Many people may have a hard time believing that the most powerful dynasty in Chinese history was not the Tang Dynasty, nor the Song Dynasty, but the "Ming Dynasty". At that time, the degree of openness of the country's thinking and the grandeur of its vision were amazing. During the Ming Dynasty, the situation of "a hundred schools of thought" during the Spring and Autumn Warring States period was even reproduced, and the ideas and technologies of the Ming Dynasty were far ahead of the Western countries at that time. However, one of the reasons why the Ming Dynasty was misunderstood as not powerful was that their founding emperor was Zhu Yuanzhang.
Zhu Yuanzhang was born as a farmer, let go of cattle, worked as a monk, and also begged for food, when he succeeded to the throne, he was 40 years old, during his reign of 30 years, he had a diligent government and loved the people, and was an outstanding commander, but later there was also suspicion and taboo, as well as cruel phenomena, everyone knows that he once worked as a small monk in the temple, and when he became an emperor and returned to the temple again, how would the abbots treat him?
In 1344, after the drought in Haozhou, there was a plague of locusts and plagues, and his parents and eldest brother died in this disaster, when Zhu Yuanzhang was only 16 years old, he suffered the pain of the separation of his relatives, but he died and survived this disaster. After being buried with the bodies of his relatives wrapped in a few rags, he came to the Huangjue Temple, defected to the monk Gao Bin, shaved his head and became a small monk.
Zhu Yuanzhang chanted, cleaned, and struck the bell in the temple every day, and when he did not do well, he was reprimanded by the old monk. But there were too many people affected by the disaster, and not many people came to the temple to offer incense, so the incense was very bad, and the monks were old and bullied the young, and when they saw the smoke in the temple, they had to hurry to eat, and when they went late, they would not eat.
After only 50 days in the temple, Zhu Yuanzhang was forced to leave because "the monks of the temple were hungry for food", and later he wrote in the inscription of his "Imperial Tomb Monument": "Suddenly rushing towards the smoke, and the ancient temple is thrown into the ancient temple." It can be seen that he originally wanted to make a living in the temple, but his life was not good. In the end, I also suffered a lot when I was traveling in the clouds.
Later, Zhu Yuanzhang defected to Guo Zixing's Red Turban Army, and made a lot of merit in the army, and met Empress Ma, but Guo Zixing began to exclude him, and in the end, he could only leave on his own, "The heavens will descend on the Si people, and they will first suffer their hearts." After experiencing so much suffering, he also began to make good luck, met Xu Da, Liu Bowen, Chang Yuchun and other strange people, and these people wholeheartedly assisted him, and finally, helped him achieve great achievements.
In 1378, having been emperor for 10 years, he decided to go to the temple to worship the Buddha, and with the support of a group of ministers, he came to the temple, at this time the temple was full of incense, no longer the desolate appearance he had seen, and the abbot in the temple heard that he was coming, and he also made preparations early, summoned all the disciples of the temple to the door to greet, and Zhu Yuanzhang entered the temple in this way.
Today's Zhu Yuanzhang is already a monarch in the world, not a small monk who hit the bell in the past, in the face of the mud bodhisattva of that year, does he still have to bow down? So He asked the abbot, "Do you still need to bow down to the Buddha?" "This is a difficult question to answer, the kneeling is out of a prayer that makes you pray, the emperor has the heart to worship the Buddha, but now that he is the most honorable person under the heavens, does he still need to bow down?" How should the abbot answer in order to satisfy Zhu Yuanzhang?
The abbot smiled and said: "Now the Buddha does not worship the past Buddha", that is, let Zhu Yuanzhang not worship, this sentence is from the story of Zhao Kuangyin and Zen master Zanning, Zhao Kuangyin also asked such a question, but the Zen master of Zanning knew that the emperor came here for nothing more than to play, but since he arrived at the Buddhist hall, not kneeling to worship would not show his sincerity, if he bowed, there was a loss of tianzi prestige. That is to say, tell the Son of Heaven: You are a modern Buddha, so you do not have to bow down to the past Buddha.
Zhu Yuanzhang listened, the abbot was so aware of current affairs, described himself as a modern Buddha, the sense of satisfaction in his heart doubled, Long Yan was very happy, anyway, and the monks in the temple were also relieved, and saved the people of the temple with one word. Therefore, it can also be seen that the abbot is very knowledgeable and has a lot of ink in his stomach, so it seems that more learning can help himself at key moments.