Chapter 64: The Legend of the White Horse Temple

The train soon arrived at the station, Dongdu is only one of the stations, the end of the train is all the way to the east, there are not many people getting off at this station, Ma Xiaoyang said goodbye to the aunt who told the story endlessly, and got off the train.

This way, Ma Xiaoyang didn't talk to Wang Heyi, the boy seemed to have the same destination as Wang Heyi, and he kept talking and laughing since the two of them sat down, looking very harmonious, and Ma Xiaoyang was not easy to disturb.

I got off the bus, I was about to leave the station, I subconsciously looked back, I didn't see Wang Heyi get off the car, I don't know what kind of mentality it was, it seemed that I subconsciously wanted to see if the little girl got off the bus with me, although I didn't plan to do anything.

After getting off the train station, Ma Xiaoyang first wanted to go to the White Horse Temple to see, take the No. 56 bus, and you can go directly without changing cars.

Before coming, Ma Xiaoyang booked a hotel, which is next to the White Horse Temple.

Walking in the Eastern Capital by car, you can see the entire Eastern Capital outside the window, these scenes are not as perfect as on TV, he can go deep into every tiny story.

For example, the uncle who swept the floor just now, the clothes he was wearing were worn, there was a small teapot filled with water, there was a small tricycle, and a little girl was sitting on it, looking at the uncle immaturely, such as the couple who hurriedly bought New Year's goods and went home just now, comparing the things in their hands with the things they saw along the way, whispering and pointing at something, and then for example, the children who had just come home from school, in groups of three or five, one of them walked in the middle and talked and the other walked silently at the side of the crowd, looking at the group of friends.

In this way, you can also see the most real Eastern Capital, the beauty of this city, and the ugliness of this city.

Along the way, there are flowery gardens, artificially carved landscapes, ancient cities, moats, but also residential areas where clothes are dried outside the walls, and alleys filled with fruit pushed by small vendors.

Behind each person, they have their own joys, sorrows, and sorrows, and follow their footsteps to see, that is the meaning of joining the WTO.

This point, it is five o'clock in the afternoon, the White Horse Temple as a famous scenic spot, now it has not closed the door, you can go in and walk around if you buy a ticket, there is an electronic guide at the door, and Ma Xiaoyang rented one before entering the door.

With the news from Baidu on his mobile phone, he observed the thousand-year-old temple in front of him little by little.

The whole temple of the White Horse Temple sits in the north and faces south, and is a long courtyard.

Outside the temple gate, there are new stone archways, release ponds, stone arch bridges in the south of the square in recent years, and the left and right sides of it are green spaces.

There are two stone horses on the left and right, the size is comparable to the real horse, the image is gentle and tame, these are two stone carved horses of the Song Dynasty, with a height of 1. 75 meters, length 2. 20 meters, make a bowed head to bear weight. According to legend, these two stone carved horses were originally in front of the tomb of Princess Yongqing (the daughter of Song Taizu Zhao Kuangyin) and the right horse general Wei Xianxin, and were later moved here by the abbot of the White Horse Temple, Monk Dejie.

Walking into the mountain gate, there is a stone tablet on the west side of "Rebuilding the White Horse Temple in Xijing". This is when Zhao Guangyi, Taizong of the Song Dynasty, ordered the rebuilding of the White Horse Temple, written by Su Yijian.

The mountain gate of the White Horse Temple adopts a stone archway-style three-hole stone arc door. "Mountain Gate" is the main gate of Chinese Buddhist temples, which is generally composed of three gates, symbolizing the "Three Liberation Gates" of Buddhism "Empty Gate", "Wuxiang Gate" and "Wuzuo Gate". Because many monasteries in ancient China were built in mountain villages, they are also known as "mountain gates".

On the east and west sides of the mountain gate, there are two monk tombs of Morteng and Zhu Falang. The five major halls from south to north are the Tianwang Palace, the Big Buddha Palace, the Daxiong Palace, the Receiving Hall and the Pilu Palace. There are statues in each hall, and most of them are works of the Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties.

