Volume 1 Little Yuanba Chapter 47 Talking about Merit in a Shabby Room
"Yu Qian, Li Sanlang, was sent to Shangrao to escort the military supplies and supplies to save the livelihood of tens of thousands of people in the city.
I don't want to be attacked in the middle of the day today. There are many civilian casualties. There are forty or fifty wounded who need rescue at the venue. I would like to use your palace for use.
If you have salt water or herbs, I would be very grateful! You can leave some grains, beans, and noodles for alms to the disciples of the Buddha.
It’s just..., I was really surprised to see your temple was empty when I came in!"
The monk was not annoyed after hearing this. He smiled slightly and bowed and said, "Little donor, can you come to the abbot for a cup of tea?"
This was an invitation. Li Dan raised his hand: "Okay, I'd like to host it!"
After speaking, he told Song Xiaoniu to ask the governors to pay attention to the group entering the village and not to harass them when entering the temple. Then he led Mao Zaidi and followed the monks forward.
Monk Tongzhi introduced it as he walked, and Li Dan knew that people had been practicing Buddhism in this place since the late Tang Dynasty. However, the place was too remote and they could not build a temple.
Fortunately, in the early years of this dynasty, a wandering Jiashan master came. Before leaving, he left a few taels of silver that he had obtained through alms, so that the archway and the mountain gate could be built.
The former host Yutong made a wish to build the three main halls in his lifetime.
Unexpectedly, he and the whole temple lived frugally, opened up wasteland and cultivated land, and went around to beg for alms and raise funds. The hundred taels of gold that he had saved with great difficulty were unexpectedly stolen by a few strong thieves who broke into the temple on a stormy night.
As a result, Yutong fell ill and passed away soon after. His eldest disciple gathered the monks and distributed the remaining silver coins, grains, and ultimatums to everyone, and asked everyone to find their own way to survive.
Nowadays, there are only three and a half monks and one novice monk left in the temple. They only have one meal a day, and life is extremely miserable.
"There are only a few of them, no wonder they don't light any incense!" Mao Zaidi said after tying up Zao Liu and Da Qing and catching up.
"Little Junye, it's not that there are few people and no incense, it's that this place is weird and not a good place to build a temple!" Tongzhi smiled bitterly.
"You mean, this place is not suitable for building a temple?" Li Dan said, standing in front of a cliff and was stunned.
This is a huge square mountain with red cliffs that go almost straight up and down.
But below the foot of the mountain, the erosion of millions of years of rain has created miracles, forming arched halls and recessed courtyards on the red cliffs.
These monks used the terrain to build outer walls and part of the roof paved with cattails, which extended along the cliff.
The tall one is the main hall, and the low one is the monk's room, kitchen, and scripture storage room.
"So, this is your temple?" Li Dan asked in surprise.
"I have no choice. I can't build the main hall, so I have to make do with it. From generation to generation, I don't know how many years we have been making do!" Tongzhi sighed.
"You actually live in a cave?" Mao Zaidi couldn't believe it: "If you become a monk here, you have to live in a cave for the rest of your life?"
"This is not a cave," Li Dan told him: "This is called Danxia landform. It was formed by the accumulation of sediment from a large lake or sea 10,000 years ago.
At that time, the water surface was much higher than it is now. The top of the mountain might have been underwater, or it might have been a small island above the water.
Later, the water gradually decreased and the flow speed accelerated, and these caves and alcoves were washed out on the cliff walls.
Later, even the water disappeared, and all of it was exposed to the outside, and it became what we saw."
"Oh, I'm talking about defense! The water should have been drained away by Dayu, right?" Mao Zaidi seemed to understand better and looked at Li Dan with admiration.
"Amitabha." Tongzhi clasped his hands and said, "It's really rare for a donor to be able to understand the past and present. The young monk has also been taught!"
"Looking at the past and present? This is a good word!" Li Dan laughed: "But Master just said that this place is not suitable for building a temple. I can't agree with it."
"Oh? Don't the donor think that the place here is cramped and the restricted terrain makes it difficult to perform?"
"It is difficult for humans to change the topography and landforms. We can only adapt to local conditions. You borrowing cliff caves to build houses is an example." Li Dan walked into a main hall and continued to say while looking up at the Buddha statue:
"In ancient times, temples were built based on Feng Shui, especially the famous temples. Today's Qingliang Temple and Jing'an Temple in Jinling, Daxingshan Temple, Daci'en Temple, Jianfu Temple, Qinglong Temple in Chang'an during the Tang Dynasty, Golden Pavilion Temple in Wutai Mountain in the late Tang Dynasty, Luoyang
The White Horse Temple, Guanghua Temple, etc. are all like this."
