In front of the main hall, there is a high-backed chair and a table, which is usually the emperor's throne, but at this time it has become Yan Cong's lecture office.

The emperor had already asked Gao Yuanhai, the servant, to stand next to the throne and wait for Yan Cong.

Yan Cong walked to the front of the lecture, and Gao Yuanhai hurriedly stepped forward to support Yan Cong and help him take a seat.

This throne is still a bit high for Yan Cong.

Gao Yuanhai is over half a hundred years old, his hair is fluttering, but Yan Cong has clear eyebrows and beautiful eyes, and he is only ten years old.

If this kind of scene had not been at the lecture hall for the propagation of the Dharma, it would have caused everyone to laugh dumbly.

Yan Cong sat on the throne, facing the dark audience below, he was not afraid, his expression was natural, and his eyes were blazing.

He began to preach, and his childish voice echoed through the hall.

The listeners looked up at each other and were shocked by Yan Cong's knowledge.

At the age of sixteen, Yancong's father died.

Yan Cong returned to his home to mourn.

He used this time to read the classics such as the subset of scriptures and histories, and to interact with the learned people in the court.

After the Zhou Dynasty was destroyed, Buddhism declined.

Emperor Wu of Zhou knew that Yan Cong was very knowledgeable, so he invited him to the palace and talked to him about Taoist metaphysics.

Yancong Buddhism, Taoism, and Confucianism are all connected.

The content he told Emperor Wu was very much in line with Emperor Wu's thoughts.

Emperor Wu conferred on him the Bachelor of Passage Views.

Although Yan Cong was discussing Taoism with Emperor Wu on the surface at this time, he still followed the Buddhist scriptures in his heart.

He wore the clothes of laymen on the outside, but on the inside he was a monk's clothes, and changed his name to Yancong.

Emperor Wu of Zhou vigorously preached Taoism, and Emperor Xuan inherited the practice of Emperor Wu and made a big dojo, often all night long.

Yan Cong was invited to preside over the dojo because he knew the family classics in detail.

When Yan Cong talked about Taoism, he added the Dharma to the teachings, so that the audience unconsciously accepted the Dharma.

Emperor Wu of Zhou destroyed the Buddha, Huiyuan bluntly refuted it in the main hall, and the monk Chou and others avoided other places in order to preserve their strength, and Yancong's approach was to use the cloak of Taoism to promote Buddhism.

In the early days when Buddhism was introduced to China, the translation or preaching of Buddhist scriptures was originally explained by Chinese Taoism and other metaphysical principles, but now Yan Cong has done the opposite, which can be said to be the creation of Dharma propagation.

In the second year of the elephant, Sui Wen became the prime minister, and Buddhism was slightly raised.

Later, Yan Cong and Tan Yan and others played together to invite the emperor to continue to shave their hair and become monks.

After the establishment of the Sui Dynasty, Emperor Wen of Sui believed in Buddhism and set up Buddhist lectures in Beijing, which continued throughout the four seasons.

Yan Cong, Xue Daoheng and others worked together to compile the "Collection of Inner Classics and Texts" for people to study the Fa. Yan Cong also wrote chanting instructions for monks, and this method has been passed down to future generations.

In the third year of the emperor's reign, Emperor Wen of Sui came to the Taoist altar in person, and he felt very strange when he saw the statue of Lao Tzu turning Hu Du into Buddhism.

So he ordered to convene monks and Taoist priests to discuss the matter.

At this time, Yan Cong participated in this discussion, and the discussion had not yet begun, and the Taoist priests had already admitted that the matter was for nothing.

Yan Cong wrote an article entitled "On Apologetics", accusing Taoism of being delusional and untrustworthy.

Since then, Buddhism has gained the upper hand again.

The controversy between Lao Tzu and Hu is a key issue in the struggle between Buddhism and Taoism in Chinese history.

This incident is recorded in the Taoist classic "Lao Tzu Hua Hu Jing".

During the Western Jin Dynasty, the Taoist priest Wang Fu and the monk Bo Yuan argued about the good and evil of Buddhism.

Wang Fu created the theory that Lao Tzu turned into a Buddha, believing that Lao Tzu entered Tianzhu in the west and became a Buddha, and educated Hu people to become a floating Buddha, and Buddhism was born from this. This is an argument that Taoism uses to reject Buddhism in the struggle between Buddhism and Taoism.

