants and others, to proceed to the steps of the Wuji Hall of the Changchun Palace. There, with Zhang Zongyan, Celestial Master of Orthodox Unity; Qi Zhicheng, Head of the Quanzhen Teaching; and Li Dehe and Du Fuchun, Heads of the Great Dao Teaching; together with various Daoists, we investigated and verified the authentic and the spurious. We reviewed and examined them for two full decades of days. Although there were thousands of scrolls, when investigating their roots and branches, only the two sections of the Daode[jing] were written by Laozi; all the rest were fabricated and elaborated by the likes of Zhang Daoling of the Han, Kou Qianzhi of the Later Wei, Wu Yun and Du Guangting of the Tang, and Wang Qinruo of the Song. They conjured things out of thin air and erected fictions without foundation, disparaging the Buddhist teaching to arrogantly exalt themselves, yet coveting its words and stealing them for their own, borrowing yin-yang and numerological arts to show off their profundity, and gathering the diverse philosophers and medical recipes to boast of their breadth. They frequently altered titles, and their transmitted commentaries were corrupted and erroneous, losing their original truth. Moreover, they recorded talismans and incantations, falsely claiming that wearing them would cause merchants to double their profits, offspring to multiply, and married couples to be as harmonious as mated mandarin ducks, seeking through licentious talk to scheme for wealth. They even taught people that if one wore talismans on one’s arm without error, males would become rulers and ministers, females would become empresses and consorts, one would not drown when entering water, not burn when entering fire, and blades and swords could not harm them—such was their spuriousness, absurdity, and confused heterogeneity. Keeping them merely deludes and deceives the ignorant commoners; apart from the Daodejing, all should be burned.

Your servants unanimously memorialised this view. His Majesty said: “The transmission of errors and continuation of absurdities in Daoist scriptures has not been a matter of a single day. If we burn them precipitously, their followers might not be convinced in their hearts. Since they claim that water and fire cannot drown or burn them, we may provisionally test them on this point; after it proves unverified, it will not be too late to burn them.”

Thereupon, Assistant Commissioner of the Bureau of Military Affairs Bolad, Acting Minister of Works Heli, Qoqsun, and others were commanded to instruct Zhang Zongyan, Qi Zhicheng, Li Dehe, Du Fuchun, and the others, requiring each to select one person to wear a talisman, enter fire, and test their arts personally. The four men memorialised, saying: “These are all absurd and extravagant claims. Were your servants to enter fire, we would surely turn to ashes and cinders. We truly dare not test this; we only beg that the Daoist Canon be burned, so that your servants may wash ourselves clean.”

His Majesty approved their memorial. Thereupon an edict was proclaimed to the realm: “Among the various Daoist scriptures, the two sections of the Daode[jing] may be retained; all other texts, printing blocks, and transformation diagrams are to be completely burned and destroyed. Those who conceal them shall be punished. The printing and distribution among the populace of the diverse philosophers, medical books, and the like are not included in this prohibition. Henceforth, Daoist practitioners must solely follow the law of Laozi; those who incline toward Buddhism may shave their heads and become monks, and those who do not wish to be either monks or Daoists are permitted to return to the laity.”

Thus, on the renzi day of the tenth month, the hundred officials were assembled at Minzhong Monastery, and the spurious scriptures and miscellaneous books of the Daoist Canon were completely burned. Envoys were dispatched to the various circuits to ensure compliance.

Your servant Pan and the others have heard that when Master Lao established his Way, he took purity and tranquility as its core, and non-action (wuwei) as its root. He dwelled in modesty and humility, humbling himself to place himself beneath others; there was no covetousness or love of contention in him. Afterwards, branches divided and sects separated, their followers growing increasingly numerous. Inheriting errors and fabricating falsehoods, they produced boastful fabrications by the hundreds: purity and tranquility transformed into defilement, and non-action transformed into leaving nothing [wicked] undone. Just like Wencheng and Wuli of the Han, who offered their lives in pursuit of immortality through elusive and absurd illusions, the deceit of silk writings in the ox’s belly, and the absurdity of creating gold; once exposed in a single day, they were executed by Emperor Wu. The followers of the Three Zhangs deluded the masses with demonic arts and instigated chaos throughout the realm, only to be destroyed by Huangfu Song and the Cao-Wei. Wang Zixi of the Song, residing in the Shangqing Baolu Abbey, committed adultery with Daoist nuns; Lin Lingsu called himself an immortal minister of the Divine Empyrean Purple Palace, but his prayers against the great deluge proved unverified, and both were executed or banished to death by Emperor Huizong. Coming down to recent years, there were also the two men ‘Master Hemp Quilt’ and ‘Iron Hat Li’, who entered and exited the gates of contemporary notables with treacherous schemes and secret plots, indulging in licentious and defiling deeds, and both suffered public execution. Down through successive dynasties, cases of this kind cannot be counted.

