After the Battle of Huaixi was settled, Tang Xianzong's life became more and more extravagant, and in his later years, he even began to seek the art of immortality. In November 818, Emperor Xianzong's meritorious envoy told him that there was a Buddha bone relic of Shakyamuni in the Famen Temple in Baoji Fufeng, and it was said that as long as he invited it out every thirty years, he would be able to live a rich life.
Tang Xianzong was convinced of what Meritorious History said, so he began to make various preparations to welcome the Buddha's bones.
01 Emperor Xianzong of Tang worships the bones of the Buddha
In 819, the first month of the 14th year of the Yuan Dynasty, Emperor Xianzong of Tang ordered the then eunuch Du Yingqi to go to Famen Temple to receive the Buddha bones.
Du Yingqi led a group of palace people with his entourage, and according to the emperor's order, he formed a court team of 100 people, and from Baoji to the wind, he went straight to Chang'an Forbidden. The excitement and pomp of this team at that time was amazing. Just looking along the road, the countless golden flags, canopies, and banners were neatly arranged in a long line, and the palace people who were on errands carried a golden jewelry brake, and inside was a Buddha bone relic of Shakyamuni, and they came to the Kaiyuan gate of Chang'an City with great pious and careful, and mighty force.
At this time, Chang'an City was empty, but the roads were crowded with people who were dedicated to Buddha and respect, some of these people were royal relatives and state relatives, some were dignitaries, and some were ordinary people. People were eagerly looking forward to it, extremely religiously and eagerly wanting to worship, worship and offer Buddha, and Emperor Xianzong of Tang personally went to the building to watch.
As an extremely devout Buddhist believer, Tang Xianzong respectfully welcomed the Buddha bones to the palace, and personally worshiped them for three days, and then let the temples pass on the offerings.
The emperor's example accelerated the nation's worship and offering of Buddha, and people arbitrarily followed this trend of worshiping Buddha. In order to be able to worship the Buddha bones, some people even gave up their own work and made various alms in order to obtain the protection of the Buddha bones, and some even did not hesitate to sell their property and fields.
At that time, the phenomenon of reverence for Buddha also accelerated the birth of the Buddhist industry, countless believers turned into monks and nuns, enjoying some of the convenience brought by believing in Buddhism, there are 40,000 Buddhist monasteries in the country alone, and the number of monks and nuns is as high as 300,000, these monks and nuns also occupy a huge amount of land, and the state spends a lot of money every year to build these Buddhist monasteries.
When the whole country was immersed in the frenzy of offering Buddha bones, Han Yu, who was then an attendant of the Criminal Department, was particularly sober at this time, he was worried, and he developed an extreme rejection and disgust for this custom.
02 Wen Gong greeted the Buddha bones
As a loyal and patriotic person, Han Yue felt that the phenomenon of veneration of Buddha had seriously threatened the interests of the people and the country at that time, and if he did not give advice to the emperor, he would have trouble sleeping. After a few thoughts, he wrote a statement in a solemn manner, ready to play it to Emperor Xianzong of Tang. Thus, the popular "On the Bone Table of Buddha" was born.
"On the Buddha Bone Table" has a total of six natural paragraphs, the full text of more than 1100 words, Han Yu in this article to quote, ancient and modern, citing a large number of historical figures and historical events, persuading the emperor not to worship the Buddha and believe in Buddha, he also made a lot of sharp contrasts with the situation of the national dynasty at that time, using "Buddha is not enough" to tell the emperor that believing in Buddha can not make the country prosperous, nor can it make people live a hundred years. He even directly accused the emperor that if he did not curb it, he would eventually "promote a short life."
This is a logical, well-structured and fierce article, so it had important historical and practical significance at that time.
"Chen Mou said: Those who subdue the Buddha, Yi Di one of the Fa'er, have flowed into China since the Later Han Dynasty, and they have not tasted it in ancient times... At this time, Buddhism had not yet entered China, and it was not because of Buddhism. "The courtiers believe that believing in Buddha is just a spell of Yi Di, and it flowed into our China during the Later Han Dynasty, and it was not in China in ancient times. Therefore, believing in Buddhism cannot make people live long.
