Luan Baoqun
From the time of the Han and Wei dynasties, the Chinese underworld, which was structured by Chinese folk alchemists and wizards, was presided over by the Taishan Fujun. By the time buddhism in the Eastern Jin Dynasty had grown, the monks wanted to meddle in the local Chinese business. On the one hand, they tried their best to Buddhistize the Taishan Fujun, and on the other hand, they also had the idea of replacing the Taishan Fujun with the King of Yanluo. The former has been more successful, while the latter has this ambition and is not accepted by the people. Before the Sui Dynasty, the story of the King of Yan Luo was only found in the Northern Dynasty, that is, the resurrection story of the second bhikkhu Hui ning after his death in the Luoyang Jialan Ji of the Northern Wei Yang Lizhi, and it is the only case. This Yama king is not the lord of the underworld, his function is to punish the monks who do not keep the precepts, which is exactly the true function of Yama as the lord of the Buddhist hell. As for the Southern Dynasty, only the Buddhist Taishan Fujun can be seen in the underworld story, and the King of Yan Luo did not show a face. However, Emperor Xiao Yan of Liangwu had a "Broken Wine and Meat Text", gambling and issuing a curse, saying that if he did not keep the precepts, then "may all the powerful ghosts and gods first be bitter to cure Xiao Yan's body, and then pay the hell Yama King, and all kinds of suffering, and even all sentient beings become Buddhas, and the disciple Xiao Yan is still in the hell of Ah Nose." The king of Yama here is also the lord of hell, and his office is to punish monks and believers who break the vows.
Obviously, no one in China, except for some Buddhists, is willing to let a foreign fierce god arrest himself in the underworld and be punished. Until the sui and Tang dynasties, the monks made the Sui Dynasty general Han Huhu "die as the king of Yanluo" in the form of stories and rumors, and finally took an important step in the localization of Yanluo. Those Buddhist gods, Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, needless to say, are the twenty heavens and the eight parts of the Heavenly Dragon, and in addition to the twenty heavenly Yamaras, can there be a second one transformed into a "human ghost" in China? Yan Luo's appointment as an irregular "human ghost" was a major compromise between Buddhist monks and Chinese folk beliefs, because he was not only "Chinese" but also appointed by the Chinese Emperor.
After that, the King of Yanluo finally officially became one of the Pluto Kings of China, but it can also be seen from the existing underworld stories that in the past three hundred years of the Tang Dynasty, the name "King of Yanluo" did not appear very frequently, and in addition to the King of Yanluo, there were also those who called the King of Taishan Province, the King, and the Officials, although they were not different in nature, most of them were inclined to Buddhism, but it seemed that they were reluctant to use the "King of Yanluo" to unify all the Lords of the Underworld.
However, at the end of the Tang Dynasty and the Fifth Dynasty, the situation changed suddenly, and an unknown source of the Ten Kings Sutra somehow appeared, pushing the ten Yan Luo kings to the center of the underworld. Moreover, its sphere of influence expanded rapidly, in addition to Sichuan, the birthplace of the "Ten Kings Classic", from Wu Yue, the famous painter Wang Qiaoshi who painted the "Ten Kings of Dizang", to Dunhuang, Shazhou, where the "Ten Kings Classic Picture Scroll" was discovered a thousand years later, thousands of miles from southeast to northwest, accounting for at least most of China. In just a few decades, the Taishan Fujun was almost gone. From then on until today, no matter how the dynasty is changed, no matter whether the leader of the Underworld Sect is Jizo or Dongyue, whether it is Jizo Temple, Dongyue Temple or City God Temple, as long as there is a YinSi, the person in charge is none other than the King of Yanluo.
One
The "Ten Kings Sutra", which has had such a great impact in China's nether world, is actually a pseudo-scripture, forged not only poorly written, but also in conflict with Buddhist teachings, and even discredited Buddhism, so it has never been recognized by Buddhism, and it is estimated that it will gradually be lost after the Southern Song Dynasty at the latest. Later, Japan found that there is a "Buddha said that Jizo Bodhisattva Heart Cause Ten Kings Sutra", according to Japanese scholars, it is the Japanese monks according to the Chinese "Ten Kings Sutra" and transformed, known as "false in the false", in fact, not so serious, but the Jizo from the "Ten Kings Sutra" of the six bodhisattvas prominent, let Jizo rule the ten kings as the leader of the nether sect, this is the real situation of the belief of the ten kings in the early Song Dynasty.