"Young Master, are you familiar with my Buddhism?" Tongzhi raised his head in surprise, and then Li Dan realized that he was only about forty years old, but his long years of hard training had made his beard and hair gray.
“The purpose of building a temple is nothing more than two things: promotion and meditation. Either one, or both.
For promotion reasons, temples should indeed be built in open, convenient, and densely populated areas.
But if you are just meditating, you don’t have to do this. Just choose a place where you can live, and causes and conditions will naturally create a pure place.
Master Tongzhi took me to see it. There are mountains and rivers here, and there are pastoral fields, which are suitable for Qing Dynasty!" Li Dan came out and walked to the gap in the courtyard wall, pointing to the scenery outside and shouting.
"Can……."
"I know what Master means by 'but'. You still can't let go of the idea of promoting Buddhism, right? Master has forgotten that Buddha taught us to learn to 'give up' and let everything happen.
Since this place is not suitable for promotion, how can we insist on it? It is better to choose one of the two, which is more natural. Furthermore, if you want both at the same time, it will cost a lot.
Rather than being like this now, it is better to give up one thing and realize another. Isn't it a contribution and merit to Buddhism to provide a good place for monks and believers to practice?"
"Of course." Tongzhi opened his mouth wide, closed it for a while, and then said these two words.
Li Dan smiled and came back and said: "You Tang Mi Na, you always want to make it magnificent. It seems that if you don't do this, it will be difficult to show the freedom of the heavens outside the world, the respect of the Buddha's Dharma, and the majesty of the Vajra.
Don’t you know that when Sakyamuni was practicing, he only had a futon, and there was no tile to cover his body? You have been in the world for a long time, and you think that you must live in a monastery and wear cassocks to practice. In fact, you are wrong!"
The monk was dumbfounded by what he said. After a long while, he asked: "How do you know that our temple is a secret inheritance of the Tang Dynasty?"
Li Dan looked at him with a half-smile but not a smile: "How could I not see that Mahakala standing there with his hands open and staring?" Seeing Tongzhi blushing, he laughed and said:
"Your master has found a good place. No one else can destroy the Buddha here. If the master wants to build the temple into a magnificent place, it goes against his original intention!"
When Na Tongzhi heard this, his face was full of shame and he bowed and said: "My lord, your words will wake up the dreamer.
To be honest with you, all the abbots of our temple in the past have not understood the reason why our ancestors stayed here. They don’t want to be seen through by the adults, which really makes the young monk feel ashamed! In this case, the main hall is really not repaired!"
"Hey——, I asked you not to cultivate to be magnificent, but I didn't tell you not to cultivate!" Li Dan waved his hand and said:
"But master, we can discuss other matters slowly. The bandits are coming, and I would like to ask the master to come forward and persuade the villagers to avoid the temple. I am surrounded by a train formation here and have hundreds of sharp guards.
This matter cannot be delayed, and we ask everyone to come forward and help! There are dozens of injured people who need housing, and we also ask everyone to make arrangements."
"Monks are merciful. This is all easy to say. Sir, please bring the injured. I have a junior brother here who is very skilled in medicine.
As for the villagers, they are originally tenants of our temple, I will just send people to collect them."
"So, thank you very much, Master!"
Tong Zhilian said, "I don't dare take it", turned around and called two monks with good looks to give them instructions.
Li Dan noticed it, and while walking out, he asked Mao Zaidi to bring thirty kilograms of rice noodles and five kilograms of beans to the temple to help him.
As soon as he stepped out of the temple wall, he saw Song Xiaoniu striding towards him. He hurriedly walked to the side to call him over and asked, "Have everything been arranged, but do you have anything else?"
"Sanlang, the governor has made arrangements. My uncle asked me to tell you that the sentinel sent out has not found any bandits."
"Didn't find it?" Li Dan wondered, scratching his head and said: "Impossible, Mr. Sheng said that it was the prisoners who confessed, so he couldn't have heard wrong. Could it be that when he heard that the forwards were all wiped out, they became afraid and turned around and ran away?"
"Hey, that's good, there's no need to fight this battle!"