In the same year, Yan Cong accompanied Emperor Wen on his eastern tour.

During the Eastern Tour, Yan Cong was courteous to Yang Guang, the king of Jin.

Soon, the king of Qin, who was guarding in Taiyuan, invited Yan Cong to Taiyuan and talked to Yan Cong about Buddhism.

While in Taiyuan, Yancong had a dream.

In the dream, Yan Cong saw a golden man, three feet tall, holding a glass bowl to give to him, and said, "This bowl is wine, please drink it." ”

Yan Cong knelt down and took the bowl, and said to the golden man, "Thank you for giving me a treasure." But alcohol is forbidden by the Buddhist law, so I don't dare to drink it. ”

After waking up, he didn't understand what was in the dream, and when the King of Qin showed the statue of Guanyin he painted to Yan Cong, Yan Cong was surprised to find that the Guanyin on the statue was exactly the same as the god in his dream.

Yan Cong was very glad that he was able to keep the law in his dream, it was Guanyin who was testing him.

In the twelfth year of the emperor's reign, Emperor Wen once again issued an edict to let Yancong enter Beijing.

Later, he was put in charge of the translation of Buddhist scriptures and lived in Daxingshan Temple.

At this time, Yang Guang, the king of Jin, built Riyan Temple in Beijing and asked Yancong to be the abbot.

Most of the high-ranking officials and dignitaries in the court went to visit and listen to Yan Cong's teachings, and Yan Cong's confidence was doubled. Yan Cong changed the practice of using Buddhist scriptures translated from the past to directly use Sanskrit Buddhist scriptures to teach the Dharma so that students could understand the true meaning of Buddhism.

At the beginning of Renshou, Emperor Wen sent a decree to Yancong to send the relics to Bingzhou.

At that time, the state was guarded by the Han king, who built temples and pagodas in the city to welcome the arrival of the relics.

When Yan Cong first arrived at the pagoda, the sky was overcast.

By noon, when the relics were about to be buried, the clouds opened and the sun rose, the heavens and the earth were clear, and there were five-colored auspicious clouds around the sun.

In the last years of Renshou, Emperor Wen asked Yan Cong to send the relics to Fuzhou Fangle Temple, when the filial piety temple was deserted, but the place was wide enough to build a spiritual pagoda.

Yan Cong asked people to remove the wild grass and prepare to build a tower.

Suddenly, Yan Cong felt an itch on his head, and he scratched his head with his hand to get a relic.

The shape of the relics resembles millet and the colors are bright.

Hit twice with an axe, and everything next to it was smashed, but the relics were not damaged in the slightest.

Hit hard, and the color of the relics became more distinct.

After digging seven feet into the ground, I found a box made of silver and copper hidden in the bricks, and the incense clay that wrapped the box still smelled fragrant.

There was only a box full of water in the box, but there were no relics.

It can be speculated that the relics in this box are the ones that Yan Cong found on his head.

Yan Cong wanted to put the relics sent and the found relics in the tower, and he had to find a big stone box, but there were no big stones nearby.

Yan Cong closed his eyes and sensed remotely and found that there was a stone in Jingling County, which could be used to make a stone box.

After grinding the stone, the stone suddenly turned into jade, and the inside of the stone was clearly visible.

The people next to him found the Buddha statues in the stones.

Put the stone box in the tower, and immediately a swan flies to the place where the box is placed, snuggling up to the stone box, tame and intimate. When he saw the geese in the same flock coming, he did not fly with them, but after driving them away, he flew to the stone box again. Stayed for ten days.

After the relics were buried, the goose flew around the tower a few times and flew away.

I felt the fish and turtles in the pond in front of the pagoda again, and they poked their heads out together and looked north at the stupa.

Yan Cong spoke for them, and they disappeared a day later.

The water from the nearby well naturally overflowed for fifteen days, and it did not stop until the stone box was buried.

On April 8, the sky was full of clouds. At noon, when the relics were about to be buried, the clouds dispersed, and only above the tower, there was a multicolored cloud round as a lid, shining in the sunlight.

After burying the relics, the clouds floated away.

Yan Cong was very happy with these auspicious signs, and made the matter clear to Emperor Wen, and Emperor Wen was overjoyed, and sent a decree to have people record the matter and hide it in the secret pavilion.

