Late at night on December 4th, the seventh year of Tensho (1579), in the Shishan Gobo Buddhist Hall, Honganji appeared to be sitting on a futon for meditation. The quiet night was disturbed by a burst of footsteps. When he opened his eyes, there was an older man about his age.
The samurai had already entered. Honganji Temple Xianru had told him that there was no need to announce, just let Yu Qiuping come in alone. The area around the temple should be cleared, leaving no one to disturb the meeting between the two.
So the samurai in front of me must be Yuqiu Hongye.
Honganji Kenjo looked at the samurai and saluted the Buddha statue behind him with his hands clasped together. His face looked much gentler than expected. Honganji Kenjo originally thought that this famous samurai would be more fierce. But in
But there was no aggressive murderous aura in him. Instead, there was kindness from the inside out.
"The young monk Honganji Xianru, I have met His Highness Hongye." Honganji Xianru put his hands together and bowed to Yu Qiuping.
"It's raining and autumn leaves are red, and I've seen Master Xianru." Yu Qiuping did not use the etiquette of the Wu family, but also imitated the etiquette of the Buddhists and returned the gift.
"Please sit down." Honganji Xianru extended his hand, and Yu Qiuping sat down on the futon opposite him knowingly.
"Your Highness's ability to come this time shows your sincerity, but please forgive me for overstepping my bounds and making another rude promise." Honganji bowed to Yu Qiuping as if he was very apologetic, but the tone of his words was unquestionable.
"Master, please speak."
"Let Your Highness know." Honganji Xianru raised his body and whispered to Yu Qiuping, "The Buddha statue behind him has been passed down from generation to generation in Honganji Temple. The relics and portraits of Lord Shinran are worshiped every night.
The young monk has grown up in this Buddhist hall since he was a child. He dare not forget the words of his ancestors, so he dare not tell any lies in this Buddhist hall. I also hope that Your Highness will also allow the young monk not to tell any lies. If it is really inconvenient to tell you, just say so.
That’s fine, there’s no need to lie.”
"Okay, I promise you." Yu Qiuping took a deep breath and nodded, "Master, if you want to ask anything, just ask."
"I'm sorry, little monk." Honganji clasped his hands together and bowed again, then looked at Yu Qiuping, "Are the two thunders from the sky a few days ago really because Honganji tampered with the teachings?"
"No." Yu Qiuping replied happily.
Honganji Xianru sighed with relief after hearing this, and then asked again: "Is it because of the monk's negligence that many scum have been mixed into this Buddhist sect to enrich their own pockets and deceive the superiors and subordinates?"
"No." Yu Qiuping shook his head and said. Seeing that Honganji looked like he wanted to ask again, he smiled and added, "No."
"What about this sky thunder?" Honganji frowned in confusion.
"It's not thunder from the sky, it's gunpowder." Yu Qiuping spread his hands without any cover, "Put the gunpowder into the wooden box, use the earth dragon to attack the tunnel to the base of the city, and detonate the gunpowder to blow up the city."
Honganji Xianru was shocked when he heard this. He hurriedly put his hands together and chanted a few Buddhist chants, and then asked in disbelief: "How can gunpowder be so powerful?"
"I have already promised not to tell any lies in this Buddhist hall. I, Yu Qiu Hongye, always keep my word and will never deceive me." Yu Qiuping turned around and made a "please" gesture with her hands.
, "If you don't believe it, the Master can send people to dig holes and investigate. Outside the South City and East City, there are tunnels and traces of explosions. Outside the North Gate, there are wooden boxes containing gunpowder and fuses. As for the power of the gunpowder inside,
The craftsmanship is a hundred times more complicated, but it is my original creation, so I cannot tell you."
"The young monk can trust His Highness Hongye." Honganji Xianru took a deep breath again, looking at Yu Qiuping with a somewhat complicated expression, "I just don't know why Your Highness told the young monk about this? If His Highness didn't tell the young monk and everyone in the city,
You will think that the gods and Buddhas are angry, and you will be frightened and uneasy, and the destruction of the city is just a matter of time."
"Because I don't want to kill people in any more wars. Once the explosives explode, the prestige of Honganji Temple will be gone, and the whole city will fall into the hell on earth it was yesterday. I don't want to see that scene. I believe Master Xianru doesn't want to either. Otherwise, Master
You won't invite me to this Buddhist hall." Yu Qiuping adjusted his sitting position and said solemnly.
"His Royal Highness Hongye has a kind heart, and his reputation is well-deserved when I see him today. Thanks to His Highness Hongye for informing me, the young monk feels much more at ease. If a Buddhist is punished by the Buddha, it will be extremely painful." Honganji Temple seemed to let out a long sigh of relief and thought.
After a long while, he asked again: "Then the true teachings of the Pure Land Shinsect of the Ming Dynasty that His Highness said..."
"I made it all up. I have offended many people, so please forgive me." Yu Qiuping bowed apologetically, but Honganji Xianru was surprised again.
"Is it all... compiled by His Highness?" Honganji opened his eyes in disbelief, "How could it be so real... To be honest, many believers in the city have believed in His Highness's false teachings."
"Why did the Master say that the teachings are false?" Yu Qiuping turned his head and asked, pretending to be puzzled.
"Your Highness himself said just now that the teachings were all made up..." Honganji frowned as if he didn't understand why.
"Are the ones made up false? Aren't all teachings made up by people? Whether it's the Jodo Shinshu or the Lotus Sect, or all the teachings in the world, aren't they all made up by people at the beginning? Why are the ones I made up false? Before
Is what people made up true?" Yu Qiuping smiled and asked the question he had prepared.
