The etiquette of the Zen ceremony is very cumbersome, and the general process is still set by Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, such as the sacrifice of Liangfu Mountain, the sacrifice of Mount Tai, and the written jade book buried under the altar, etc., Li Shimin came to Mount Tai to seal Zen this time, and the general etiquette is also in accordance with the rules set by Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, but there are still some changes.

For example, when Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty was worshipping the sky, he only brought a small number of ministers to the top of Mount Tai, but this time Li Shimin allowed all the ministers who came with him to climb Mount Tai, and this news was not announced until before he climbed Mount Tai, which also attracted many ministers to be grateful, after all, this is also a supreme honor for the ministers.

In addition, Li Shimin is also the first emperor to climb Mount Tai on foot, whether it is the former Qin Shi Huang or Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, or even the later Emperor Guangwu and others, almost all of them are riding the car to climb Mount Tai, of course, with the mountain road of Mount Tai, the general car is not passable at all, so it can only be carried by a person, in fact, it is a kind of sedan chair similar to the thing.

However, Li Shimin doesn't like to take this kind of foot, and he is very strong, he feels that he got the world from horseback, and his body is far stronger than the average emperor, so he decided to hike up the mountain, which can also show his sincerity to this Feng Zen, but in this way, it is bitter Li Xiu These ministers, one by one, have to follow the hike up the mountain.

Fortunately, Li Xiu and the others finally arrived at the top of the mountain when the sun rose, but at this time, including Li Shimin, they were very tired, so Li Shimin ordered everyone to take a rest, and by the way, eat some breakfast and drink some water, after all, there is still a period of time before the sacrifice to the sky, and he also needs to change his clothes.

Li Xiu ate something to recover his strength, and then looked at the altar in front of him, only to see that this altar is round, representing the ancients' saying that the sky is round, with a diameter of about five zhang and a height of nine feet, and there are steps around the altar to climb the altar, and around this altar, there are five emperors altars of green, red, white, black and yellow, the scale is very grand.

When the auspicious time of the sacrifice is approaching, Li Shimin finally dressed up again, personally ascended the altar to perform the sacrifice to the sky, the officials of the sacrifice slaughtered the white deer, pig, and white yak as a sacrifice on the spot, it is said that this is also the rule left by Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, and there are also prepared jade plates buried under the altar, and the top is sealed with five-colored soil.

What's even more peculiar is that at the same time as the sacrifice to the sky, the soldiers of the forbidden army who have long been prepared have also begun to release some strange beasts and rare birds in the mountains to show auspiciousness, but Li Xiu bets that these officials of the Ministry of Rites must not understand biology, because these strange beasts and rare birds are collected from all over the country, and some are not suitable for survival in Mount Tai at all, for example, among these animals, Li Xiu saw with his own eyes that there are several pandas, and even crocodiles, and the ghost knows whether these things can survive?

Compared with yesterday's sacrificial ground, today's sacrificial ceremony is more cumbersome and long, and finally Li Xiu under the stage is about to fall asleep, and finally survives to the end of the sacrificial day, but Li Shimin led the civil and military officials to the other side of the mountain, until then Li Xiu found that there was a high platform here, but this high platform was not used for sacrifice, but for Li Shimin to ascend the high platform and accept the pilgrimage of the civil and military officials.

After Li Shimin accepted the pilgrimage of the hundred officials, the whole ceremony of sealing Zen was finally over, although the process was very long and boring, but Li Shimin maintained a different kind of excitement throughout the whole process, especially when the top of Mount Tai accepted the pilgrimage of the hundred officials, his face was also red with excitement, and it was estimated that he accepted the pilgrimage in a special place like Mount Tai, which also made him have an unusual experience.

After the pilgrimage, the whole Zen ceremony is finally over, but at this time it is not early, and everyone is tired enough, so it is impossible to go down the mountain today, so it is on the top of the mountain to rest, there is a Taoist temple here, called Taiqing Temple, it used to be the place where Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty sacrificed to the sky when the monument was erected, there is indeed a tall stone tablet in the view, there are several lines of seal characters written on it, standing in the distance can see the handwriting on the tablet, but standing close can not see it, it can be said that it is very magical.

