Since the Eastern Han Dynasty, Buddhism was first introduced from India to China, and it gradually took root and sprouted here, branching and leafing, and developed extremely prosperously. Many Buddhist monasteries, in order to reflect the purpose of not staining the red dust and practicing the world, most of them will choose to be on the banks of famous mountains and rivers far from the downtown. For example, the well-known four famous mountains of Buddhism: Jiuhua Mountain in Anhui, Wutai Mountain in Shanxi, Putuo Mountain in Zhejiang, and Mount Emei in Sichuan have always been holy places for Buddhist disciples from ancient times to the present.
There was an unusually close relationship between the Emperor of the Qing Dynasty and Mount Wutai. Shunzhi, the first emperor of the Qing Dynasty after entering the Customs, is said to have seen through the red dust and came to Mount Wutai to become a monk. Although this legend lacks sufficient historical evidence, it has a great influence on the folk. After Shunzhi's death, the qing emperors' connection with Mount Wutai increased unabated, with a total of three emperors climbing Mount Wutai eleven times.
During the reign of the Kangxi Emperor, he ascended Mount Wutai five times in February of the 22nd year of The Kangxi Dynasty, september of the 22nd year of the Kangxi Dynasty, 37th year of the Kangxi Dynasty, 41st year of the Kangxi Dynasty, and 49th year of the Kangxi Dynasty. Kangxi enjoyed the magnificent scenery here, repaired the temple roads, received the abbots of major temples and living Buddhas, received the ministers of Mongolian and Tibetan princes, and toured Mount Wutai became an extremely important state affair during the Kangxi period.
During Qianlong's reign, his interest in Mount Wutai was even stronger, and it increased unabated than kangxi. He climbed Mount Wutai six times in the eleventh year of Qianlong, the fifteenth year of Qianlong, the twenty-sixth year of Qianlong, the forty-sixth year of Qianlong, the fifty-first year of Qianlong, and the fifty-seventh year of Qianlong, creating a record for the Qing Dynasty and even the ancient emperors to visit Mount Wutai. The content of Qianlong's activities in Wutai Mountain is almost completely clone of Grandpa Kangxi, but on a larger scale and more frequently.
In the sixteenth year of Jiaqing, the Jiaqing Emperor, accompanied by the Civil and Military Officials, also came to Mount Wutai for an inspection. After that, because the Qing Dynasty gradually entered the turbulent world of wind and rain, the opportunity for emperors to go out of the palace on a large scale was less and less, and the contact between the Qing emperors and Wutai Mountain gradually tended to be broken.
What is puzzling is that Kangxi and Qianlong have both run to Wutai Mountain one after another, and why yongzheng, who is sandwiched between the two, has not been there once? It should be noted that Yongzheng himself was a very devout Buddhist disciple, and his "Imperial Selected Quotations" clearly recorded: "When he was a teenager, he liked to read the inner scriptures, but admired the Buddha's deeds", and from a young age, he began to devote himself to studying Buddhism, and had many contacts with the senior monks and lamas at that time, and also called himself "Yuanming Resident". People like him should be more interested in Mount Wutai, the sacred site of Buddhism.
It turned out that it wasn't that he didn't want to go up, but that his father Kangxi wouldn't let him go up. In the forty-first year of the Kangxi Dynasty, the Kangxi Emperor made his fourth tour of Mount Wutai, and several princes also traveled with him, including Yin Chan, who was still the fourth son of the emperor, that is, the later Yongzheng. Since Yin Chan was responsible for coordinating and supervising the logistics and supply and security of the accompanying team, he was unable to accompany his father to the mountain throughout the whole process, but was stationed in the town of Huaihuai. But Yongzheng still couldn't hide his excitement and wrote several poems to express his longing and understanding of the Buddhist family.
Many of these verses, "Outside the clouds of incense, Baohan Zhao returned to the ancient temple." The divine surface of the heavens opens the pure realm, the river sand catastrophe praises Chenyou", "the world's three thousand empty color metaphors, is not far from the general light", "the bird is also Zen, the pine is like the sound of The Brahma", "Manshu says where is it now, the tourist air is looking for the traces of sitting", and so on, a transcendent and ethereal Buddhist atmosphere.
After Kangxi saw it, he couldn't help but be secretly shocked. His father, Shunzhi, was once addicted to Buddhism, did not love the country and the mountains, loved buddhism, and almost became a monk. As the fourth son of the emperor, Yin Chan also seems to have a very strong preference and study of Buddhism, and if he is indulged again, he is afraid that he will make a farce of "the prince is a monk". When Kangxi thought of this, he immediately confronted Yin Chan and forbade him to set foot on Mount Wutai in his lifetime, so as to warn him not to indulge too deeply in Buddhism. Fortunately, Yongzheng was a brilliant figure, and immediately understood his father's deep meaning, and as a result, he obeyed his father's orders and never set foot on Mount Wutai in his life.
References: "Imperial Selected Quotations", "DonghuaLu", "14 Songs of Qingliang Jiyou"