When we reflect upon the sources of disaster and chaos and the roots of treason, they invariably borrow talismans and registers to sanctify their teaching, and rely on spurious scriptures to startle the vulgar. Giving free rein to artful slander, they initiate bizarre manifestations, disparaging the Holy Teaching and pillaging the inner scriptures. Truly, they have already violated Master Lao’s prohibitions against contention and theft! When they fall into punitive execution, it is entirely because the evil sons bring stubborn destruction upon themselves from within; whom else could they blame?

Furthermore, the teaching of the Śākya is vast and supreme, beyond compare with any other doctrine. Through hundreds and thousands of generations, holy emperors and enlightened kings have without exception revered it. Eastward to the limits of Fusang, westward to the extremes of the Valley of Darkness, to icy heavens and cassia seas, mountains, rivers, and the great earth, insects, grasses, and trees, those born from womb, egg, moisture, or transformation, sentient and insentient across hundreds of thousands of kinds—all rely on the shade of the Buddha to live, breathe, move, and rest between Heaven and Earth. Therefore, in heaven above and earth below, only the Buddha is supreme, transcending beyond the realm of living beings and returning to the utmost unhindered reality. His wisdom encompasses the three realms; his spiritual wonder permeates all directions; his bounty reaches the great chiliocosm, yet his efficacy remains without contrivance. Such is his greatness! Wherever the raft of compassion reaches, none who drown are unrescued; wherever the Dharma rain moistens, all living beings are refreshed. Pitying the people of the world sinking in the illusory sea and overturning at the bewildered ford, tumbling through many lives and wandering through accumulated kalpas, he wishes to cause them to shed the mundane and aspire to the sacred, eliminating defilement and exalting truth. Thus his spiritual radiance breaks through the gate of deep darkness, and the Great Awakened One points out the path of non-arising. Such is his benevolence!

Who could have expected that wild schemes would suddenly manifest in jealous hostility? Though accumulated slander melts bones and the breath of the multitude moves mountains, the Dharma-body is perfectly complete and originally without the slightest blemish. It is like a blind person slandering the sun and moon: how could this impair the brightness of the sun and moon? Or a frog in a well belittling the rivers and oceans: how could this diminish the vastness of the rivers and oceans? It merely shows that they do not know their own measure!

We respectfully contemplate how our Holy Son of Heaven’s discernment transcends the four noble truths, and his Dao aspires to the three vehicles. He communes with the formless true emptiness and transmits the mind-seal of the Dharma King. Therefore, in his rites of veneration and sincerity of refuge, rectifying the hundred falsehoods to follow truth and dismissing the multitude of heterodoxies to return to orthodoxy, there is that which cannot but be rigorous! Moreover, when brush and ink encourage licentiousness, and sorcerous arts mislead the world, wantonly practicing deceit and agitating the ignorant masses, if a great reform were not enacted, then heterodox doctrines would run rampant and crooked ways would delude the multitude—how then could the realm and future generations be preserved?

In all the principles under Heaven, there are good and evil, orthodoxy and heterodoxy, truth and falsehood; they are constantly commingled in the same dwelling and proceed together in confusion. Were it not for one endowed with the capacities of a supreme sage and born with innate knowledge, whose wisdom surpasses ordinary beings and whose illumination clearly perceives all sentiments, how could one distinguish the purple that corrupts vermilion, or the licentious tunes that distort the elegant? From this it can be said: the merit of the Holy Son of Heaven in delivering the true plan and supporting the Great Dharma is supreme; measured against all sages, nothing can be added to it. Thereby he clears the ears and eyes of all living spirits and cuts away the overgrown weeds on the correct path, causing the light of prajñā to endure through boundless kalpas and fill worlds numerous as the sands of the Ganges, extending the Holy Longevity boundlessly, and perpetuating the blessings and fortune of the Crown Prince and the imperial destiny for hundreds of millions of years—how could there ever be an end to it? This truly deserves to be recorded. Your servant Pan and the others respectfully compose this text to bequeath to later generations, so that those who study the teachings of Master Lao may find in it something to take warning from.