大唐內典錄 5.5

5.5

Through generations of disruption and upheaval, the Wei and Jin alternated in hegemony. Each proclaimed its own calendar and branded the other an illegitimate court. Benevolence and righteousness might be said to have fallen silent, and virtuous conduct to have withered away. Yet the official historians of successive dynasties still asserted their own rectitude while condemning others' faults. When one is labeled righteous while another is condemned, one praised for order and another for tyranny, it is thoroughly difficult to ascertain the truth; who would dare judge between them? Thus the Northern Wei referred to the lands south of the Yangtze as "island barbarians," while the Southern Jin called those north of the Yellow River "Xiongnu savages." The Zhou inherited the mandate of the Wei, and the Wei succeeded to the foundation of the Jin; all others were regional rulers lacking rightful legitimacy. In the eras of Song, Qi, Liang, and Chen, each had its own record offices; yet once the state fell and its emperor tumbled, their histories were promptly subjected to editing and excision. How could it be otherwise? The ancestor of the Zhou, Yuwen Jue, was the eldest legitimate son of Heitai, Grand Chancellor of the Western Wei. Tai raised the Prince of Gaoyang to be the Wei emperor and moved the capital west to Chang'an, changing garments and banners to black and establishing the first year of the Datong era. After eighteen years the era name was changed; the deposed emperor was installed, and the Prince of Qi of the Wei died after four years. Jue accepted the abdication of the Wei, but was deposed that very year. His younger brother Yu was installed as emperor, passing away after four years. His younger brother Yong was then installed as emperor; he was the third son of Taizu. Possessing broad mindedness and great capacity, he held sway over the masses. Twelve years after ascending the throne, he executed his paternal uncle, the Grand Regent and Duke of the State of Jin, Yuwen Hu, along with his ten sons and six families of high officials, changing the era to Jiande. In the third year [of Jiande], he gave ear to the seductive falsehoods of the Daoist Zhang Bin, who asserted that the Buddhadharma was inauspicious to the state; [the emperor] thereupon eliminated it. In the sixth year of Jiande, having pacified the state of Qi in the east, he also eradicated the public and private monasteries and stupas that had endured for hundreds of years through former dynasties, razing them utterly to the ground, melting and scraping holy images, and burning scriptures and treatises. The monasteries in the eight prefectures, exceeding forty thousand, were entirely bestowed upon princes and nobles; and the sons of Śākya from the three regions, numbering nearly three million, were returned to the secular registries. The emperor believed that the Great Zhou had unified all under Heaven and that all affairs were settled. Harring grand ambitions and far-reaching designs, he changed the era to Xuanzheng, but passed away in the fifth month. Crown Prince Yun ascended the throne, executed the Prince of Qi and his eight sons, and changed the era to Dacheng. In the second month he installed his son Yan as crown prince, abdicated the throne to him, and changed the era to Daxiang, styling himself the Heavenly Sovereign Emperor. He instituted four empresses, with ceremonial retinue and dress doubling those of antiquity. In the fifth month of the second year of Daxiang, the Heavenly Sovereign died. His son Yan was installed, and on the first day of the first month changed the era to Dading. In the second month he abdicated the throne to the Sui. The Zhou spanned five emperors over twenty-five years, ruling from Chang'an. There were eleven translating śramaṇas; the sūtras, śāstras, and astrological treatises they produced totaled thirty-two works in one hundred and four fascicles, constituting the scripture catalogue of the Later Zhou.