But of course, this story is not over, otherwise how can it show that this Prince Shotoku is different!

A few days later, the prince of the stables suddenly had a dream, which was said to have been entrusted to him by the immortals.

So the next day, Prince Shotoku told his entourage that the homeless man was not an ordinary person, but must be a god.

Of course, the attendants were skeptical, but they still opened the tomb, and saw that there were no bodies in the tomb, only folded clothes placed in the coffin village.

The prince of the stables retrieved his clothes and dressed them as usual, and the story spread, and the people said, "Only a saint can know about the gods!" ”

So this stable prince has the title of Prince Shotoku, of course, these are Japanese legends, and in Jin Muchen's view, this is just a set of tricks played by the prince of the stable to fool the people, such a little trick, in the history of China, I don't know how many times it has happened, and there are many more mysterious than this.

However, this Prince Shotoku was smart and studious since he was a child, and it was true that he didn't have any good teachers in Japan at that time.

He happened to get to know the Chinese immigrant Sabe family who spread Buddhism in Japan, and after interacting with this family a lot, he learned about the strength of the country across the sea, and learned a lot of thoughts and knowledge from this Sakura family from the mainland, and the relationship became closer and closer.

He not only learned Buddhist theories from the Saddle clan, but also met the "Doctor of the Five Classics" from the mainland through Saddle, and began to study Confucianism with him, extensively absorbing China's advanced ideas and culture.

It is said that Prince Shotoku studied Buddhist scriptures at Iyo Onsen from the Korean monk Keiji, who came to Japan, and he asked many questions, but this Keiji was only half a bucket of water from Korea, so he could not answer the questions raised by Prince Shotoku.

Prince Shotoku can only understand through his own thinking. It is said that on several occasions, when he had been thinking for a long time about a question that he could not answer, he suddenly realized it in his sleep, and the next day, he told his teacher Hui Ci his understanding, and Hui Ci felt that his opinion was very reasonable.

And Jin Muchen, who later learned about the life of Prince Shotoku, confirmed it. In fact, these historical records are just the descendants of Japan, glorifying their ancestors, this Prince Shotoku is certainly not as mysterious as the legend, but he himself is smart and has a certain ability, so it must be true.

This was at a time when Prince Shotoku lived at a time when the international situation in eastern Asia was turbulent, when the Sui Dynasty in China had just unified the country. It ended the division that lasted for more than 300 years since the fall of the Eastern Han Dynasty.

Silla on the Korean Peninsula also adopted some of China's systems, quickly became powerful, and even sent many people to the east to fight Japan, and Japan, which had been in a closed state, was faced with the problem of how to adapt to this new situation.

At that time, the Japanese imperial court was divided into two groups, the Monobe clan and the Soga clan, and the Soga clan advocated the acceptance of Buddhism in order to unify the faith in Japan.

The Monobe clan opposed to the acceptance of Buddhism and adhered to the original beliefs of each clan, which was the essence of the struggle between the two factions. In addition to whether or not to actively absorb the advanced culture of the mainland, it has even risen to the point of a struggle for religious belief.

And to the 30th Emperor Emperor Minda. He did not believe in Buddhism and supported the Monobe clan to burn down stupas and temples and detain monks and nuns. It just so happened that scabies was prevalent in the country at this time, and even the emperor was infected, so the Soga clan took the opportunity to publicize that this was the Buddha's punishment for them, and the emperor had to agree to the Soga clan to re-enshrine the Buddha statue.

And in this fight. The young Prince Shotoku firmly sided with the Soga clan, so in April 593, at the age of 20, Prince Shotoku was appointed by his uncle, Emperor Suiko, as one of the first students to cross the continent.

In fact, this was also the initiative of Prince Shotoku, who adopted such a positive and enlightened attitude with the aim of transplanting China's advanced scientific culture.

Later, this form of sending students to China was born. It has been going on for a long time. Later, after Prince Shotoku returned from the mainland to take charge, he began to comprehensively promote the program of sending students to China, and although the number was small, they were all excellent talents who were fluent in Chinese selected from the descendants of immigrants from the mainland.

These students have studied in China for 20 or 30 years, gone through the Sui and Tang dynasties, systematically studied China's rules and regulations, and actively spread them after returning to China, making great contributions to the development of Japanese culture and society.

It was during this period that Japan systematically learned all kinds of advanced ideas and technologies from China, thus opening the first period of cultural prosperity in Japanese history, and Japan's thought, language, architecture, sculpture, art, and music all developed greatly.

In particular, those students who were sent to China returned to China after completing their studies, and many of them became the backbone of the Taika Reform, the most important political change in Japan's ancient history, 20 years later.

