Text: Mr. Lu li
The reason why we have heard of the character of Qiu Chuji is mainly through Jin Yong's martial arts novels. In "The Legend of the Eagle Shooter" and "The Hero of the Eagle", Qiu Chuji appears as the image of the "Seven Sons of Quanzhen", a martial arts master. However, novels are novels after all, and there are many fictional places in them, especially Qiu Zhongji's position of supporting the Southern Song Dynasty is very different from historical facts.
In fact, Qiu Zhiji is not only a character in the novel, but also a real character in history. Previously, people had always believed that the author of "Journey to the West" was Qiu Zhongji, not Wu Cheng'en. So, what's going on here? The story has to start at the beginning.
Figure 1 The People's Literature Publishing House published "Journey to the West" with a word count of 860,000 words
When it comes to Qiu Zhiji, we have to mention Wang Chongyang and Quanzhen Dao. Wang Chongyang is also a real historical figure, at the turn of the two Song Dynasties, born in the village of Dawei in Xianyang, Shaanxi. In his early years, Wang Chongyang believed in Confucianism and participated in several scientific expeditions, but he was helpless to repeatedly fall behind Sun Shan. After that, he studied martial arts diligently, and although he passed the exam, his position was not very ideal. Therefore, Wang Chongyang had to sigh: "Heaven sent Wen Wu to advance into two nothing." So he resigned indignantly, entered the road in anger, and hid in the mountains and forests. Then he abandoned his family and traveled, claiming that he had met a stranger in Ganhe Town to teach him the true skills of internal refining, and realized that he was a monk. In the first year of Jin Dading (1161), Wang Chongyang dug a cave tomb in Nanshi Village, named "Tomb of the Living Dead", also known as "Xingyu", and lived in it and practiced for 2 years.
After the practice, Wang Chongyang began to preach. Since most of the people who preached were their own villagers, Wang Chongyang was raised by them, and naturally there was no mystery to speak of, so the preaching was repeatedly frustrated. What to do? Wang Chongyang decided to leave his hometown, so he left Tongguan in the east and came all the way to Shandong. Ma Yu, Sun Bu'er, Tan Chuduan, Liu Chuxuan, Qiu Chuji, Hao Datong, and Wang Chuyi were successively accepted as disciples, so the Quanzhen Sect was established. The seven disciples played an important role in the creation and dissemination of Yau's teachings, and later generations called them the Seven Truths of the Quanzhen Sect.
Figure 2 Qiu Chuji (1148-1227), character Tongmi, Dao number Changchunzi
Among these seven disciples, the most influential was Qiu Chuji. Qiu Chuji , also spelled Tongmi , was a Taoist leader of the Quanzhen Daoist Sect and a religious leader in charge of the World's Taoism. He was a Native of Qixia, Dengzhou (present-day Shandong), a famous Quanzhen Daoist in the Jin Dynasty, and a thinker, Taoist leader, politician, writer, health careist, and medicine scholar. Having so many titles is by no means a waste of time, and we won't list them all. Just saying one thing is enough to make his name go down in history.
The movie "Stop Killing Order" released in 2013 tells the story of the real qiu zhiji that really happened in history to dissuade Genghis Khan from "stopping killing and returning to the east". Qiu Chuji, who is 73 years old, has worked tirelessly to trek 35,000 miles to the snowy mountains to persuade Genghis Khan to stop the killing, and is still sung by the Western world.
Speaking of this, it is necessary to go close to Qiu Zhiji and see what his monastic career really is. Qiu Chuji lost his parents since childhood, and it can be said that he has tasted all the sufferings of the world, so his mind is relatively mature. It is this unique life experience that makes him yearn for a fairy life without troubles. When he was a teenager, he lived in the Gongshan Mountains north of the village and lived a life of "wearing pine flowers to eat pine nuts, pine streams and moon drinking pine winds". It is even rumored that in order to temper his will, he threw copper coins from the rock cliffs into the bushes again and again until he found them.
Figure 3 Qiu Youliang (played) in the movie "Stop Killing Order"
Because of his extreme firm determination of the Tao, he became a monk at the age of 19 in the Kuncheng Mountains of Ninghai. He began to learn taoism in 1167 and officially became a disciple of Wang Chongyang in 1168. Wang Chongyang named it Ji Ji, the character is dense, and the number is Changchunzi. It was his number that we later became familiar with, that is, Changchun Zhenren.
Later, Wang Chunyang died, and the eldest disciple Ma Yu became the head teacher. Qiu Chuji entered the Cave Dwelling of The Creek and began his ascetic career. It lasted for six years and carried him with him, so people called him "Mr. Kasa". After that, he went to Longmen Mountain (now Baoji) in Raozhou to live in seclusion for seven years, becoming the founder of the Quanzhen Longmen Sect. It must be mentioned here that since the Yuan Dynasty, the mainstream of quanzhen dao has been the Dragon Gate Sect created by Qiu Chuji. The Dragon Gate Sect even occupies a thriving position in the entire Taoism.
During his seclusion in Qindi, Qiu Chuji's life was extremely hard, and he immersed himself in the study of health care and Taoist classics. In addition to research, he did not forget to make friends with local literati and celebrities, so his achievements in history and literature were also quite high.
