In the Journey to the West, Tang Monk is very famous, as the reincarnation of the disciple of the Buddha, Tang Monk has received attention from all sides since he was born, and finally with the full support of the big men of all parties, Tang Monk successfully obtained the True Scriptures and was named "Buddha of Merit and Virtue", which is immortal and will never die. The Tang monk in the novel has a very good ending and becomes a Buddha, so what kind of ending is the Tang monk in the main history?
The Tang monks in the Zhengshi dynasty, surnamed Chen and given the name Yi, were from the Luoyang clan (present-day Yanshi Town, Henan). In the Journey to the West, Tang Taizong Li Shimin was very supportive of Tang Monk's cause of taking scriptures, and when he heard that Tang Monk was going to the Western Heavens to learn the Scriptures, Li Shimin immediately expressed his support, and even became brothers with Tang Monks, and used all his strength to help Tang Monks' cause of taking scriptures. However, in the history of zhengshi, in fact, Li Shimin did not support the Tang monks to learn the scriptures from the Western Heavens, because in Li Shimin's view, Buddhism is not the right way!
During the Southern and Northern Dynasties, the Buddhist family had already taken root in the land of China and was once very prosperous, but the prosperity of Buddhism also brought a lot of trouble to the rulers and ordinary people. On the one hand, Buddhism not only did not have to pay taxes, but also occupied a large amount of land, equivalent to them being landlords. In ancient feudal dynasties, productivity was relatively low, and the common people were required to pay taxes to support the ruling class, but with the development of Buddhism, a large number of temples and monks appeared, these people did not have to pay taxes, and hid many people, so he indirectly reduced the income of the imperial court.
On the other hand, Buddhist ideas were not conducive to the early development of feudal dynasties. Buddhism belongs to a religion, he pays attention to cause and effect, causing many people to believe in Buddhism, resisting the world, and in the early days of the feudal dynasty, the population was originally insufficient, experienced the chaotic world of the previous dynasty, at this time it is necessary for the people to work hard to restore productivity, Buddhism to persuade people to get rid of the world's ideas are naturally contrary to the thought of the imperial court, so it will be hit!
The Tang monks wanted the Western Heavens to learn the scriptures, it was precisely during the reign of Tang Taizong Li Shimin, at that time, the Tang Dynasty, only experienced a great chaotic world, and urgently needed the people to invest in the construction of the Tang Dynasty, so he did not want the Tang monks to go to the Western Heavens to learn the scriptures, and then use the Buddhist scriptures to fool the people, at this time Li Shimin needed the people to serve him even more, so he did not want Buddhism to grow, and the dream of the Tang monks to go west to learn the scriptures was shattered!
In the third year of Zhenguan (629), there was a great famine in the Tang Dynasty, and the Tang Dynasty had no solution, so it could only allow the people to survive on their own, and it was under this policy that the Tang monks finally found the opportunity and opened the great cause of learning the scriptures from the Western Heavens! After nearly seventeen years, the Tang monks finally brought back a large number of Buddhist scriptures from ancient India, but because these scriptures were written in Sanskrit, the Tang monks needed a lot of time to translate these scriptures, but at this time, Tang Taizong Li Shimin set his sights on him again!
Li Shimin did not like Buddhism, and he believed that the ideas propagated by Buddhism did not conform to the pioneering spirit of the Tang Dynasty, so he did not want the Tang monks to translate the scriptures, but wanted the Tang monks to come out and become officials, tell him what he saw and heard along the way, and help Li Shimin formulate various invasion plans! As the greatest monarch of the Tang Dynasty, Li Shimin's ambitions were very large, he wanted to understand the surrounding world and conquer the surrounding countries, so he urgently needed a guide to understand the customs and customs of various countries, but the Tang monks rejected him, which made Li Shimin very unhappy. At that time, the Tang monks were very famous, so Li Shimin could not kill the Tang monks in a fair and just way, but could only pressure the Tang monks through various things and let him come out to help himself, instead of indulging in translating Buddhist scriptures.
At that time, Li Shimin's daughter and Tang Monk's apprentice had an affair, and was discovered by Li Shimin, so Li Shimin took the opportunity to play, beheaded Tang Monk's apprentice, pressured Tang Monk, and asked Tang Monk to stop translating Buddhist scriptures and come out as an official to serve Tang Tang, but Tang Monk was still unmoved. According to this plot development, it is estimated that Tang Monk is likely to be poisoned by Li Shimin, but fortunately, Li Shimin died not long after, and the newly appointed emperor was obviously not as cruel as Li Shimin, so the peak of Tang Monk's career came, and no one stopped him from translating Buddhist scriptures.
With the efforts of the Tang monks, a large number of Buddhist scriptures were translated into Chinese, which shocked the world. However, unfortunately, in the first year of Emperor Gaozong of Tang (664), Tang Monk finally passed away due to his advanced age, and completed his vigorous life! After the death of Tang Monk, Three days after Emperor Gaozong of Tang's reign, tens of thousands of people from the Tang Dynasty sent funerals to Tang Monks, which shows how much people at that time were grateful for Tang Monk's kindness!
epilogue
We were all deceived by Wu Cheng'en's "Journey to the West", and the Tang monks in the Journey to the West did not die in the end, but became Buddhas, and were named "Suntan Gongde Buddha" and lived forever.
However, Tang Xuanzang in the main history eventually died during the reign of Emperor Gaozong of Tang, and except for Tang Taizong Li Shimin, who was not very optimistic about Tang Monk's cause of learning scriptures, everyone else still admired Tang Monk's behavior and respected Tang Monk more. After the death of Tang Monk, even Emperor Li Zhi stopped for three days and held a moment of silence for Tang Monk, which shows how much influence Tang Monk had at that time!
(This article mainly refers to the Zizhi Tongjian)