Prince Shotoku, although he was called the crown prince by later generations, in fact, he never became the emperor in his life, because he was not the eldest son of the emperor, so the throne finally fell to his inactive elder brother, who was Emperor Suiko.

However, this is also a tragedy for Emperor Tuiko, although he is in power, but in fact he has no real power, because at the beginning of his reign he advocated the destruction of Buddhism, so he offended Buddhism, which was flourishing in Japan at that time, and later he contracted scabies, as a result, he lost his political struggle and completely lost his rights, and Prince Shotoku became the regent of Japan at that time.

At the beginning of Emperor Suiko's reign, Japan was still in the era of slavery, and backward production relations limited the development of productive forces, and the economy was impoverished, causing constant social crises.

After Prince Shotoku came to power, he implemented a series of reforms to change this situation. In 603, according to the custom of the Chinese bureaucratic system, he formulated the 12 levels of crowns, that is, the official position was divided into 12 ranks, each of which had a different color, and these 12 different hats were used to distinguish the ranks of nobles and officials.

This was the first important reform of the bureaucratic system in the history of Japan, and it also had a great impact on the reform of the political system in the future, because the title was awarded according to the individual's talent and merit, and could be promoted or deprived, and could not be passed on to children and grandchildren, which broke the old tradition of slavery to determine the status and inferiority according to blood, laid the foundation for the establishment of the feudal bureaucracy, and promoted the progress of society.

The following year, he formulated a 17-article constitution, drawing on the classics of Confucianism, Legalism, Taoism, and Buddhism, and laid down the basic norms that the people should follow. However, due to the limitations of the times, Prince Shotoku did not recognize that the root cause of the social crisis was slavery, so he did not make a big fuss about the issue of slavery.

In addition, the largest slave-owning aristocrat in Japan at that time was Soga Mako, the uncle of Emperor Suiko and the father-in-law of Prince Shotoku, who also held considerable real power in the imperial court.

Prince Shotoku's changes had already violated Sogamako's interests, so he had always taken a negative attitude and openly opposed them after Prince Shotoku's death.

In 622, Prince Shotoku died of illness at the age of 49. His death caused a great shock in Japanese society, and according to the historical records of the time, the elderly princes and ministers seemed to have lost their beloved sons, and they did not know what to eat; The young man seemed to have lost his loving father, and the sound of crying spread through the streets. The man ploughing the field stopped plowing, and the woman of Harumi lowered the pestle. Even the sun and moon have lost their brilliance, and the heavens and the earth seem to have collapsed! In honor of him, his concubine, the Tachibana Lady, embroidered the "Tenju Kunman Chala Embroidered Tent", which is now a famous national treasure in Japan.

This paragraph, many people may feel a little familiar, isn't this the situation when our country's ancestor died back then? Therefore, about this historical record, Jin Muchen feels very suspicious, there must be a bridge section of Japanese beautification and processing.

Of course, there is absolutely no doubt about the status of Prince Shotoku in Japanese history, after all, it was his promotion and his attitude of learning the advanced cultural and ideological systems of the mainland that promoted the grand occasion of Japan sending students to China in an all-round way, and it was these students who promoted and completed Japan's transformation from a slave society to a feudal society.

So if it weren't for his appearance, maybe by the time the Americans blew up Japan through the Black Ship Incident, Japan would still be a slave society at that time!

It would have been impossible for such a society that was completely out of touch with the rest of the world to complete the Meiji Restoration, which would have made a direct transition from feudalism to capitalism and laid the foundation for Japan to become a world power.

So until now, the Japanese still respect this Prince Shotoku, and even in their eyes, the status of this Prince Shotoku in Japanese history is not weaker than that of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty at all, and the status of Emperor Taizong of the Tang Dynasty in Chinese history is the same, so many Japanese scholars respect this Prince Shotoku as "the benefactor of Japanese culture".

And the "Biography of Prince Shotoku" in front of me, such a huge picture of 60 huge pages, is definitely more qualified than anything else to be called a national treasure among Japan's national treasures.

Even in the eyes of many people in the Japanese archaeological community, the value of this monumental work is actually no worse than that of the Changing Heavenly Eye Bowl.

The bowl is just a piece of porcelain, and this masterpiece is a picture of the history of Japan!

And it is also the life history of one of Japan's most famous figures, such a work, throughout the history of the world, no ruler of any country has left, not even China, which has a long history, in the eyes of the Japanese, it is definitely a super national treasure that is not weaker than the pyramids of ancient Egypt! (To be continued.) )