Yu Right Ren's handwriting: Tibetan Scripture Building. Photo by the author
In the early morning of January 24, 1962, Yangmingshan, Taipei.
An old man with long hair and chest was lying on a hospital bed, and the sound of the wind blowing over the Pacific Ocean was blowing in his ears. Under the shadow of the bean lamp, loneliness made him fall into an irrepressible longing: his parents who were buried under the loess soil, his wife whose life and death were uncertain thousands of miles away, and the sad tearful face of the eldest daughter Qingxiu when she left... He could no longer control it, tears welled up, hands trembling, trembling as he spread out his pen and paper:
Bury me on a high mountain, look at my continent;
The mainland is invisible, only crying!
Bury me on the high mountain, look at my hometown;
The hometown is invisible and can never be forgotten!
The sky is clear, the wilderness is vast;
On the mountain, the country is ruined!
This is the lament written by the "Old Man of Taiping" on your right -- "Looking at the Mainland". After that, he lived in this world of thin affection for two years, nine months and seventeen days. In his dying days, legend has it that he did his best to lift his craggy fingers in the air and write them over and over again--apricots, flowers, spring, rain, rivers, south, Shu, mountains, Shu, water, azaleas, azaleas...
Shu water is blue, Shu mountain cang. What the old man can never forget, in addition to the Fuchun River under the moonlight, can there be traces of the shirt and shadow of the Guangyan Zen Temple, which is known as the "first day of Xichuan", walking in the Qingcheng Mountains with the sound of cicadas on the ground?
The yellowed "Chronicle of Chongqing Prefecture" records that on that occasion, Yu Youren went to pay homage to a scripture. It was 1945, and Yu Was 66 years old. And that sutra, "Hongwu Nanzang", was hidden in the depths of the Guangyan Zen Temple for 529 years.
Portrait of Zhu Chun, King of Shu (Courtesy of the Ming Shu Tomb Museum)
one
He slept in the Western Shu "Southern Tibet" for five hundred years
In the late spring of 2003, Fengqi Mountain in Chongzhou.
In the dark abbot's room of the Guangyan Zen Temple, the 103-year-old Zen master of The Lamp Kuan sat curled up on his feet, his eyes full of clear light. Talking about Yu Youren, between words, it was as if he had just stepped out of the door: "Sir, in the Qingcheng Mountains, listened to the Buddhist monks accidentally mention the whereabouts of the orphan copy of "Hongwu Nanzang", and only then rushed to the ancient temple with great interest. He has beautiful hair and chest, and his eyes are not angry and threatening, which is really a great manner. He went up to the Tibetan Scripture Building and read the Scriptures for a few days. Before leaving, at the invitation of the former abbot, he wrote down the three cursive characters of 'Tibetan Scripture Building', and the dragon flew and danced, and he waved it. ”
Two years later, the Zen master passed away. The three characters of "Tibetan Scripture Building" still live on a wall in the backyard of the Guangyan Zen Temple.
Enter the temple, along the mossy green stone ladder up the steps, in turn through the heart pool, the Great Treasure Hall, the Maitreya Hall, the Heavenly King Hall, all the way the temple is staggered, the sound of wooden dotts, and then into a dark corridor, out of a corner of the door, suddenly the sky is far away, and then turn to the right, I see those three words - many years later, they are still as black as new, looking wide and elegant, like dancing but perched. At the end of the payment, erected: Yu Right Ren.
On the opposite side, there was a dark and mottled Tibetan scripture building. The building is three stories high, the cornices are angled, and it is majestic, and the extraordinary momentum of that year can be faintly seen.
Reverie, why did the "Hongwu Nanzang", which was once secretly hidden in the Tibetan Scripture Building, go into exile in Western Shu and be in this mountain temple for more than five hundred years without anyone knowing?
