法苑珠林 55.57

55.57

The One Beyond the World replied: “If in serving one’s lord and parents one exhausts one’s integrity, though one dies, it is called benevolence; if one violates loyalty and filial piety to cling shamefully to life, merely keeping one's skin intact is unrighteous. The Analects praises giving up one's life when seeing danger; the Rites guards against illicit escape when confronting hardship. How can one uniformly shun death and injury, or blindly cling to skin and hair? Slicing the thigh and offering the liver are extreme injuries; shaving the beard and hair is a trifling alteration. When one establishes loyalty without regard for life, commentators find no fault with it; when one seeks the Way without begrudging one's hair, why consider it alone a transgression? Tang took pity on the multitude and would even have burnt his body to pray for rain; Mozi promoted universal love and was willing to wear his body down from head to heel. How much more so when one deeply seeks blessings and benefits for one's lord and father above—how could the alteration of beard and hair be worth begrudging? Furthermore, in the teachings of the sages there are different paths that lead to the same end; in the Way of the gentleman, one may sometimes deviate from normal rules to accord with righteousness. Taibo was such a man: he abandoned caring for his parents at home, pretending to gather herbs and not returning; he discarded the clothing and insignia of the Central State, cutting his hair as an adornment. Deviating from standard rules and violating ritual could not be more extreme than this. Yet Zhongni praised him, saying: ‘Taibo may indeed be said to have possessed the supreme virtue.’ What was the reason? Though in his outer traces he turned his back on his lord and parents, in his heart he was loyal to his family and state; though his body was marred among the Baiyue, his virtue was perfected through his three declinations. Thus Taibo discarded the customs of robes and caps without harming supreme virtue; how does a śramaṇa's relinquishing the appearance of the gentry harm the wondrous Way? Though changing robes and altering appearance violates the ordinary deportment of subjects and sons, having faith in the Way and taking refuge in one’s heart, they pray for abundant blessings for their lord and parents. By afflicting their bodies and minds to cultivate the manifold good deeds of the monastic life, they bequeath deep celebrations spanning kalpas to their lords and fathers. Are not their loyalty and filial piety abundant? To say that good śramaṇas are disloyal is truly unbelievable.”