Fortunately, in the great discovery of the Dunhuang Tibetan Scripture Cave in the early twentieth century, there were dozens of copies of the "Pure Land Sutra of the Four Pre-Cultivators of the King of Yan luo", referred to as the "Sutra of the Teachings of the King of Yan Luo", or the "Seven Sutras of the Buddha Sayings of the Pre-cultivation of the Ten Kings of Life", so that the real "Ten Kings Sutra" can be seen by the world. The most valuable thing is that Dunhuang also found several kinds of "Ten Kings Sutras", with the nature of a series of pictures, entitled "Yan Luo King Pre-cultivation Seven Past Lives Pure Land Sutra". These sutras were copied in the Fifth Dynasty and the early Song Dynasty, and the titles are many different, there are always more than a dozen kinds, which can be seen that there are also impromptu changes in the tossing and copying, but the name of the sutra is roughly indispensable to the four words of "Pre-study Student Seven".
As usual, the sutra begins with the first sentence, "As I smell," to show that the sutra is not a counterfeit, but a genuine one. Then he said: When the Buddha came to Nirvana, "the bodhisattvas Mahāsāsa, the Heavenly Dragon God King, the Heavenly King Emperor Shi, the Four Heavenly Kings, the Great Brahma Kings, the Asura Kings, the Great Kings, the Heavenly Sons of Yan Luo, the Taishan Fujun, the Si Ming Si Lu, the Five Great Gods, the Hell Official, the Silva Gathering, and paying homage to the world." - It should be noted that the last few, Yan Luo Tianzi ruled over the Taishan Fujun, and the subordinates of the Taishan Fujun were Si Ming, Si Lu, and so on. Some people believe that "Taishan Fujun" is the god of Taoism, so they believe that the Ten Kings Sutra is influenced by Taoism, and it is a matter of hope and righteousness, and the Taoist god system has never had a "Taishan Fujun". Taishan Fujun was created by folk alchemists during the Han and Wei dynasties who used the Buddhist scripture "Taishan Hell" to create a completely Chinese native had a hellish master. As early as the Southern Dynasty, the monks wanted to take the Taishan Fujun into their own hands, on the grounds that "the Taishan, then the king of Yama", that is, the Taishan Hell originally belonged to Yan Luo. However, this method was difficult to succeed, so since the Six Dynasties, the Taishan Fujun was mostly used by monks as an agent of Buddhism in the underworld, which has long been unique to folk wizards. By the beginning of the Tang Dynasty, the monks also tried to classify the Taishan Fujun as a subordinate of the King of Yanluo, the so-called "King of Yanluo is like the Son of Heaven on Earth, the King of Taishan Is like the Shangshu Linglu, and the Five Dao Gods are like the Shangshu", while many Buddhist texts of the Tang Dynasty (such as the impostor Liangwu Emperor's "Confession of compassion dojo") have already regarded the "Taishan Fujun" as a Buddhist deity, arranged as "the King of Yanluo, the King of Taishan, the Five Great Gods, and the Eighteen Prison Kings". As for Si Ming and Si Lu, they are also the gods of the Palm Of the Underworld in Chinese folk beliefs, whose source is derived from the Star God, who is the agent of the Heavenly Emperor in the Nether Realm, and later belongs to the Taishan Fujun, and at this time it is also attributed to Yan Luo. Orthodox Taoism is engaged in refining inner and outer Dan and feathering ascension to heaven, and at best it is just a prayer to prolong life, and the affairs of the underworld are not of their concern at all, and the Ten Kings Sutra has nothing to do with them.
Then, as usual, Ananda asked: For what reason did the Son of Heaven of Yan Luo rule the Underworld? His Holiness then explained Yan Luo's resume, meaning only that although he was the Lord of Hell in the past, he should now be promoted to the Heavenly Son of Heaven. His Holiness said that there are causes, and nature is correct, and others cannot even "doubt" them.
His Holiness also said: If someone holds and reads the Ten Kings Sutra, after death, they can not be born in the three ways (that is, in the six reincarnations, they do not go to hell, beasts, and hungry ghosts), and they will not go to hell.
He also said: On the day of birth, killing the father and harming the mother, breaking the fast, killing pigs, cattle, sheep, chickens, dogs, poisonous snakes, all serious sins, should go to hell. But if this sutra and the statues of all the nobles are written in the karmic mirror, the king of Yama rejoices, and sentences him to release his people, and to give birth to rich and noble families, and to spare them from their sins.
It is also said: If those who pre-study the "Seven Fasts of Birth" offer the Three Treasures at two o'clock of the month, and set up statues of the ten kings to pray, then the virtuous boy will play the heavenly Cao Di government official, etc., record it in the name, and after death, he will be worthy of the place of happiness, and he will not live in the bardo for forty-nine days, and he will naturally pass through the ten kings smoothly without the need for relatives to make up for the fast. However, if the "Seven Kings of Birth" lack a fast, not only will they not be able to get rid of the "bardo body", but when they "pass the Ten Kings", they will be detained at the corresponding king's place, delayed for a year, and remain in suffering. Because this "Seven Seven Fasts" was practiced before death, it is called "Seven Fasts for Pre-Trainees".