Song Xiaoniu reached out and patted the edge of Mao Zaidi's bamboo hat, and then said softly: "My uncle said, don't slack off until you have confirmed the enemy's whereabouts. Who knows what evil they are hiding!"
"That makes sense." Li Dan wanted to ask: "Before leaving, Shanda said that he still kept the captured thief leader. Where is he?"
"Down below, my uncle's people were watching and didn't care about him."
"Bring it over and let me interrogate it again." Li Dan looked back at the Heavenly King's Palace: "It's right here, hurry up!"
Maverick ran away to pick up the prisoner. Li Dan looked at the carriage and driver rumbling by in front of him, and waved to Zhao Jingzi:
"Go up to the west mountain and find a high place to draw a picture of the surrounding area. I will use it when I hold a meeting to set up defenses!" He then looked at the wall that the civilians had pushed and widened, and called a messenger:
"Please ask Zuoying to make a wooden fence. It won't work if it's left open like this. Also, make some horses to resist and send some to the entrance of the archway and the mountain gate below. We need to be quick!"
There is a place called Kwun Tong, separated by two ridges, to the southwest of Lingyan Temple. It is a small village of about twenty households.
The whole family of the only wealthy family in the village is now lying in the mud by the pond. The surviving villagers are either cooking, delivering meals, or doing some starching and washing work.
A few strong laborers were moving things out from the rich family's house. The mule cart at the door was already packed with boxes and blankets, and someone turned around and put it in the sedan pulled by the little donkey.
The soldier armed with a spear and a red cloth wrapped around his head stood behind the car with his arms akimbo, staring intently.
Beside the red clay wall about ten steps away from him, two people were talking quietly.
The guy with thick eyebrows, mustache, a leather belt with a double bow and quiver hanging on the back, and a fish-skin sheathed Yanling knife in his waist, said to the dark man with a short beard opposite:
"General, that group of people hid in the temple because they were obviously cowardly. What if they knew we were behind them?
I think we should catch up with them while they feel guilty, surround them all, kill them all first, and then take revenge and then take away the food. We can't wait for them to recover, and it will be too much effort to fight again!"
"A beating must be fought, and revenge must be avenged." The thin lips of the dark-faced man opposite moved gently:
"I just feel that something is wrong. If the officers and soldiers abandoned them and ran away, then it stands to reason that a group of civilians should have dispersed long ago. There is no reason to retreat into the temple.
But if this is not the case, what would it be? Hey, who is leading the team this time? It’s very interesting!”
"I'm waiting for you, General, can you not mention that useless thing! You mean, do they have any other back-ups or strategies?"
"It's hard to say!" Thin lips spat on the ground:
"Feng Laosan ran back and said that at first the opponent was caught off guard, but immediately someone took out a bamboo gun to resist, and there were officers and soldiers wearing civilian clothes outside to help stabilize the situation, and then a young general in Tsing Yi riding a red horse led people from
Charge the formation from the side and force them to retreat.
The people who came out to assist in the woods to the west were also in Qingyi, and they seemed to be in the same group as this young general. Then someone called out that the army was coming, and they were surrounded, causing the front line to be defeated and Li Youna was killed.
It doesn't sound to me like Li You ambushed the grain transport team, but it sounds like someone set up a trap to trap this kid." After he finished speaking, he punched the wall with his fist, and the dirt was fine.
The brush falls.
"Tell Feng Laosan to come see me. Damn it, this kid abandoned his brother on the battlefield as a deserter, and now he has to make up for it! I, You Sanjiang, don't accept waste!"
It turns out that this person is You Sanjiang who was mentioned by Han Shoubei earlier and defeated Lin Baihu on the river to steal military supplies!
The mustache started to leave, but he stopped him again: "Go to the village and ask if there is any other way to Lingyan Temple? I don't believe it. Is there really no crack in this bastard's shell?"
?”
After saying that, he slowly walked into the yard of the wealthy family with his hands behind his back. He looked up at the main house with black tiles and overhanging eaves. He walked in, pulled up a chair and sat in the sun, and called the soldiers:
"Where are his maids and slaves? Find one to serve this general.
I kill the rich and give to the poor for them, and do justice to heaven. Is it okay to enjoy what the gentlemen have enjoyed?
You have made it so boring that there is no one to serve tea and water!"
The soldiers quickly went to Guan Ren's woodshed and brought two or three people to boil water and serve tea. They also picked a good-looking person to beat his shoulders.