Speaking of this classic, people today often call it "Hongwu Nanzang". In fact, the word "Hongwu" is a title added by later generations. Its original name, according to the Ming people, was called "The First Engraving of Nanzang". Nan, referring to Nanjing; Tibet, was originally the standardization unit for ancient Indian Buddhist texts, and later referred to the Great Tibetan Sutra of Chinese Buddhism.
Since the publication of the Kai treasure in the early years of the Northern Song Dynasty, there have been only twenty-one versions of the Great Tibetan Classic in Various Editions practiced by officials and private officials. In the Ming Dynasty, only three kinds of (times) were officially engraved. The first is "Hongwu Nanzang". In the spring of 1372, Zhu Yuanzhang ordered the famous monks from Jiangnan to be summoned to the Jiangshan Temple (Linggu Temple) in Nanjing, to start the construction of the "Guangzhi Festival", organize the forces to point the school, open the carving, and complete it from 1398 to 1399. Due to the huge cost, only two copies were printed at that time, both of which were hidden in Ouchi, and the stereotypes were stored in another ancient temple in Nanjing, Tianxi Temple (Dabao'en Temple).
During the long engraving period of more than 20 years, this first ming jingzang based on the "Moraine Sand Collection" engraved by the Southern Song Dynasty Lizong Baoqing (1225-1227) has been supplemented several times, and has included a large number of quotations from Zen sects. After the engraving and printing, only one part will weigh more than three tons, a total of 684 letters, divided into 1600 parts, reaching more than 7000 volumes.
However, it seems that there is always a mysterious and tragic force that accompanies it - when it came out, it was the day when Zhu Yuanzhang died, and the Jianwen Emperor, who had hastily ascended the throne, did not have time to spread the world, so he hurriedly sealed the secret. Four years later, Zhu Di captured Nanjing, and Emperor Jianwen mysteriously disappeared in a fire. It then passed into the hands of the Yongle Emperor, and thus began a strange encounter that lasted more than six centuries:
In 1408, a bizarre fire destroyed the stereotypes of Nanzang. The Tianxi Temple was also burned to rubble.
In 1409, one of the "Nanzang" was inexplicably destroyed by fire in the secret cabinet of the imperial palace.
In 1416, the only remaining "Nanzang" mysteriously left Nanjing, and it was lost to the sea of the world, lonely and unknown. So that for more than 400 years, the world only knows the Yongle Emperor Wen Tao Wuluo, in addition to moving the capital to Beijing, Ling Zheng he went to the West and other deeds, he also presided over the engraving and printing of two Buddhist classics, "Yongle South Tibet" and "Yongle North Tibet".
There are always people struggling to find out its whereabouts. Between the dim pages of history, its ethereal figure, the clues that appear from time to time are so heartwarming.
In 1938, the only copy of "Hongwu Nanzang" appeared in the Western Shuguang Yan Zen Temple. As the news spread, high-ranking officials and dignitaries flocked to them, repeatedly touching them, and it was difficult to leave.
In 1951, Hongwu Nanzang left the Guangyan Zen Temple and entered the Sichuan Provincial Library. At that time, the provincial library sent two trucks to transport the book back.
The treasure of the Sichuan Provincial Library town hall "Hongwu Nanzang".
two
The drizzle of rain disturbed the heart of middle-aged Zhu Yuanzhang
1371 was a common year. This year, there was a lot of rain, just after the cold, the drizzle was raised, and the smoke and rain in the jiangnan area were hazy.
According to the rules established by Hongwu in the first year, from the 24th day of the 24th month of the Waxing Moon, the New Year atmosphere began to be created in the Daming Palace. Around the Qianqing Palace, nine longevity lanterns were installed, and behind the lamps hung nine pairs of longevity treasures, and both sides were embroidered with gold silk. After the unitary hour, the lights in the hall shone brightly, and even the high night sky outside appeared transparent.
Zhu Yuanzhang put down his imperial pen, walked to the Jiangshan Sheji Pavilion outside the palace, and looked at the faint scenery at the line of Jiangtian outside the city and stopped to meditate.
