Under the escort of the guide, I rode a horse for about 15 or 6 miles, and I could see a Buddhist temple called "Anguo Temple" from a distance, the architectural style of the temple is Han Buddhism, there is a stele pavilion at the door, and several small novices are sweeping in front of the door.

The guard commanded everyone to dismount, handed over the horses and mules to the monk of Zhike, the three strange guests walked to the front of the stele pavilion, only to see that there was a heavy stone tablet more than one zhang high standing in the pavilion, the inscription reads: Yongding sixteen years to rebuild the Anguo Temple

In the sixteenth year of Yongding, that is, in 1990 of the Confucian calendar (1439 AD), it was during the reign of Xia Puzong, who was the king who grew up in the people, and felt the suffering of the people, so he cherished the people's power and won a good reputation of simplicity and simplicity.

The ruins of Anguo Temple were also discovered by a shepherd shortly after he succeeded to the throne, and later archaeologists and historians have again discovered many precious historical materials, especially the ruins of monks being killed by the Heavenly Army, the remnants of Chinese scriptures, and some ancient coins from the Sui and Tang dynasties, which fully prove the suzerainty of the Bactrian Kingdom over this region. Therefore, after the archaeological excavation was basically completed, after the activities of the Buddhist system, King Xia specially approved the "original site restoration" of a temple here.

Now the grand temple in front of them covers an area of about 100 acres is the Anguo Temple approved by the King of Xia at the beginning, because the historical Anguo Temple has long disappeared in the dust, the rebuilders can only invite the master from the middle earth, according to the layout of the White Horse Temple in Luoyang, re-planning and building a thoroughly Han style Buddhist temple.

The Daxiong Treasure Hall in the Buddhist temple enshrines a replica of the 12-year-old statue of Sakyamuni, the original of this statue was originally collected by the King of Persia, and then presented to the former Qin monarch Fu Jian by the Indian king, and the princess Tang Wencheng brought it into Tibet when she entered Tibet, and is now treasured in the Jokhang Temple. This life-size statue of Anguo Monastery was personally sent to Anguo Monastery by the disciple of Tsongkhapa, the founder of the Tibetan Gelug school, the Dalai Lama I Minggendun Druba for interment.

According to the records of the believers, on the day of the laying ceremony, auspicious clouds gathered in the sky, if there was a celestial maiden in the distance, when the master recited the scriptures, the celestial maiden appeared from the clouds and threw flowers to the onlookers, which caused a sensation for a while, attracting countless tribal leaders to change their evil and convert to Buddhism.

After the three strange guests and pilgrims worshiped the Buddha statue in the main hall together, they rejoiced everywhere in the garden, Cheng Qi's Buddhist knowledge is not much, he can only recognize Guanyin Bodhisattva and Maitreya Buddha, but his hair Xiaohuang Yang can come together, this may be because his mother eats fasting and recites Buddha all the year round, and also goes to Putuo Mountain for the sake of pilgrimage.

The three of them waited for the entourage all the way to the backyard, only to see that in this poor mountain remote perennial arid place, there can actually be green bamboo thatch, the stream gurgling, can't help but be surprised, all the way along the path, the three of them sighed, this is like the world-famous Suzhou garden, but not like the distant western land.

Walking to the backyard, I saw a garden, the door was hidden, Cheng Qi pushed it curiously, and the corner door opened by itself. Guo Shan said: "Since the door is open, let's go in and have a look." ”

The three strangers also felt uncomfortable after a few days of peace, so they walked in together, but they didn't expect to walk a few steps, and they heard a coquettish voice: "Who are you?" How did you come in! ”

This Chinese dialect is not fluent, and there is a strange accent, Cheng Qi and they looked for a sound, only to see a few women dressed in fancy clothes, these women are wearing soft sha, wearing plain scarves, decorated with some gold and silver jewelry, blonde hair and high nose, fair skin looks like Persian.

Coming all the way, I haven't seen a few girls who are not disgraced in the river, and it is easy to see a few female donors, and the three strangers are cheeky to greet them: Where do the young ladies and sisters live in Xianxiang, why are they here, I came here with joy everywhere, and offended the girl, it is really a crime to die, a crime to die.

This group of Song brothers are all oily and smooth-toned masters, which scared the Persian girls a lot, and it happened that at this time, a fat-headed and big-eared master passed by and hurriedly came over to drink them: "Several donors, this is the Gion Cottage, please go to other places to visit the garden." ”

Guo Shan looked at those Persian girls and was still reluctant: "Good monk, since it is a Gion Retreat, why do you hide folk women?" Could it be that the Western Regions could not abide by the rules and precepts? ”

The great monk hurriedly put together his mouth and said that he was guilty: "Amitabha, this temple is the presence of the Huayan Sect of Hanjiao, and the precepts are strict, please don't joke." ”

The three strangers were all strange, and after following the great monk out of the Gion Retreat, they also vigorously asked about the origin of those Persian women.