At that time, Han Yu was full of a sense of justice and family and country responsibilities in his heart, so he used a lot of examples to tell the emperor that the ancient emperor did not believe in Buddhism, but he lived a long life.
"When Emperor Han Ming was emperor, there was Buddhism, and Emperor Ming reigned for only eighteen years. After that, chaotic deaths followed, and luck did not last long. Seeking blessings for Buddha is even more woe. From this point of view, Buddha is inadequate, and we can also know it. "When Emperor Han Ming was emperor, there was Buddhism, but Emperor Ming only reigned for eighteen years. After that, the situation in the country was unpredictable, and the emperor did not reign for long. Originally, the purpose of worshipping the Buddha was to seek blessings, but it was self-defeating and had calamity. Therefore, the principle of not having to serve the Buddha so religiously is already very clear.
After figuring out the emperor's thoughts, he took the opportunity to tell Emperor Xianzong these truths, indicating the reason for rebuking the Buddha.
"However, the people are foolish, easy to confuse and difficult to understand, and seeing His Majesty like this, it will be said that he is a true Buddha. Jieyun: The Son of Heaven is a great saint, who respects faith with one heart; Whoever the people are, will they spare their lives! "But the people are always very ignorant and easy to be deceived, they see this behavior of the emperor, they all believe that the emperor sincerely serves the Buddha, the emperor is like this, what can I spare my life as a common people?"
Han Yue pointed out that the emperor personally welcomed the Buddha bones and hyped Buddhism, which would only make the people blindly believe in Buddha, be confused, and even turbulent society.
"If you do not immediately forbid it, you will go to the temples, and there will be those who break their arms and necks as their offerings. Bad customs, spread laughter, not details. "If these acts are not immediately forbidden, and the bones of the Buddha are enshrined in various temples, there will be a matter of cutting off arms and flesh to provide for the Buddha, which will be contrary to customs and laugh generously, and then things will not be easy to clean up."
He sincerely exhorted the emperor to immediately stop welcoming and worshipping the Buddha.
From the words and sentences in "On the Table of Buddha Bones", we can see that Han Yu felt worried and repulsed in his heart about the matter of worshipping Buddha bones, and at this time, he guarded the responsibility and feelings of a Confucian scholar with his actions.
After Han Yue presented the "On the Bone Table of Buddha" to Tang Xianzong, he was still immersed in a kind of self-absorption, and he thought that this treatise would definitely be favored and valued by the emperor. However, the world was unpredictable, and after only a few moments, Emperor Xianzong's face turned from sunny to gloomy, and his expression showed a great dissatisfaction and anger, and he couldn't help but say that he wanted to inflict capital punishment on Han Yue.
The courtiers were also frightened by the emperor's action for a while, and when they came back to their senses, people began to intercede for Han Yue. Subsequently, other imperial relatives and state officials also took Han Yue as a loyal minister and interceded with the emperor.
Mencius said: "The heart of compassion is also the end of benevolence", even though Tang Xianzong was very angry, but under the persuasion of the courtiers, the emperor Xianzong, who cherished talent and loved talent, finally moved his compassion. So he withdrew half of his anger, but still relegated Han Yue to a deserted seaside town - Lingnan Chaozhou, which is now Chaozhou, Guangdong.
Han Yu, who had no way to serve the country, was full of doubts and unwillingness at this time, and his fate began to change impartially one hundred and eighty degrees.
03 Han Yuzuo moved to Chaozhou
People always can't help but believe in fate, just when Han Yu was fifty-two years old, his life path suddenly became extremely narrow and difficult to walk, and he was in the twilight of his life, how could he not have imagined that he was in the jade pot, but he sent himself to the darkest abyss on the way.
At this time, Han Yu was no longer as strong as a young man, he was physically and mentally exhausted, dragging a broken body, and helplessly walking on the road to Chaozhou.
