Chapter 181: Incense Money and the Old Monk

Anqiu County and the surrounding townships are only more than 1,000 households, just the land is vast and sparsely populated, so since the Hongwu period, there have been people from all over the country who have been forcibly relocated here by the government, and the government is also rewarding land cultivation. However, these years of forced labor were extremely heavy, and every year there were either floods or droughts, and even though the farmers worked hard, the harvest was pitiful all year round.

For this reason, the incense of Fuqing Temple in the county is also quite bleak. The temple field of Fuqing Temple has a total of 100 acres, although it also employs a few long-term workers, but all the monks below the abbot will also take turns to work in the fields on weekdays, and there are some good names in the four townships.

Monks don't care about mundane things, and this is a from ancient times to the present. In the era of worshipping the Dharma and respecting the Buddha, this monk was respected; In the era of destroying the Buddha and destroying the Dharma, this monk is often forced to return to the world. It is even more common for a monk to influence the general trend of the world, and the young master Yao of the dynasty can be regarded as the first person in the past. However, now the status of Buddhism and Taoism in this world is almost the same, and the monk is not doing well or badly, but even so, this monk does not care about the world's major affairs, at least he has to care about local affairs.

Now is the agricultural season, the abbot of Fuqing Temple, the old monk should be a monk chanting scriptures, but at this time his heart can not calm down no matter what.

Those two have been doing it locally for seven or eight years, Luo Xiancheng and Zhao Zhushu have been greedy for a day or two, and no one has ever paid attention to them before, but they were suddenly taken by Jinyiwei at this time, and they deserved to be arrested, but what about the incense and silver this year? This temple can endure the hardships from him down, but no matter how hard it is, there must be income, and if there is less than the one hundred taels of silver offered by the two at the end of that year, they will rely on those fields to maintain, but I am afraid that it will be absolutely not enough when the temple is to be repaired next year.

The old monk thought about it, and finally his heart was relieved: "Amitabha, good and good." They have been harming the people for not a day or two, and now that someone has removed these two silverfish for the place, the old man should be happy, how can he be greedy for the incense money? Next year, the temple will be more frugal, well, the long-term workers will simply not be hired, and this tea and rice can be saved again......"

Just then, a young monk rushed in. His face was full of surprise: "Abbot, Lord Zhang, the magistrate of the county outside, is here, and he said that he has made a special trip to visit!" ”

The old monk was stunned for a moment. Although this Fuqing Temple is the only temple in Anqiu, but there is no contact with the government on weekdays, the Luo family and the Zhao family's little incense and silver money are still because the ladies of the two families believe in Buddhism, so they are sent every year in the month of La, but Luo County Cheng and Zhao have never stepped into the temple door. The new county magistrate just got rid of the two plague gods, and everyone praised them. The official reputation is indeed quite good, but why did he suddenly come here at this moment?

If you don't understand, you don't understand, the old monk still immediately put on his robe and went out to greet him. Every year, he would squeeze out money to repair the temple in this temple, but the uneven stone road on the ground could not be done. At this time, he stepped on his head in thin monk shoes. I only felt a burst of awkwardness, and I couldn't help but sigh helplessly.

It is difficult for a good woman to cook without rice, and with this road alone, few people in the temple will come.

From a distance, I saw two figures in front of the Daxiong Treasure Hall over there. He couldn't believe it. It was a young man and a middle-aged man, the young man was wearing a green shirt, and he looked like a child of a middle-class family; The middle-aged man is dressed in a brown robe, neatly cleaned up, and the person is also a tiger's back, which at first glance looks like a father and son. Thinking that everyone said that Xinzhi County was a young man's family, a first-class rich and noble family, he glanced at the young monk next to him. I wondered if he had misheard.

When he got closer, he saw that the young man's green shirt was not a green cloth shirt, but a small piping jacket with stone blue satin, a half-sleeved cloak of one color on the outside, and a vermilion ink silk tied around his waist, which seemed to be of high quality, but did not look extravagant. Before he could say anything, he saw the young man saluting him. The abbot called out again. panicked, he hurriedly returned the salute.

As soon as they met, they said a few words, and they felt that their tone was modest and not big at all. He was amazed and at the same time his heart was hot. You must know that when he personally goes to the big families in the county on weekdays, he is often coldly looked at by the housekeeper, and he thinks that the big families in the world are like this, but it turns out that the people he met first are shallow people, and the real son of everyone should be like this.

Of course, Zhang Yue didn't come here to talk about Buddhism with the abbot of Fuqing Temple, he was now full of thoughts about the mysterious woman he met at the Wangjiazhuang Dharma Lecture, so this solved Luo Zhao and the two, and the trip to Fuqing Temple was inevitable. After talking to the old monk for a few sentences, he found that the other party was not a word-for-word Zen machine that did not deviate from the rules and precepts, and remembered that the monks in this temple had a good reputation outside, and he was very good. Therefore, the old monk invited him to sit in the meditation room, and he immediately agreed.