On the tenth day of July, the general Fu Youde ignored the heat of the summer and attacked Chengdu with his troops, and Sichuan was pacified. Although the remnants of the Mongol army were still peeping at the border areas, this marked the unification of the eighteen provinces in the interior; on the sixth day of the first lunar month, the officials played the number of governments, prefectures, counties, and officials in the Territory of Daming. Since then, this string of numbers has taken root in Zhu Yuanzhang's heart, scratching his heart often:
(The total number of the world) is one hundred and forty-one, the government is eight hundred and eighty, the state is one hundred and ninety-two, the official is five hundred and seventy-two, the county is one thousand and thirteen, and the official is three thousand and forty-one. There are 1,346 prefectures and counties in Tongji Province, and 4,493 officials.
I never dreamed that the village children who herded cattle by the Huai River for a living, the lonely and lonely teenager Shami in the Huangjue Temple, and the young beggars who had no way to ask for advice on the wandering road would put down such a vast "family business". Since the fall to the ground, the family has not had a day of peace. The elderly grandfather took the family and hid debts on both sides of the Huai River. At that time, his father Zhu Wusi's biggest dream was to be a tenant and temporarily cultivate the acres and three-quarters of land that belonged to others.
In the spring of 1344, the hometown was thousands of miles away, and then, locusts came from all over the world, and in the blink of an eye, the father, the eldest brother and the mother died one after another, leaving only himself and the second brother. Not to mention that there is no money to buy a coffin, and the family does not even have a cemetery for burial. The two brothers hugged their heads and cried, found a few torn clothes to wrap their relatives, and buried them hastily on the land of the neighbor Liu family.
In order to survive, the sixteen-year-old himself had to be separated from his second brother, and then he suppressed his tears and went to the Huangjue Temple to defect to his uncle Zhu Wuliu, who was known as the Monk of Faren.
After the uncle's bitter intercession, he was able to become a small walker, sweeping the floor every day, incense, playing bells and drums, cooking rice and washing, busy, but often reprimanded, fortunately there was also an uncle - in winter, the cold wind called, the uncle secretly stuffed the reluctant steamed buns to his pillow, and then unwrapped the monk's clothes, and slowly covered himself with his body; in the summer, often when he woke up, the uncle was still murmuring and chanting while repelling mosquitoes for himself.
Late at night, my uncle coughed incessantly, and the light reflected his withered figure on the wall, like a curved shrimp... Thinking of my uncle, my eyes were moist. He has been worried about his uncle since the summer of 1351, when another flood broke out on both sides of the Huai River, and the two uncles and nephews had to shed tears and parted ways. A few years ago, he was busy with conquest and had no time to be distracted, and after he set himself the capital nanjing, he secretly instructed people around him to inquire around. Now, four years later, news is starting to come from all directions, but none of them are implemented:
Sources from the east said that uncle Fa Ren had gone to sea by boat;
The south said that his uncle Faren had taken refuge by Dongting Lake and did not know where to go;
The northern detective Monk Fa Ren has returned to the world and seems to have died in the rebellion;
News came back from the west that Faren had gone as far as the Western Regions to seek the true scriptures for the troubled Middle-earth;
The drizzle was like silk, messing with the heart of middle-aged Zhu Yuanzhang. He couldn't understand why his longing for his uncle had become so strong in this cold winter.
three
The idea of Zhu Chun, the king of Shu Shu, with the rule of etiquette
Zhu Chun, the King of Shu, was a man who liked to read and do learning.
Among Zhu Yuanzhang's twenty-six sons, although he was a Shu chu, he was given a graceful title by his father because of his "Bo Comprehensive Classics, Rong Zhi Du Ya": "Shu Xiucai". People at that time also praised him for "being especially good at learning and reading tirelessly, and he liked to extend the magi and doctors, and preached until the end of the night, and did not wander for the sake of sound and color." But what is less known is that the origin of his title is because he found the uncle Fa Ren monk, which made his father very happy.