In the second year of Renshou, Emperor Wen asked Yan Cong to write a catalogue of the scriptures, and Yan Cong divided the scriptures into five types: single translation, retranslation, other births, suspected falsifications, and accompanying volumes.

At this time, Yan Cong dreamed that he had gone to hell and saw all kinds of sufferings in life.

He recited the Buddha at any time in hell and attained liberation.

Later, he was sent to the mountains again, and the scene he saw in hell reappeared.

Some of the famous monks who had been with him were suffering from suffering, and they told him about their suffering, and they told him about the benefits of the Ten Virtues.

It was a long time before he woke up.

When Emperor Wen heard about this, he asked Yan Cong to write it out and give it to the monks and laymen as a warning.

In the second year of the Great Cause, the Eastern Capital was set up, and Yan Cong and the monks went to congratulate.

Emperor Yang summoned Yancong into the palace and talked to him about Buddhism. Emperor Yang was very interested in what Yan Cong talked about, and they talked for several nights.

Yan Cong told Emperor Yang about the translation of the scriptures, and showed Emperor Yang his praise, which gave Emperor Yang a further understanding of Buddhism.

Emperor Yang issued a decree to set up a scripture translation hall in Shanglin Yuan, Luoyang, and let Yancong preside over the translation there.

There are more than 564 Buddhist scriptures and more than 1,350 Buddhist scriptures obtained in Xinping Linyi, as well as pear leaves written by Kunlun.

Emperor Yang ordered that these Buddhist scriptures be sent to the Translation Hall and handed over to Yan Cong, so that he could read and compile a catalog, and then gradually translate them. Yan Cong then wrote a five-volume catalogue of seven bodies, which are: scriptures, laws, praises, treatises, squares, characters, and miscellaneous books. There are more than 2,200 volumes of scriptures translated in Chinese.

Yan Cong often participated in the translation of Sanskrit Buddhist scriptures, so he was able to comprehend Sanskrit.

Translators from ancient times to the present have often relied on nothingness, and even fewer have been consistent with sounds, characters, and exegesis. For this reason, Yan Cong wrote the Dialectical Treatise, which was used as a standard for the translation of Buddhist scriptures.

Yan Cong's article summarizes the shortcomings in the translation of Buddhist scriptures since Dao'an, and puts forward ten problems that should be paid attention to in translating Buddhist scriptures and the conditions that translators should have. For the translation of Buddhist scriptures, a standard was established.

Yan Cong has always suffered from hypocrisy, and he has constant dysentery during his attacks.

At the age of fifty-four, he fell ill and died in the Translation Hall.

On the morning of his death, Yan Cong was weak but in good spirits. Yan Cong asked his disciples, "Hasn't the time of fasting yet arrived?"

The disciple replied, "No." Yan Cong closed his eyes and meditated.

After a while, Yan Cong looked up at the sun through the doorway, knew that the time of fasting had come, and said to the disciples, "I am leaving." ”

Yan Cong washed his hands with water, burned incense and invited out the portrait of Maitreya, and looked at it carefully, opening his eyes for a while and closing his eyes for a while.

It didn't take long for Yan Cong to die of exhaustion.

An Xiaoyu said: "When Yan Cong fell into a trough of Buddhism, he was able to transform Buddhism with Taoism, and Buddhism re-emerged, and Yan Cong made great contributions. ”

The little monk said, "My lord is right. ”

An Xiaoyu said: "Which other monk do you know?"

The little monk said, "My master also told me the story of the Buddha Yasha. ”

When Buddha Yasha was thirteen years old, his father made him a monk.

The reason for Yashatha's ordination is simple: his family is in Zobin, he belongs to the Brahmin caste, and his family has been practicing the foreign way for generations.

When a monk came to beg for food, my father was so angry that he was beaten up, and suddenly his hands and feet spasmed, and he couldn't walk freely.

Frightened, he went to ask the wizard, and the wizard said, "You have offended the sage, and this is the retribution of the spirits." ”

When he heard this, he hurriedly asked the monk to go home, repented wholeheartedly, and soon became well.

It was only then that he believed in the gods of Buddhism, so he handed over his son to the monks as a sign of respect.

In this way, there will be another senior monk in the Buddhist sect in the future.