The monk is a non-talker, and he can't stand people asking left and right, but he still tells a story.

It is said that a long, long time ago, in distant Persia......

Persia is an ancient place name, in the ancient East is still in the era of Yao Shun Yu Chan Rang has entered the period of civilized kingdom, when the Eastern Zhou kingdoms competed, the territory of the Persian Empire (Achaemenid Dynasty) has expanded to the river province of today's Xia Kingdom. The year of the death of Cyrus the Great, the first male lord, happened to be the year when King Chuping established himself as king, and it was also the year when the Pythagorean school in the West was founded.

The ancient Persian Empire has left a valuable legacy to the world. The empire requisitioned laborers and building materials from the conquered peoples to build palaces and decorate the capital. The architecture of Persia blends the artistic achievements of Egyptian, Babylonian, and Greek peoples to form its own unique and majestic style.

When the Wu-Yue struggle reached its peak, Darius I, the greatest monarch of the Achaemenid dynasty, built his palace in the new capital of Persepolis. The never-before-seen building is based on a high platform made of huge stones, and on it there is a hall where the king listens to the government and a majestic hall of 100 pillars. The hall is decorated with sacred totems of various peoples, symbolizing the king of kings of the Persian monarchs. And the wall on the side of the step leading to the high platform is embossed with the military appearance of the most powerful military branch of the empire - the undead army of 10,000 people, which is also a strong guarantee for the empire's strength.

During the reign of Darius I, Zoroastrianism began to flourish in the empire and gradually became the national religion of the Persian Empire. After the fall of the Achaemenid dynasty by Alexander the Great, the Persians ruled the Seleucids, Alexander the Great's subordinate, and the vast area that led the river to India entered the Hellenistic era.

Before and after the Qin Emperor unified the Central Plains, a coalition of nomads from the northeastern Iranian Plateau overthrew the Seleucid dynasty and established the Parthian Empire, which became a bridge between the Han Empire and the Roman Empire after Zhang Qian hollowed out the Western Regions. During the reign of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, Zhang Qian once visited Mithridati II. It was also in this year that Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, Liu Chebaihuo, was sick as a general, and the cavalry went out of Longxi to break the Xiongnu, and the Han Empire officially established Wuwei and Jiuquan counties.

Since then, the Parthian Empire has maintained good diplomatic relations with the Han Empire, and during the reign of Emperor Zhang of the Eastern Han Dynasty, the Parthian envoys also paid tribute to the Han Emperor from rare animals such as lions and gazelles that were born in Africa.

With the rise of the Roman Empire, the western territories of the Parthian Empire were ravaged by war. Eventually, the empire weakened, and it was the Sassanid Empire, known as Sassanid Persia, that succeeded Parthia and continued to fight with the Roman Empire. Sassanid Persia re-completed its conquest of the eastern Transoxiana, and its culture, religion, and art began to permeate again and influence more distant China.

At this time, Zoroastrianism had also become the state religion of the Persian Empire, and its classic "Persian Ancient Scriptures" had been completed. But while the Eastern Roman Empire and the Sassanid Persian Empire were continuing to fight each other in the valley of the two rivers to bleed each other, the sudden rise of the Celestial Peninsula taught the two exhausted empires an unexpected surprise.

In 637 A.C. (the 11th year of the reign of Zhenguan of the Tang Dynasty), the Arabs defeated the Persians at the Battle of Qadisiyah and won a decisive victory and besieged Ctesiphon, who fell after a long siege, and Isiai III of Sassanid Persia gave up a large amount of treasure and fled eastward, so the Sassanid government was short of finances and could not use its huge financial resources. Some Sassanid officials tried to muster forces to resist the invaders, but these failed due to the lack of a strong central authority.

Isaai III continued to flee to the eastern part of Khorasan until he was killed in Mulu in 651 A.D. (the second year of the reign of Emperor Gaozong of the Tang Dynasty), and the Sassanid Persian Empire came to an end. The remaining nobles moved to the middle of the river to settle and established a converted Samanid dynasty and sought to revive Sassanid traditions.

The vast and ancient Sassanid Persia was declared extinct in just five years. During this period, although in 661 (the first year of Tang Gaozong's Longshuo), the Persian prince Balus (the son of Yi Si Yi III) came to China to ask for help, Tang Gaozong set up the Persian Governorate and sent Pei Xingjian to "protect the soldiers". Although the matter was not completed, because the historical records are clear, and there is an edict from Tang Gaozong to entitle Balus as the king of Persia, the king of Xia, who is also surnamed Li, also has the right to claim the suzerainty of Persian territory.

After the fall of Persia, it was incorporated into the rule of the Arab Abbasids, and the Persian-speaking Persians did not live comfortably under the discriminatory rule of the Abbasids, so they never forgot to restore the glory of the thousand-year-old empire. And after experiencing a number of separatist regimes waiting for opportunities, they finally ushered in their own national liberation under the iron heel of the Xia army.