Chaozhou's remoteness and desolation could not be described in words, and Han Yue braved heavy snow and left Chang'an City in a hurry. When he arrived at Lantian Pass, he looked back at Chang'an City and the rolling mountains of the Qinling Mountains, and his heart was mixed. The hardship of the road is only secondary, but what is more tormented by Han Yu's heart is that his loyalty has not been recognized by the emperor. Thinking of his situation of risking death to greet the Buddha's bones, playing the day and night, and the future was confused, Han Yue touched the scene and sighed with emotion.
So, he wrote the famous poem "Zuo Moved to Languan Shi Nephew Xiang":
"A letter to the nine heavens, and the sunset to Chaozhou Road eight thousand.
If you want to eliminate evil for the Holy Ming, you are willing to decay and cherish the old age.
Where is the Yunheng Qinling family? The snow is blue and the horse is not moving forward.
Knowing that Ru should come to the intention, so as to collect my bones by the river. ”
The "Nine Heavens" here are likened to kings. In the face of the king, Han Yue had no way to serve the country at this time, and his heart was full of frustration and desolation, and the more he did this, the stronger his loyalty and patriotism became.
At that time, Jia Dao, who had been promoted by Han Yu, wrote a song "Send Han Chaozhou Yu" after reading Han Yu's "Zuo Moved to Languan Shi Nephew Xiang":
"This heart was with the Mulan boat until the head of the tide in the south of the sky.
Come to Huayue in the next chapter, and pass the letter of the customs through the taki stream.
The remnants of the peak hanging road are broken, and the sea is immersed in the old trees of the city.
A night of miasma and wind swept away, and the moon began to go up to the West Building. ”
My heart will be with you, riding the Magnolia boat until the end of the distant Chaozhou water. Your poem spread across the Qinling Mountains to the west of Mount Hua, and my poem came out of Lantian Pass and crossed the Takishui. The road to Chaozhou is always cut off by treacherous peaks, and the rough waters of the sea make the old trees look like the twilight of autumn. There will be a day when those miasma will disappear with the wind, and then the moonlight will be clear, and the high light will shine on the West Building. "Langxi Building" is a small attic in Chaozhou.
Jia Dao used this poem to express his longing and sympathy for Han Yu, and also hinted at the desolation and loneliness of Han Yu's situation at that time.
For Han Yu, his fate always revolves around the responsibility of home and country in the Confucian etiquette system, so it is particularly sad.
As Yue Fei wrote in "Manjiang Red Writing Huai": Thirty meritorious dust and earth, eight thousand miles of clouds and moons. Everything is so uplifting. As Yang Shen wrote in "Linjiang Immortal, Rolling East of the Yangtze River": "Success or failure turns headless." "Everything is so depressing.
Learned literary and martial arts, and the goods were sold in the imperial family. This calamity of Zuo Qian's degrading was fatal to Han Yue, and the feelings and pride of the twilight years ceased to exist at this time. However, on the road, every word in "On the Bone Table of Buddha", although far away, still lingered in the depths of his heart.
As a scholar who received Confucian education since he was a child and had the responsibility of his family and country, Han Yue always thought about reviving Confucianism and serving the country, so his anti-Buddha mentality became stronger.
04 Han Yue denounced Buddha Hongru as a cangsheng
People will always aspire to become famous in the future, and win the posthumous name. Han Yu was no exception, in the society under the feudal Confucian etiquette system at that time, his ambition was so full of enthusiasm and positive energy, and his Confucian thought had been deeply planted in his heart since he was a child.
Han Yu, who was born in a family of officials and eunuchs, died of his parents at an early age, and has been living with his brother Han Hui, who was promoted by Prime Minister Yuan Zai to be a living quarterer, and the official residence of Liupin, responsible for recording the discussion and political remarks of the emperor and the prime minister, and has always been a fan of Confucianism.
