Life along the Silk Road by Susan Whitfield

Author:Susan Whitfield
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3
ISBN: 9780520280595
Publisher: University of California Press
Published: 2016-04-23T16:00:00+00:00

Confucian scholars study the Five Classics, Buddhist scholars the Three Baskets,

Confucians are considered to observe the proper ritual and to be filial and loyal, and so they are chosen as officials.

Yet in their examinations they use the same characters as those used to write the Buddhist sutras.

Some of them do not think of this and they disparage the sacred texts of Buddhism, using them as privy paper.

Their sins are as numerous as the grains of sand in the River Ganges, and many lives of repentance will not be sufficient to erase them.

Their bodies will sink for five hundred ages; they will always be condemned to be insects living in the night soil pit.29

We do not know whether Fengda used paper for such purposes, but in 928, while looking for a suitable sheet for one of his compositions, he came across his youthful poem and appended a short note: “This was written in my youth, when I could hardly manage the way. . . . I was but twenty years when I composed it. This year, happening upon the poem again, I am overcome with shame.”30

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.