As soon as he sat in this meditation room, he glanced around, and then said: "I see that the palaces and temples of this Fuqing Temple are still neat, but the abbot master and the masters are all wearing old clothes, and they must be living a hard life. I heard that before Luo Xiancheng and Zhao Zhushu's family believed in Buddhism, there would be some incense money sent every year, and now that they have an accident, there must be less money in the temple. The master still cultivates himself at such an age, which is enough to be a model for the villagers, and it is in line with the way of education. I didn't have much to do when I first arrived, so I came here today and planned to donate two hundred taels of incense. ”

As soon as these words came out, the young monk standing next to the old monk showed joy on his face, but the old monk was surprised at first, and then shook his head: "Lord Zhang's kindness Lao Gao has taken it, and he is ashamed to say it, Lao Gao thought that Luo Xian Cheng and Zhao Zhushu had an accident, and there was a hundred taels of incense money missing in the temple every year, and he once complained about the adult, and he just figured it out." It is true that the monks built temples and built Buddha statues, but now the palaces and pavilions are still neat, and we rely on the 100 acres of land to ask for food and clothing is more than enough, and there should be no other thoughts. ”

Zhang Yue really didn't expect that the monk in this temple would actually push incense money out, and at this time he looked at the old monk and found that the robe on his body was extremely clean, but there were patches in several places, and the stitches were fine and neat. Although his face was wrinkled, he did not see the slightest misery, but was in good spirits. The old monk's thin hands also had a lot of calluses, and even blue-black could be seen between his fingernails, which was thought to be the marks left by the usual farming.

At this moment, some of his previous suspicions before coming here suddenly disappeared, and he felt that this old monk was respectable.

"The master is so virtuous, and he is not inferior to those famous temple hosts." He glanced at the disappointed young monk, and then changed his words, "However, the master himself can be so self-disciplined, and if he uses the same principle to ask others, it will be too harsh. These two hundred taels are nothing to me, but for the whole of your temple, it means that the next year can be a little more relaxed. ”

The old monk frowned and thought for a while, and then said with a smile: "The old man thinks about the left, or the adults say it." In this case, this incense money is accepted, and in case of any natural and man-made disasters, you can also open a porridge shop to give alms clothes, and it is not in vain that people come to the temple to worship incense. When the time comes, the old man will say to the outside world that it is the intention of the adult, and the adult should not say that the old man is impostor. ”

I thought that I would have to spend a lot of persuasion, but seeing that the abbot old monk was cool, Zhang Yue was also happy, so he smiled and nodded, and saw that the young monk happily took the incense silver from Peng Shisan's hand and went out. Seeing that there were no outsiders, he thought of the true purpose of coming here, and after a little thought, he asked, "I heard that the master is a member of the Pure Land Sect, and I want to ask a question today. People say that the White Lotus Sect came from the White Lotus Society of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, and the White Lotus Sect was founded by the Pure Land Sect, but I don't know if it's really true? ”

"Although the reputation of the Pure Land Sect is not as good as that of the Zen Vinaya Sect and the Tiantai Sect, but the people who believe in it are all my Buddhas, how can they be compared with that cult?"

The old monk, who had been looking kind just now, suddenly changed his complexion, and he actually forgot that he was the county parent official in front of him, and then angrily reprimanded: "The White Lotus Sect was created by Mao Ziyuan by stealing the name of the senior monk Huiyuan's 'White Lotus Society Lectures', and it is to incite the people for the sake of the land, which is not only not good, but also can be punished. Besides, it doesn't talk about meditation, it doesn't talk about meditation, it just needs to recite the Buddha to ascend to heaven, which is simply fooling the common people, how can it be so simple to practice? ”

The more he spoke, the more angry he became, and then he stood up and walked back and forth on the cold ground barefoot: "The imperial court has banned the White Lotus Sect, and as a result, the reputation of my Pure Land Sect has often been damaged, and the old man hates these three words......

Angry and angry, the old monk saw Zhang Yue sitting there staring at him, the old face suddenly turned red, and then remembered that it was not appropriate for the monks to be angry, so they had to move the Buddhist beads in their hands and chant the Buddha. After a long while, he sat down on the futon in the center, and apologized with an apologetic face, saying, "My lord, forgive me, the old man is really a little excessive. During the Song and Yuan dynasties, many people formed associations in the name of the Pure Land Sect, some of which were presided over by the master of the Pure Land Sect, while others were not persuading people to do good, but inciting the people. Alas, it is okay to cultivate bliss at home, so why get involved with this cult? ”

Although Zhang Yue felt that the old monk should not be lying, he still didn't dare to believe it all, but it was too obvious to ask again, so he had to divert the topic and ask for a few words of the Pure Land Sect scriptures. However, it was about a long time since I had seen anyone who was interested in the scriptures and teachings of the Pure Land Sect, and the old monk actually talked about it endlessly, but fortunately, he was talking about the past of the predecessors of the Pure Land Sect, and the people who listened to it did not find it too boring.

It was easy to get out of the old monk's chatter, and when he got out of the meditation room, Zhang Yue showed a thoughtful expression. Before meeting the old monk of the abbot, he took Peng Shisan around the entire temple for a long time, and he didn't find anything suspicious, let alone feel that this place looked like a lair of the White Lotus Sect. In this case, why did the mysterious woman at the Buddha's Mother Society mention this place in the first place?

Just as he was walking along the stone road, and just as he reached the entrance of the temple, he saw a man galloping on horseback. Before the horse could hold his feet, a man jumped from above, but he was a member of the family. Knowing that something important must be done, he hurried down the steps. Sure enough, the Ding hurriedly approached and bowed down and reported: "Son, the British official in Beijing City is in an urgent message, and the messenger is waiting in the yamen." ”