大唐內典錄 4.20

4.20

As the Yuan Wei approached its end, its dynastic fortunes fragmented and collapsed. Suzong, Emperor Xiaoming, venerated and had faith in Buddhist principles, while Empress Dowager Hu personally oversaw state governance. Within a twelve-year cycle, the realm remained peaceful and serene. When the emperor passed away, treachery and rebellion struck one after another. Erzhu Rong met his death in the inner palace, and Tuwan Ren seized the emperor at Jinyang. Seizing upon these rifts, Gao Huan crushed the Erzhu clan at the foot of Ye. Taking advantage of the turmoil, Yuwen [Tai] supported [the Prince of] Pingyang in Guanzhong. Huan then burned the palaces of Luoyang, extinguishing the imperial designs [there], established the Tianping era, and moved the capital north to Ye. For seventeen years he supported and aided the Wei royal house. In the third year of Taiqing of the Liang, after Emperor Wu had died, Gao Huan had already passed away earlier; when his eldest son Cheng succeeded him, the minister also perished. Emperor Jing of the Wei then abdicated the throne in favor of Gao Yang, who was the third son of the Chancellor-Prince. Hailing from the ancestral clan of Wuchuan, his divine abilities were extraordinary and erratic; folly and wisdom were mingled in his conduct, and he confounded the order of worthy and sagely. He established the era name Tianbao and maintained the capital at Ye. Ruling three of the Four Rivers and governing five of the Nine Provinces, he exterminated the teachings of Laozi. When the Daoist priests of their lineage resisted being defrocked, an imperial edict ordered their heads shaved entirely, and they were subsequently executed. Thereupon all took refuge in the Buddhadharma. Within ten years, the Buddhadharma flourished grandly: monks exceeded two million, and monasteries surpassed forty thousand. All broadly propagated and protected the revival of the Great Dharma. Across successive generations of six rulers spanning twenty-eight years, [the dynasty] was ultimately destroyed by the Zhou. Translators, numbering two individuals across monastic and lay [ranks], produced eight works of sūtras and śāstras in fifty-three fascicles, forming the Catalogue of the Gao Qi.