大宋僧史略 2.40

2.40

甞聞僧視其官則五品。然未見令式史傳明載。且信相傳（又曾見僧五品非官品也）據其誦經合格。就試得通。此僧選也。剃髮被袈裟。此釋褐也。勅授形俱無作戒法。此官位也。講三藏教。充如來使也。化導內外眾。使背惡向善。理民也。為國行道。保民無災。為之課最也。苟弗比其階品視其職官。其可得乎將來法門君子對𫾻。帝王請降明勅。許比某官某品。像末之時為美事之端。自我之力不其善乎。若夫稽其鄉貫。則南朝有之（見高僧傳）唯為搜揚便生名籍。係之限局。必有憑由。憑由之來即祠部牒也。案續會要。天寶六年五月。制僧尼。依前兩街功德使收管。不要更隷主客。其所度僧尼仍令祠部給牒（唐祠部牒皆綾素錦素鈿軸盖綸誥也。非官何謂）給牒自玄宗朝始也。及德宗建中中。勅天下僧尼。身死還俗者。當日仰三綱。於本縣陳牒。每月申州附朝。集使申省。并符誥同送者。注毀其京城即於祠部陳牒納告（告身即戒牒也）。

I have heard that monks, when equated to officials, correspond to the fifth rank. However, I have not seen this clearly recorded in administrative statutes or historical biographies; I merely trust what has been handed down. (I also once saw that the five ranks of monks are not official civil ranks.) When they recite the scriptures up to the required standard and take the examination and pass, this is the selection of monks. Shaving the head and donning the kāṣāya, this is shedding commoner's clothing. Receiving the unmanifest precept dharmas embodied in the form through imperial authorization, this is [attaining] official rank. Expounding the teachings of the Tripiṭaka, they serve as envoys of the Tathāgata. Converting and guiding both internal and external assemblies to turn away from evil toward good, they govern the people. Practicing the Way for the state to protect the people from disaster, they achieve the highest merit ratings. If one does not compare their grades and ranks or evaluate their functional posts, how could this be achieved? Should a gentleman of the Dharma gate in the future present an address to the sovereign, petitioning for a clear edict allowing comparison with such-and-such an office and such-and-such a rank, it would mark the beginning of a fine precedent in this age of the Semblance Dharma; accomplished by our own efforts, would it not be wonderful? As for verifying their native places and ancestral registries, this existed in the Southern Dynasties (see the Gaoseng zhuan). It was purely for the sake of searching out and promoting them that official registers were created; to bind them to administrative bureaus, there had to be proof. The source of this proof is precisely the ordination certificate from the Bureau of Sacrifices (Cibu die). According to the Xu huiyao: In the fifth month of the sixth year of Tianbao, an imperial decree ordered that monks and nuns should, as before, be taken charge of by the Commissioners of Merits of the Two Streets, and not be subordinate to the Bureau of Receptions. The monks and nuns they ordained were still to have certificates issued to them by the Bureau of Sacrifices. (Tang dynasty Bureau of Sacrifices certificates were all mounted on plain damask or brocade with gold-inlaid rollers; they were indeed imperial patents! If not official posts, what could they be called?) The granting of certificates began during the reign of Xuanzong. Coming to the Jianzhong era of Dezong, an imperial edict ordered that when monks and nuns throughout the realm died or returned to secular life, on that very day the three directors were required to submit the certificates to their local county; each month the prefecture would send them via the Court Tribute Envoys to report to the ministry, submitting them together with the imperial warrants and patents, which were noted and cancelled; in the capital city, the certificates were directly presented to the Bureau of Sacrifices and surrendered. (The letter of appointment was the precept certificate.)