Master Huizhao never thought that he would actually go to the mountain to become a saint.
There is obviously a palace, so why live in the mountains? Could it be that Shao Sheng has seen through the glitz of the world and wants to take refuge in my Buddha? This - it's not possible now.
There was an autumn rain last night, and the mountain road was rugged and slippery. Master Huizhao and the Khotan monks spent a lot of effort and finally arrived at the place where the yellow umbrella cover was set up.
"People from outside the country pay homage to the emperor of the great country." Master Huizhao announced the name of the Buddha and bowed. All the monks saluted together.
"Give me a seat and tea." Shao Shude ordered.
He carefully observed the monks in Khotan and found that their appearance was typical of the Tocharians, similar to the Sogdians. They were both Tibetan people, but they were also different from Tibetan people.
The Tibetan people in the Northeast do not look much different from the Han people.
Some of the Tibetan people in the northern grasslands are similar, and some are not. For example, the Uighurs, a typical yellow race, although they have moved westward, their appearance will change after mixing with the locals.
The Yinshan Tatars are very complicated. After all, there is a White Tatar group. Most of the northwest grasslands are white.
But generally speaking, the northwest is "white", the northeast is "yellow", the north is white, and both yellow and yellow are the mainstream. After all, in history, the large-scale eastward migration of the Tocharians was blocked by the Xiongnu.
"I have studied the Tubo language for many years..." Shao Shude suddenly said: "On the way back to the court from the Bohai class, I had nothing to do, so I read the Yue Zang Sutra."
Master Huizhao was shocked. The emperor of the Central Plains actually learned foreign languages?
"Unfortunately, my knowledge is limited and I can only understand half of what I read. I only understand the outline of the story about the destruction of Dharma mentioned in the book." Shao Shude continued: "Master, do you think this matter will come true?"
Shao Shude was proficient in Dangxiang language in his early years, but this language has no written characters.
Later, he learned Tubo language, but his energy was limited, his learning was not profound enough, and his level was average.
I also learned Uyghur, but gave up halfway, and I only understand partial conversations and a few words. As I get older, my memory deteriorates, and I have given up learning any foreign language.
He probably understood the story about the destruction of Dharma in the Moon Storehouse Sutra: King Yavana (referring to the Greeks), King Shiku (referring to the Sai people), and King Polo (referring to the Parthians) were the three
Taking advantage of the weakness of Buddhism, these evil kings each led an army of 100,000 to attack the Kingdom of Jushanmi in Tianzhu. After twelve years of fighting, the Kingdom of Jushan wiped out the invading enemies. In order to eliminate the sin of massacre of soldiers, the king of the country, King Nankan, invited
All the Sangha in the world have come to the country of Sammi.
After all the monks arrived, they held an uposatha ceremony. At the meeting, the monks had disputes and killed each other. By daybreak, they were all dead, and the Dharma was completely destroyed.
The story is quite ridiculous. Considering the time when it was written (no later than the 2nd century) and the place where it was written (somewhere in northwest India), it was probably made up by Indians who experienced the invasion of these three groups.
"Your Majesty, the destruction of the Dharma has not only been fulfilled in Tianzhu." Master Huizhao said with a sad look on his face: "The things recorded in the Yue Zang Sutra actually have a preface, which the Tubo people have not translated."
"Tell me about it." Shao Shude asked with interest.
"Sometime in the future, monks will not abide by the sincere Dharma and join the world for profit. The worldly people will not believe in the true Dharma and do not like the Buddha and the Sangha. Therefore, the Buddhist Dharma will decline, the Buddhist kingdom will weaken, and foreign enemies will invade." Master Huizhao said.
"So that's how it is." Shao Shude sighed: "It's not that it's aimless."
He knew that the monks in the Buddhist countries in the Western Regions had privileges that were unimaginable to the people of the Central Plains. Taking Khotan as an example, the king was accompanied by fifty monks who practiced martial arts all year round. In Buddhist temples, the influence of the monks spread throughout society.