On the first day of the first lunar month in 1390, just as the extensive project of pointing and engraving the "Hongwu Nanzang" was approaching its eighteenth year, the nineteen-year-old Zhu Chun came from Fengyang, Anhui Province, to the fiefdom of Chengdu. As soon as he got off the bus, he was tested by a war: the barbarians in Xifan rebelled, and the arsonists burned Heiyaguan (in present-day Moxi Town, Luding County, Sichuan Province), and rode out in a disorderly manner.
For a time, people in Chengdu and other places were panicked.
When it comes to domination, the decisive side of Zhu Chun's character, which has a weak appearance, is immediately revealed. He immediately went to the stage and asked his father to send Zhai Neng, Tongzhi Xu Kai to command 13,000 soldiers, under the full command of his father-in-law, Lan Yu, the Duke of Liangguo, to the Dadu River Valley to carry out the slaughter.
While the war was still in progress, Zhu Chun fell into deep thinking: Shudi is borderless, the nation is complex, and if it is a little careless, it is very easy to cause regional turmoil; in addition, after more than ten years of development, there are fewer people around Chengdu, and the people are heavily burdened.
This is precisely Zhu Yuanzhang's painstaking solitude. In the eyes of this brilliant founding prince, although the county system was the best administrative structure for the normal operation of the Ming Dynasty: the prefecture managed the prefecture, the prefecture managed the county, and the county managed the people, and the emperor was in the center, and only needed to drive the provinces into the palm of his hand, he could command the world and control the whole body at once; but the officials were all cunning and reliant, and if they relaxed their discipline a little, they would evolve into house rats, seeking personal gain, abusing the people's desires, and destroying the foundation of the dynasty. Therefore, it is necessary to divide the children and grandchildren into various towns and let them guard the officials like cats and rats.
To Zhu Yuanzhang's slight relief, Zhu Chun, who had been enfeoffed to Chengdu, was indeed able to understand his intentions better than other princes. After quelling the rebellion, the young King of Shu immediately wrote a letter requesting that the goods and quantities of tribute to the Shu king's palace be determined to minimize the economic pressure on the people. In the recital, he also put forward the concept of "ruling Shu with etiquette", and further elaborated: "(Outside of Confucianism), when dabbling in Buddhist and Taoist texts, recruiting monks and Taoists, Guangda Temple, Taoist Temple and other places, I wish the imperial map to be consolidated, and the Fanping Yongkang." ”
This year, Zhu Yuanzhang was sixty-two years old. Although the imperial doctor carefully nursed, the various hidden diseases hidden in his body had quietly set off, which bothered him endlessly. Putting down Zhu Chun's recital, he looked out the window at the spring color of Jiangnan, where the willows were piled with smoke for another year, remembered the vast scripture scroll that was being carried out painstakingly and could be completed without knowing when, sighed, and raised his pen to criticize: "I am very relieved." Ru is in Shu, when he continues to look for his uncle as yes. ”
From about the spring of 1372, Zhu Yuanzhang had a grand vision in his heart that excited him: when the scripture scrolls were engraved, he would let his uncle sit in the capital and set up an altar to preach the scriptures, so that all the monks in the world would come to listen to and listen. Since the Ming Dynasty has been in ruins, Buddhism should also present a flourishing scene of the return of all the dharmas.
In order to achieve this goal, in 1382, Zhu Yuanzhang ordered the establishment of a monastic record department in Nanjing, a monastic department in each province, a monk's department in the prefecture, and a monastic association in the county, supervising the monks' ceremonies and supervising examinations.
In 1384, he also adopted the suggestion of Zhao Mao, the Rebbe Shangshu, and stipulated that monks throughout the country should be issued once every three years, and an examination would be added, and those who did not understand the classics would be eliminated immediately.
Eighteen years have passed. Not only is the writing of the scriptures far away, but the uncle who has searched all over the world is still unheard of. Deep in his heart, Zhu Yuanzhang couldn't help but have a sense of confusion about the number of days, not manpower.