Figure 4 The inscription of the Quanzhen Sect
In March of the twenty-eighth year of Jin Dading (1188), Qiu Zhiji rushed to Yanjing at the behest of Jin Shizong and was ordered to rebuild the statues of Wang Chongyang and Ma Danyang at the Guan'an. At this time, Ma Danyang had died, so Qiu Chuji presided over the "Ten Thousand Spring Festival" affairs and gave a warning to the emperor to "hold on to Ying Shoucheng", and his reputation has been greatly enhanced ever since.
In 1203, Liu Chuxuan died. After that, Qiu Zhiji became the fifth Quanzhen Sect leader, and finally came to the forefront of the history of quanzhen sect and became the object of everyone's attention. Due to the growing number of followers of the Quanzhen Sect, the influence throughout the North was also greater. It can be said that by enveloping Qiu Zhiji, it can gain the support of the Quanzhen Sect and the majority of believers, so the Jin Dynasty and the Southern Song Dynasty started the idea of Qiu Chuji and wanted to recruit it to their subordinates. In 1216, qiu was in Dengzhou, and Wang Tingyu, the Jin Dynasty's Dongping overseer, invited him to Nanjing, the new capital of the Jin dynasty, with an edict from Jin Xuanzong, but was politely rejected by Qiu Chuji, and then the Southern Song Dynasty also sent emissaries to come, which was also rejected.
Why? This has to admire the political wisdom of Qiu Zhiji. Qiu Chuji saw that the Jin Dynasty and the Southern Song Dynasty currently looked brilliant, but in fact, they were already tomorrow's yellow flowers. On the contrary, the unknown Mongolia seems to be weak, but it is actually the sun of the sunrise, and the future is unlimited. Qiu Chuji understood that if the Quanzhen Sect wanted to make great progress, it was best not to get too close to politics. If you really can't avoid it, you should also judge the situation and see the situation clearly.
Figure 5 Genghis Khan's Expedition to the West
At this time, the reputation of Qiu Chuji was spreading more and more. Genghis Khan naturally also heard about the Yau Machine. At this time, Genghis Khan was attacking Khwarazm, at the age of 58, and his physical condition was not as good as before due to his long-term conquest. Therefore, the minister Liu Zhonglu took the opportunity to recommend Qiu Chuji to him, saying that Qiu Zhongji had lived for more than 300 years and had the art of immortality. After Genghis Khan listened, he was thrilled and sent Liu Zhonglu with the gold medal of "acting as if he were a person, acting cheaply" and led 20 Mongolian soldiers to meet Qiu Zhiji.
Liu Zhonglu experienced some twists and turns, and finally met Qiu Zhiji through the introduction of his disciple Yin Zhiping. After qiu Chuji saw the edict, he was surprised that he did not resign and expressed his willingness to go to see Genghis Khan. Why? I am 72 years old at this time, so why should I give up the near and far? Because Qiu Zhiji understood that the Jin Dynasty was not an opponent of the Mongols, and that sooner or later the North China region would be Mongols, it was impossible to offend the Mongol army for the sake of the development of the True Path. In addition, there was another layer of consideration, he had long heard about the brutality of the Mongol army, and the slaughter of the city often occurred, and if this trip could persuade Genghis Khan to put down the butcher's knife, it would be a great credit.
Figure 6 Li Zhichang, author of "Changchun Zhenren Journey to the West"
In 1220, Qiu Chuji set out with Liu Zhonglu and took the eighteen disciples accompanying him on a trek that lasted three years and a journey of 35,000 miles to the Snow Mountain and met Genghis Khan. It was an absolutely historic moment. Genghis Khan paid great respect to Qiu Zhiji and "discussed" with him three times. Qiu Urged him to "be pure in heart and widowed in desire," "respect heaven and love the people," and "live well and stop killing." At this time, Genghis Khan was old and frail, perhaps missing his homeland and tired of the war, and even agreed to Qiu's request. Therefore, he ordered the three armies to stop the war and return to the dynasty.
At this time, let's talk about "Journey to the West", Qiu Chuji wrote it is called "Changchun Zhenren Journey to the West", recording the story of his journey all the way to the west. Of course, the author of "Changchun Zhenren's Journey to the West" that we see now is signed by Li Zhichang. But this is also a controversial issue, as early as the Ming and Qing dynasties, people believed that its author was Qiu Chuji. It is also believed that one of the four famous works, "Journey to the West", was composed by Qiu Chuji, and it was not until a record of "Wu Cheng'en's Journey to the West" appeared in a provincial chronicle that people determined the author of "Journey to the West". In any case, Qiu Zhiji is related to the Journey to the West, at least the first draft of the Journey to the West of the Changchun True People, and then his disciple Li Zhichang systematically completed the book on this basis, which is why li Zhichang is signed today.
Figure 7 Commentary on Journey to the West, the title of the main text is "Journey to the West of Qiu Zhenren"
Although the "Journey to the West" we are familiar with was written by Wu Cheng'en, and the story is indeed more exciting, we should not forget Qiu Zhiji. His words to stop killing are worth remembering. A couplet of the Qianlong Emperor can be said to be a highly summarized of Qiu Chuji's life, "Eternal life, do not eat Xiaxia to seek secrets; stop killing with one word, and know that the world has miraculous feats"!
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