"This..." Yu Qiuping's words made Honganji seem speechless for a moment. He immediately held his breath and concentrated, his eyes tightened, and he kept reciting the Buddha's name. After a while, he slowly stopped, opened his eyes and said: "Your Highness said this
, I really haven’t thought about it, little monk. But the teachings are passed down from generation to generation, how can they be false?”
"The teachings are passed down from generation to generation. Doesn't it also require the first generation? Then if the teachings I made up myself are passed down for more than ten generations, will they become true?" Yu Qiuping tilted his head and asked again, and asked Honganji again.
Xianru fell into deep thought and hesitated for a long time before speaking:
"Buddhist teachings are established by the Buddha and the world..."
"But wouldn't it be the monks who should have written down this teaching?"
"It was written by Buddha."
"Buddha is also a monk."
"Buddha is a god." Honganji Hianru emphasized very firmly.
"Then Master, have you ever seen the Buddha?"
"Ashamed, the young monk has not practiced enough. He has never seen the Buddha. He only met him in his dreams."
"Then who has seen Buddha?"
"Of course they are the masters who founded this Buddhism."
"Aren't they human beings? Who can prove that they have seen it?" Yu Qiuping's questions came one after another, "Now that I say that I have seen the Buddha and left behind his teachings, coupled with the thunderous power of the past two days, is that right?
There will be countless believers who believe in my teachings. After ten generations of inheritance, will they also be Buddhists? But as the Master knows, everything is false."
"When people die and are reborn in the Pure Land, they can see gods and Buddhas."
"But who knows about the world after death? Have you ever talked to the dead? Who knows whether they can see gods or Buddhas? We have no way to communicate with the dead! Who knows whether there is an afterlife?"
"Namo Amitabha." Honganji Xianru listened to Yu Qiuping's shocking words and kept reciting scriptures, "Your Majesty Hongye, please don't say any more..."
"If Master Xianru wants to convince me that gods and Buddhas really exist, he must provide real evidence." Yu Qiuping smiled and spread his hands, guiding Honganji Xianru not to avoid the question, "You can't not see anyone.
If a god or Buddha has ever existed, then you insist on saying that he exists."
"Everything in the world is under the control of the Buddha." Honganji appeared to be sitting upright and replied solemnly.
"What about?" When Yu Qiuping asked this question, a gust of cold wind happened to blow out and blew out an oil lamp in the Buddhist hall. Honganji Xianru pointed to the oil lamp and said to Yu Qiuping, "
This wind is the intention of the Buddha."
"No, no, no." Yu Qiuping shook his head after hearing this, "Wind is formed when sunlight shines on the surface of the earth, causing the surface temperature to rise. The air on the surface expands due to heat and becomes lighter and rises. After the hot air rises, the low temperature
Cold air flows in laterally, and the rising air gradually cools and becomes heavier and falls. The higher surface temperature heats the air and causes it to rise. This flow of air creates wind."
Honganji Xianru was dumbfounded as he listened to what Yu Qiuping had just said. It was obvious that he did not understand.
"Just, Master, can you take a breath and try it?" Yu Qiuping asked Honganji Xianru to follow his instructions, and then said, "The substance you are holding in your mouth now is called air, which is colorless and tasteless. He was cold because of the cold
The heat is different. When it flows, it becomes wind."
"Where are these scriptures from?" Honganji shook his head in confusion.
"As for the Southern Barbarians, I have already verified it, and there is no falsehood." Yu Qiuping bowed to the Buddha statue devoutly.
"What about the rain? The heaven brings sweetness and nourishes all the people. This is a gift from gods and Buddhas." Honganji Hianru once again provided an example.
"The water droplets falling from the clouds, the water on the land and ocean surfaces evaporate into water vapor. The water vapor rises to a certain height and turns into small water droplets when cooled. These small water droplets form clouds, and they collide with each other and merge in the clouds.
They form large water droplets, and when they are so big that the air cannot hold them, they fall from the clouds and form rain." Yu Qiuping answered confidently again.
Honganji looked at Yu Qiuping doubtfully and asked again: "What about the sunrise and moonset?"
"The sunrise is due to the rotation of the earth, and the moonset is due to the revolution of the moon."
Seeing that Honganji Xianru was completely confused, Yu Qiuping had no choice but to give him a geography lesson with a smile and use his fists to explain to him.
"The sphere...the sky is round and the earth is round. The theory of sphere is the saying of the Southern Barbarians."
"But they are right. If you don't believe me, one day I will take Master Xianru to look at the sea. Master Xianru will find that the masts of ships in the distance always appear first. Isn't the ground just a ball?"
"What about the change of day and night and the change of seasons?"
"Isn't the change of day and night the same as the sunrise? The earth rotates. The seasons change. This is because the angle between the planes of the orbits of the earth's revolution and rotation causes the earth to rotate obliquely when it rotates, which is the yellow-red angle.
." When Yu Qiuping talked about this, he found that Honganji Xianru's face was full of helplessness. So Yu Qiuping also sighed and asked in a low voice: "Master Xianru, do you think I'm crazy and are talking nonsense?"
"No, it's just that the young monk has little talent and is unable to understand what His Highness Momiji said." Honganji Xianru bowed and apologized very humbly.
"It doesn't matter if you can't understand. There are so many things in the world that are incomprehensible. When you study more and read more in the future, you will understand. It's like a three-year-old child who has difficulty understanding the meaning of Buddhist scriptures, but changes to memorizing it when he grows up."
"Your Highness Hongye said that." Honganji Xianru smiled and nodded at Yu Qiuping. Yu Qiuping was stunned when he saw this, and then he held his forehead weakly. After being silent for a long time, he suddenly raised his head, with a solemn look in his eyes.
To be continued...