In addition to his brother, the uncles in the Han family are also staunch Confucian fans, and growing up in such an environment with a strong atmosphere of Confucian thought, Han Yue is naturally deeply influenced and influenced by this ideology and culture.
After experiencing the turbulent displacement of his youth, Han Yu began to study Confucian classics under the inspiration of his father's and brother's spirit, and aspired to become a Confucian scholar who conformed to the standards of feudal etiquette. It is said that when he was a child, he did not read books other than three generations; Apart from being a saint, he did not dare to have other ambitions. In the "New Book of Tang Han Yu Biography", it was said: The more he knows how to read, the diary is thousands of words, longer than the long, and he can understand the Six Classics and learn a hundred schools. At this time, Han Yu had begun to quietly grow into a true loyal guardian under the Confucian etiquette system, which also planted a seed for his later denunciation of Buddha Hongru.
During the Tianbao period of Emperor Xuanzong of Tang, the outbreak of the "Anshi Rebellion" caused the entire country to suffer unprecedented impact and destruction. In the Middle and Tang Dynasties, Buddhism was widespread and Taoism flourished, but Confucianism, which had always supported the dynasty, was snubbed and extremely lonely. Han Yu, who lived in this turbulent period, showed a sense of rejection of the Buddha, and later, his consultation with Tang Xianzong made him more clear about his position on propagating Confucianism. He even had an extremely fierce and-for-tat discussion with the emperor in "On the Bone Table of Buddha".
In On the Bone Table of Buddha, Han Yue rejects foreign Buddhism, mentioning:
"The man of the Buddha Ben Yidi does not understand the Chinese language, and his clothes are special; The mouth does not speak the law of the first king, and the body does not obey the law of the first king; I don't know the righteousness of kings and courtiers, the love of father and son. "Buddha is originally a foreign thing, and unlike the language of our country, the appearance of clothes is also very different. Moreover, the Buddhist family never preached the etiquette system passed down by our ancestors, nor did they wear clothing that met the requirements of the etiquette of the ancestors, which is not understanding the Confucian etiquette of kings and courtiers, as well as the relationship between father and son. When he mentioned Yidi, he showed a kind of disdain.
"Besides, his body has been dead for a long time, and his bones are decaying, and he is fierce, how should he be banned from entering the palace?" The withered phalange, the remnant of a filthy and ominous corpse, how could it be allowed to enter the court? He developed an extreme sense of disgust for the matter of Ying Buddha Bone.
"Beggar to use this bone to have a master, throw into water and fire, never be fundamental, cut off the doubts of the world, and avoid the confusion of future generations." Let the people of the world know what the great saints have done, out of ordinary things. "I hope that the emperor can destroy the Buddha bones, eternal calamity, and cut off the thoughts of the people of the world." Let future generations be fundamentally undeceived, so that everyone in the world will know that the behavior of saints should be far above ordinary people.
He made his position solemnly and solemnly, and in the words of the Confucian sage Confucius, he pointed out his position at the end of the article: "Worship ghosts and gods and stay away." ”
From the words and sentences in "On the Bone Table of Buddha", we seem to be able to read Han Yu's vast righteousness of a Confucian style.
He deeply rooted in his heart a Confucian orthodoxy that worries about the country and the world.
05 Outstanding loyalty
At the end of the "Bone Table of the Buddha", Han Yue said: "If the Buddha has a spirit, he can do evil, and if there is any suffering, it is advisable to add the body of the subject, and the heavens will come, and the minister will not complain." "If the Buddha can really manifest his spirit and bring down evil, then let me bear all the sufferings alone. Heaven forbid, I will never complain about regret.
For the body above the temple, he always firmly chose his original intention. He always remembered his loyalty to his country.
As the inheritor of Confucian thought and culture, Han Yue has always been loyal to his homeland and traditional Chinese culture, and he has a deep sense of responsibility for his homeland and the noble feelings of Confucian scholars.
He is lovely, persistent, tenacious, arrogant, maverick, and serves the country and the people.
He is always like a rock, with his own arms, strong and powerful in the torrent of the times, standing tall...
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