External canon of internal canon

Buddhism refers to the works of other schools as foreign classics, and some Confucian scholars are very unhappy. They think that it is contempt for Confucianism to classify Confucianism as a foreign enemy. Therefore, they retorted and called the classics of Buddhism and Taoism as foreign classics. Therefore, if you don't know this, when reading ancient books, if you don't make a concrete analysis, you will make a joke of Li Daitao. For example, "Biography of Chen Shu Fu Chuo": "If we follow the foreign code, before looking for the book contract, until the age of Chun, ... the people will not interact with each other until they die of old age, but each has his own place. What is the dispute?" Here, "Waidian" refers to Taoist classics. The meaning of this passage is: if we follow the Taoist classics and pursue the simplest era before writing, the people will not communicate with each other until they die, but each will have his own fun. What is the quarrel? Biography of Sui Shu Li Tuqian: "A gentleman is good at talking about Hyunri. Taste a guest in the unique, don't believe in the meaning of Buddhism should be reported, think that the foreign code is ignorant. Tu Qian said:' If you accumulate good deeds in Qing Yu, you will accumulate evil deeds ... isn't it the right thing to do? Here, "foreign classics" refers to Buddhist classics. This passage means that Li Tuqian is good at talking about mysterious truth. Once, a guest who was sitting didn't believe in Buddhism's principle of reincarnation, and thought that he had never heard of the classic. Tu Qian said with a metaphor as the saying goes: "If you do more good things, your descendants will be blessed, and if you do more bad things, your descendants will suffer. Is production the principle of retribution? " In addition, Song Qi's epitaph 6I of Zhang Hui, "The common disease of Hui is floating in the house, and the pagoda temple is flourishing. Although those who wear Confucian clothes are all closely packed with six classics, they are foreign classics, so they are discriminated because they see the article and record dozens of articles." The "foreign canon" here also refers to the Buddhist canon. The meaning of this passage is: Zhang Hui is often dissatisfied with the absurdity of Buddhism. Pagodas and temples are increasing day by day. Even people wearing Confucian clothes put aside the six Confucian classics and believe in Buddhist scriptures, so he has left these things and wrote dozens of articles to distinguish and analyze them.

From the above examples, it can be understood that the words "internal canon" and "external canon" mentioned in ancient books must be understood from the context, and the word "internal canon" cannot be taken as referring to Buddhist scriptures, otherwise it will make a joke.