Chapter Seventy-Eight: A Trip to Songshan
Runzhi and his entourage re-embarked on the trip, surrounded by large fields of crops, on this fertile Central Plains soil, rows of wheat, corn, soybeans, cotton seedlings are growing towards the bright sunshine.
At sunset and dusk, there was a big sunset, and in the vast field, a shepherd boy played a yellow ox and played a flute past in front of Runzhi's eyes, and then gradually disappeared into the world.
When it was time for the farmer's supper to cook dinner, a wisp of smoke rose from the distant valley in the pure and immaculate gray and blue space, and then drifted gradually to the horizon, gradually becoming blurred, and finally faintly until it completely disappeared into the boundless expanse of the sky.
The vast and boundless land of the Central Plains, this is a fertile land, and it is also a beautiful and rich place.
The people here are simple, hospitable, knowledgeable, and gentle, and everyone takes "self-denial and retribution for benevolence, one-day self-denial and retribution, and return to benevolence" as the basic guiding ideology of their actions.
It was, and still is, the most prosperous place of Confucius and Mencius.
After thousands of years, in the first national examination of the imperial examination ordered by the Yongzheng Emperor, more than 200 Jinshi on the list of the country, here occupies one-third, the official uniform worn by the champion of the first branch of the Ming Dynasty Zhu Yuanzhang during the period is still hanging in the ancestral hall here, and people feel incomparable glory and pride for their ancestors.
Since the Runzhi group came here, they have been deeply impressed by the folk customs here, which is simply breathtaking.
There is no delicate tactfulness here in the Jiangnan Water Town, but the people here are a bite of the golden mean, and when they encounter things, the people in the Jiangnan Water Town like to chant for a long time, and the words are different, and the people here are more inclined to have courage and knowledge, and make decisions on the spot.
Naturally, among the young men and women here, they each abide by self-denial, the golden mean, and the etiquette of Confucius and Mencius, but it does not prevent the intimacy between them in private.
Runzhi has long heard that on the land of the Central Plains, there is a Shaolin Temple that is quite distinctive, what kind of characteristic method is it?
It is said that there is a White Horse Temple here, which is the first place in the whole Kyushu land where the Buddha Shakyamuni relics appeared, and Sima Qian's "Historical Records" believes that the earliest Buddha relics can be traced back to the Han Dynasty.
In the Han Dynasty, the White Horse Temple and the Shaolin Temple were actually together, on the land of the Central Plains, a place called the Five Mountains with Huashan, Hengshan, Taishan and Huangshan, it is Songshan.
Runzhi naturally has long heard Tao Fuzi talk about it, as one of the three religions and nine streams, Shaolin Temple also has a long history in the land of Kyushu, so that the life of the people of Kyushu has a little disconnected feeling.
Naturally, when talking about this Shaolin Temple, it will be like telling a story about the legend of the Buddha's relics, and naturally mentioning this Songshan and many folk legends related to it, which makes people either enthusiastic or touching, or thoughtful, after all, it is still a place with a little cultural allusion.
Runzhi clearly remembered the original words of Peach Fuzi:
"Shaolin Shaolin, on the top of Songshan Mountain, the forest of relics. It originated in the two Han Dynasty, Buddhism does not know whether there is boundless or edged, but their heart sutra is still written quite well, the so-called color is empty, empty is color, it can be said that it is popular, worthy of the swan song of the ages, it does have its own reason. ”
Again: "After Buddhism entered Kyushu, those monks and nuns who were bored and fasted and recited Buddha did not learn from the essence of our Mohist thought, and naturally we can also refer to some of their essences, so as to combine our Mohist studies with their essence, absorb the cultural fragrance of the major three religions and nine streams, and then carry forward our Mohist studies."
Therefore, Runzhi has a very deep impression of this Shaolin Temple, especially for their Tibetan Scripture Pavilion.
Since ancient times, under Kyushu, all literati and writers have five loves, which are the five loves?
The best love is the love of humanistic academic thought, the love of the theoretical research of governing the country and the country, followed by the love of the four treasures of the study, pen, ink, paper, inkstone, and the love of the four great swen, the qin, chess, calligraphy and painting, followed by the love of talented and beautiful women, the love of the beauty of the country and the city, and the love of the wine and food, the unique diet and the love of the stomach.
The foundation of these five loves actually originates from the mouth, cannot be separated from books, and ends in articles.
Therefore, Runzhi is most interested in the Tibetan Scripture Pavilion of Shaolin Temple, and it is reasonable.
If you want to explore the essence of a place, you must start with the thoughts of this place, and if you want to explore the thoughts of this place, you must start with books, so Runzhi has already thought about it, if you want to study and study the essence of Buddhism one day, you must have all the books and classics of Buddhism in full view, and you can't feast your eyes.
This wish, when Runzhi and his entourage went north and north along the Yellow River to Kaifeng Governor's Yamen, and passed through the foot of Songshan Mountain, Runzhi had already made plans for a trip to Songshan.
After arriving at the Shaolin Temple, the original plan was not to let Qing'er follow, and he was worried that the thrilling situation when he appeared in Huangshan would reappear, but Qing'er was obviously unwilling to compromise at all, and the two discussed for a long time, and Runzhi finally agreed to Qing'er's request to travel the mountains and rivers together, but he agreed to Qing'er's three chapters.
This three chapters of the law are different from the three chapters of the law for the people when Liu Bang invaded Xianyang at the end of Qin, for Qing'er, Runzhi just hopes that she will do it very simply, but for a woman, there are also some challenging three points, that is, to wear men's clothes, talk less and don't touch each other, and don't run away with yourself at all times.
In order to better investigate the many exquisiteness of Shaolin Temple, especially the many scriptures of Shaolin Temple, Runzhi asked people to inform the abbot of Shaolin Temple in advance with a handwritten letter printed with the seal of the governor of Henan.
Runzhi's letter was not to ask him to empty it directly as in Yangzhou Daming Temple, but to ask the abbot to prepare for a specific period in an elegant and official tone. For example, configure all the scriptures in advance to ensure that everything is available and can be consulted at any time, and at the same time prepare for the martial arts performance of Shaolin Temple, which is also considered the quintessence of the country, and design a good travel route and configure the guide personnel for Runzhi and his party.
Runzhi and Qing'er deliberately avoided the day when a large number of pilgrims went to Shaolin Temple to burn incense and worship the Buddha on the fifteenth day of the Lunar New Year, and deliberately slowed down when they were about to reach Shaolin Temple to avoid these two days, and according to the information fed back from Shaolin Temple, they deliberately planned to reach it on the day when pilgrims expected the least.