As received records of the contestation between Buddhism and Chinese indigenous teachings during the formative period of Chinese Buddhism, Buddhist apologetic literature compiled in medieval China has often served scholarly communities as a repository of historical facts. This study instead brings into focus the political context and rhetorical strategies of Buddhist apologetics through the hitherto understudied case of the anti-Buddhist dismissal of merit. In sixth-century China, Buddhist proponents frequently encountered skeptics calling the karmic theory of merit a hoax. Although the skeptics did not articulate their reasons, the Buddhists responded to them with carefully crafted defenses of merit. By analyzing a few representative examples of those asymmetrical exchanges, this study sheds light on the significance of seemingly flippant utterances in the formation of Buddhist apologetic stances on crucial soteriological and ethical issues. As the dismissal of merit was part of a concerted attack on Buddhist teachings at large, the Buddhist counterargument defined the soteriological notion of merit as moral causality universally applicable beyond religious denominations, calling for unconditional belief in the workings of merit.