In every corner, as the saying goes, things must be reversed at their extremes, which has aroused great resentment among the secular class.
Think about it, when Shao Shude handled the Sanjie Temple in Suizhou, its monks had various assets, such as shops, mills, farmland, orchards, etc. They also made loan sharks at usury. When the debts could not be recovered, they directly transferred the debtors to
Tie him back and torture him.
The monks in the Central Plains are so arrogant, what will the Buddhist countries in the Western Regions be like? To put it bluntly, it is difficult to collect taxes.
The king had to support the bureaucracy and the army, and the taxes he received from the Buddhist temples were limited, so he could only exploit the people. What could the people do? Take refuge in the Buddhist temples.
In addition, the monks were arrogant and competed with the nobles
Benefit, everyone is disgusted with Buddhism from top to bottom. "Can the Khotan Kingdom be destroyed by law?" Shao Shude asked.
Master Huizhao looked up to the sky and sighed, saying: "It won't be long before monks join the world to make profits and corrupt the Buddha's teachings." Shao Shude was silent.
This is in line with the history of later generations. The Green Sect was founded much later than Buddhism. It is only more than two hundred years ago and is in its rising period. Various interest groups have not yet become as decadent and degenerate as Buddhism in the Western Regions, causing various social changes.
Class resentment. It is almost inevitable that they will win in the end, just as the emerging defeats the decay.
The cycle of rise and fall in the world has its own time. Countries, nations, and religions are nothing more than this.
If the countries in the Western Regions do not have external assistance, even if they can survive this time, they will fall sooner or later.
"Khotan was a vassal state of the former Tang Dynasty, but it has not received the canonization of the Great Xia Dynasty." Shao Shude said: "The master and his party were hundreds of people. They presented more gifts than ordinary tributes, but they did not bring their credentials. I can't figure it out.
Well, what on earth does the Lord of Khotan think?"
The Khotanese mission—let’s call it the mission—consists of several hundred people, which is not a large number. In addition to monks, there are also aristocratic children and businessmen from the Khotanese state. However, there are no credentials and no official officials.
In terms of status, they belong to the standard private "cultural exchange group?" "business exchange group?" "tourist group?"
The gifts they presented include: a jade belt inlaid with exquisite jade, three large jade groups from Donghe, ten jade groups from Kunlun Mountain, fifty jade groups from Donghe, and one hundred jade autumn bridles. These are relatively valuable.
.
There are also some items such as white cloth (fine cotton cloth woven from Khotanese cotton), yak tail, red salt, turmeric, gold sand, Dapeng sand (borax), musical instruments, knives and other items.
Khotan is rich in beautiful jade, and its utensils and clothing are often decorated with jade. The king's seal is also made of jade. Tuan is a unit of measurement for Khotan jade, but it does not represent the weight.
Among the gifts given by the historical captain Chi Suluo to Cao Yuanzhong, the governor of the Guiyi Army, there was a ball of large jade, weighing 80 kilograms; a ball of medium jade, weighing 42 kilograms; a ball of pure jade, weighing 10 kilograms; and a ball of jade, weighing 10 kilograms.
Weighs 5 pounds.
This time, the large Donghe jade offered to Bactria by the Khotan Kingdom was mostly between 80 and 100 kilograms, the Kunlun Mountain jade was between 40 and 60 kilograms, and the Donghe jade was all within 20 kilograms.
Khotan often used jade to trade with surrounding areas. They once exchanged 30 kilograms of jade for 200 bolts of silk from the Guiyi Army. To be honest, with this exchange ratio, the profit of the bad guy would skyrocket.
Their jade resources seemed endless, and even the surrounding forces had a large amount of jade in their hands. In 932, the Guiyi Army donated 36 regiments of jade to the Later Tang Dynasty.
In 940, the Ganzhou Uighurs paid tribute to the Later Jin Dynasty with 100 regiments of jade. In 942, the Ganzhou Uighurs again presented 100 regiments of jade. In 948, the Ganzhou Uighurs paid tribute to the Later Han Dynasty with 73 regiments of jade.