The Pilu Hall is on the Qingliang Terrace, and the Qingliang Platform is the place where the Buddhist scriptures are translated by Mo Teng and Zhu Falang. The east and west wings are symmetrical. The whole building is grand and solemn, and the layout is rigorous. In addition, there are more than 40 inscriptions, which are of great value for studying the history of the temple and Buddhist culture.

As the ancestral garden of Chinese Buddhism, the White Horse Temple has its special historical significance and religious value.

According to legend, in the seventh year of Yongping in the Eastern Han Dynasty (64 AD), Emperor Liu Zhuang (son of Liu Xiu) of the Han Ming Dynasty stayed in the South Palace at night, dreaming of a golden man with a height of six zhang and a light on his head from the west, flying around the palace.

The next morning, Emperor Ming of the Han Dynasty told the ministers about this dream, and Dr. Fu Yi Qi said, "There is a god in the West, called Buddha, just like the Yongping seeking the Dharma and Yongping seeking the Dharma in your dream."

Emperor Ming of the Han Dynasty was overjoyed when he heard this, and sent more than ten people, including ministers Cai Yin and Qin Jing, to the Western Regions to pray for Buddhist scriptures and Buddhism.

In the eighth year of Yongping (65 AD), Cai, Qin and others bid farewell to the imperial capital and embarked on a journey of 10,000 miles to "learn scriptures from the west".

This is the first time in Chinese history to learn the scriptures from the west, from this study of the scriptures, the land of China, Buddhism began to take root, in this land dominated by Taoism, bear different flowers.

On the way to learn the scriptures, in the country of Dayue (now Afghanistan to Central Asia), they met the Indian monks Semoten and Zhu Falan, saw the Buddhist scriptures and the white felt statue of Shakyamuni Buddha, and implored the two monks to go east to China to preach the Dharma.

In the tenth year of Yongping (67 AD), two Indian monks were invited to return to the eastern capital with Buddhist scriptures and Buddha statues on white horses. Emperor Ming of the Han Dynasty was very happy to see the Buddhist scriptures and Buddha statues, and was extremely polite to the two monks, personally received them, and arranged for them to live temporarily in the official office "Honglu Temple", which was in charge of foreign affairs at that time.

In the eleventh year of Yongping (68 AD), Emperor Ming of the Han Dynasty decreed the construction of a monastery in the north of the imperial road outside the eastern capital of Xiyongmen. In commemoration of the White Horse Sutra, it was named "White Horse Temple". The word "temple" is derived from the word "temple" of "Honglu Temple", and later the word "temple" became a general name for Chinese temples.

It is here that Chemoteng and Zhu Falan translated the Forty-Two Chapters Sutra, which is the first Chinese translation of the Buddhist scriptures in China. In the 150 years after 68 A.D., there are 192 Buddhist scriptures, a total of 395 volumes of Buddhist scriptures translated here, and the White Horse Temple has become a well-deserved Chinese first translation dojo.

For the first 200 years of Buddhism's roots and spread in China, the whole process was closely related to the White Horse Temple. It is the product of China's first Western Heavenly Quest for the Dharma, the residence of the first monks who came to China to preach the Dharma, and the first Chinese Buddhist scriptures and Chinese precepts were born here, and the first Chinese Han monks were born...... In short, the White Horse Temple is closely linked to many "firsts" of Chinese Buddhism, which makes it a veritable ancestral court and source of Chinese Buddhism.

Looking at the various explanations and the solemn and solemn hall in front of him, Ma Xiaoyang's mind was full of mush, and the more he looked at it, the more he felt that listening to the scriptures this time was definitely not so simple.

An unfathomable master, speaking of a monk who has attained the Tao, then this monk will definitely not be far behind.

And such a master speaks the scriptures, and he knows how powerful it is, and he knows it when he thinks about it.

And today, Ma Xiaoyang knows that this White Horse Temple is the ancestral court of Buddhism in China, and the more he can preach in such a place, the more he panics.

After walking around, Ma Xiaoyang became more and more nervous, panicked, returned to the hotel, and lay on the bed, a little distracted.

Saying that he was not afraid that it was fake, he was so confused, and he didn't eat dinner, so he fell asleep.