That night, Li Shimin and the civil and military officials rested in the Taiqing Temple, there were some Taoist monks in the view, the main name of the view was Guanyun, it is said that he was also a famous man with both virtues, Li Shimin also specially summoned him to come and chat for a while, and also promised to rebuild the Shangqing Temple, which made the Taoist priests in the view also quite happy.

After resting for a night, in the early morning of the next day, Li Xiu and the eldest grandson Wuji were called up early by Li Shimin, and then the two accompanied Li Shimin to enjoy the sunrise of Mount Tai's sea of clouds.

"Taishan sea of clouds, it really deserves its name!" Li Shimin admired the beautiful scenery in front of him, and couldn't help but show a fascinated look at the moment, although he had seen a lot of famous mountains and rivers, but it was also the first time to come to Mount Tai, and when he saw the beautiful scenery of Mount Tai, he couldn't help but sigh at the magic of heaven and earth.

Li Xiu had been to Mount Tai in his previous life, and also wanted to enjoy the sunrise of Mount Tai, but unfortunately, the days when he came happened to be cloudy, and even a little rain, but he couldn't see the sunrise at all, which made him very disappointed, and the road of Mount Tai in later generations has also changed a lot, so when he went up the mountain yesterday, he did not find the memory of overlapping with the later generations along the way.

In the previous life, I couldn't appreciate the sunrise of Mount Tai, but I didn't expect to make up for it in this life, which made Li Xiu surprised by the beautiful scenery of Mount Tai, and some sighed at the magic of fate. And the eldest grandson Wuji, who was standing next to Li Xiu, was also rarely relaxed, and he was also immersed in the beautiful scenery at this time.

Li Shimin lived on the top of the mountain for three days, and when he left, he ordered people to erect a stone tablet at the position of the Zen to record his own experience of the Zen seal, so that future generations can remember his feats, and the Shangqing Temple where he lived was also expanded by the palace.

Originally, Li Shimin also wanted to reward Shangqingguan with some land, but Wei Zheng strongly objected, after all, the Monk Daolu Division finally limited the scale of the world's temples and Taoist temples, if Li Shimin rewarded Shangqingguan land, this also conflicted with the responsibilities of the Monk Daolu Division. In addition, Li Xiu was also opposed, and in the end, Li Shimin finally dispelled this idea.

In addition to the above things, there is another thing that has caused a lot of controversy after the sealing of Zen, that is, the issue of changing the era name, because Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty and Emperor Guangwu and others changed the era name after sealing the Zen, so this has become an unwritten rule, so many ministers have suggested changing the era name after sealing the Zen, and the year name is not immutable.

However, there are also many people who oppose changing the era name, because changing the era name is not a trivial matter after all, and the era name "Zhenguan" has been used for 15 years, and now the world is peaceful and the national strength is strong, there is really no need to change it, and as a result, these two groups of people argued in front of Li Shimin.

Li Shimin was also very hesitant about whether to change the era name, and he couldn't make up his mind for a while about the ministers' arguments, but he still preferred to keep the era name of "Zhenguan" in his heart, because he had a deep affection for this era name, especially the most proud achievements in his life, almost all of which were established during the Zhenguan period, such as destroying the Turks, leveling Goguryeo, attacking the Western Regions, etc., and now let him give up the era name of Zhenguan, he is also very reluctant.

In this case, Li Shimin hesitated for several days, and finally made the decision to keep the "Zhenguan" era name. For Li Shimin's decision, Li Xiu felt that it didn't matter, because he had never cared much about this kind of thing, even if he changed the era name, Li Shimin was still Li Shimin, and it had no substantial impact on the Tang Dynasty, of course, it was better to keep the era name, after all, they were all used to it, and it was really unaccustomed to the sudden change.

At the end of the Zen sealing, Li Shimin led the civil and military officials to finally set off back to Chang'an, and the road was very calm, but when Li Shimin and his party arrived in Luoyang, Li Shimin did something that Li Xiu and Changsun Wuji and others were resolutely opposed!