In 951, the Gaochang Uighurs sent 6 tribute jade regiments to the Later Zhou Dynasty, as well as 77 Manichaean master tribute jade regiments.
No wonder Hetian jade resources in later generations are close to being exhausted. It is really because they have been too ruthless these days.
"The ruler of the country was old and could not travel far, so he asked the poor Taoist to go out and see what year it is today." Master Huizhao said. "Have you ever seen anything during your journey from Dunhuang?" Shao Shude asked.
"Pindao entered Lingzhou via Hexi, then went south, passed through Guanzhong and entered Henan, then went north from Huazhou, all the way to Beiping." Master Huizhao replied: "I heard that the Central Plains has not been peaceful in the past few decades, and wars have continued year after year.
The suffering is unspeakable. Now along the way, we can see that the devastation is gradually recovering, and the people are at peace. Occasionally, there will be minor chaos, but they will soon be calmed down. Looking at the counties, villages and villages, they don’t look like ten houses and nine empty houses. I can only say that the big
Saint Xia is a man of great wisdom, courage and perseverance."
"How is it compared to Tang before?" Shao Shude asked.
"In terms of strength, it should be no less than that of the early Tang Dynasty." Master Huizhao replied.
"The master has a good knowledge of the Central Plains." Shao Shude smiled and said: "From what the master said, it seems to be worse than before in the early Tang Dynasty?" "Your Majesty has great wisdom, but now you still need to do something of great courage."
"What is an act of great courage?"
"In the former Tang Dynasty, Taizong Li Shimin traveled thousands of miles to destroy the Gaochang Kingdom. Now the Gaochang Uighurs have occupied their old territory, killing merchants and plundering other countries. Why don't Your Majesty raise an army to fight against them?"
"If I go to Khotan as an army, would you be willing to help me?" "That's my wish.
.”
"It's a pity that Master is not an envoy." Shao Shude sighed and said, "I want to send a delegation to visit Khotan. What does Master think?" "The Lord of Khotan will certainly welcome it," Master Huizhao said.
"But I always feel that the Lord of Khotan has some misunderstandings about me." "Once the envoy arrives, the misunderstanding may be cleared up."
"If an envoy comes with a book, will the Lord of the Kingdom still welcome him?"
"Buddha's teachings are in the world and never leave the world. Looking for Bodhi after leaving the world is just like looking for a rabbit's horns." Shao Shude was choked. His uncle told me the story of a chariot wheel again.
"Forget it, Master will return in a while. I will send a delegation to accompany him and bring a book. The King of Khotan can just weigh it himself." Shao Shude said. After that, he chatted with Master Huizhao about Khotan.
After learning about the local customs and customs, I inquired about the situation in Gaochang, and learned that the monks in Gaochang also enjoy huge economic privileges, and the manors attached to the temple are spread across various oases.
There is no need to think about it. The Uighurs who originally fell out with Pugujun and fled west to the opposite side of Congling were probably in the same situation in their country.
When faced with a powerful enemy from the Green Sect, are the monks still so kind and hard-pressed to give up their wealth? Don’t they know how to give up some of their profits to support the secular nobles in reorganizing their armies and fighting against powerful enemies? If the secular nobles lose, they can still change their faith and take refuge.
Green Sect, don’t you know what will happen to the monks if they lose?
After the chat, he asked Master Huizhao and his party to leave.
Issue several commands at the same time:
People were recruited from Hexi Road, herdsmen repaired Daqi Road, and warehouses were built in Shazhou to prepare for the hoarding of supplies.
Hexi and Longyou Prefecture soldiers and soldiers have strengthened their training, and their commanders conduct random inspections at any time. The Privy Council regularly sends people to inspect. Sinong Temple checks the number of livestock in various pastures, focusing on checking the number of horses.
Summon the chiefs of various tribes in Helong to the capital for an audience. The war will not start immediately, but preparations still need to be made in advance.