His Holiness said that the six great bodhisattvas, including the Bodhisattva Of Jizo, nagarjuna Bodhisattva, Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva, Bodhisattva of Constant Sorrow, Bodhisattva of Dravidian, and Bodhisattva Vajrapani, all came to the same place and praised the Venerable One with one voice.
Then the Eighteen-Fold Lord of Hell, the Heavenly Son of Yama, and the Six Noble Priests prayed and said, "If four people (namely, bhikkhus, bhikshunis, upasakas, and upasakas) make this sutra and recite it, I should be spared all suffering, sent out of hell, and sent to the heavenly path of rebirth, without stagnation, and suffering every night.
The above is the first act: it is required that the believers make the sutra, recite the sutra, and pre-study the seven fasts before they die, so that after death, they will not live in the bardo body, and they can get rid of the suffering of hell and pass on to the Heavenly Path.
The next scene is the main program of this sutra: thanks to the good words spoken by Yan Luo Tianzi to his Holiness, those who did not pre-study the Seven Fasts before they were born were not irredeemable, "Ordinary people who cultivate merit after death, and examine the names of the ten kings", that is, the new deceased must add a hundred days, one year, and three years of fasting according to the "Seven Seven Fasts" according to 17 to 77. There are ten fasts in total, and the names of the ten kings must be asked, and at the end of the period, one king will come down to check the fasting. That is to say, those who did not pre-study the Seven Fasts before they died, after death, they not only had to make up for the "Seven Fasts of Birth", but also made full "Ten Kings Offerings", also known as the "Ten Kings Inspection Fast".
At this time, the emissaries sent by the Heavenly Son of Yan Luo, riding on a black horse, took the black flag, dressed in black, and hunted down the souls of the guilty and escorted them into the underworld, and used the bardo body to pass through the ten halls of the King of Yan Luo, and asked him to fast. What is "fasting"? It is the acceptance of the "merit" of the fasting family. Of course, people who do fasting must first fast and not move, but this is not the main point of fasting. During the fasting period, at least the Buddha, the monks and monks are also invited, and the monks are generally invited to do things, and the top ones are to write sutras, make statues, and so on. The Ten Kings Inspection Is to see how much you have contributed to me Buddha Rulai, and then register and report to you accordingly. To put it mildly, you give me gifts and I do things for you. According to the size of each temple, the souls of the dead are sent, or ascended to heaven, or reincarnated, and if the merit does not reach the satisfaction of the king of Yama in this temple, he will continue to "fast" in the next hall. Therefore, the "inspection" of the Ten Halls of Yan Luo is equivalent to an assembly line that pays "merit", so:
The first seven days passed the King of Qin Guang. On the second seventh day, the King of Chujiang passed. On the third seventh day passed the Song Emperor. On the fourth and seventh day, the king of the five senses passed. On the fifth and seventh day passed the king of Yama. After the sixth and seventh days, he became king. The seventh day passed the Taishan King. The 800th day is the Equal King. The ninth year passed the city king. The tenth to third years pass the five reincarnation kings.
Finally, "the ten fasts are sufficient, and the ten evil sins are freed, and they are allowed to be born." To be born is not to be heavenly, but to be thrown into the six cycles of samsara.
All in all, in the Ten Kings Sutra, if you don't fast for me, I will beat you into the Three Evil Paths, and if you lack a fast, I will detain you for a year! I, the Buddha, became an evil man of extortion, while Buddhism became a cult that intimidated and threatened people to join the religion.
Two
The general content of the Ten Kings Sutra is the same as above, but the most wonderful and most emblematic of the intention of the Ten Kings Sutra is the addition and play to the "Ten Kings Inspection" part of the scripture, that is, "figure" and "praise". If the Ten Kings Sutra is still slightly implicit in the claim for merit, in the Tuzan it is "to the extreme". The writing of "Praise" is very naïve, and the "figure" is also a bit rough, but it is a propaganda material that can shock people's hearts. Particularly admirable is the author of these illustrations. In the paintings, they have a very thorough understanding of the psychology of the families of the deceased, and use one comic strip after another to lure these deceased families into the trap of breaking the wealth and avoiding disaster. The extortion and extortion methods of the creators of Tuzan and the anxiety and suffering of the detainees can be shown in detail, and he is simply an old and spicy official who understands the world.'
On the first seven days, King Guang of Qin praised:
Seven dead people were in the shadows, and the number of sheep exorcism teams was like dust.
And to the first king of the inspection point, never crossed the Nai River Tsu.
Press: Although the Ten Kings Sutra says that if you recite the sutra before you die, you can avoid entering the earthly palace, but no one is sure that you will directly ascend to heaven. Therefore, as long as the family has money, in order to make the souls suffer less, I am afraid that it is still necessary to honestly make the ten kings offering. Therefore, there were many ghosts like dust and sand, like sheep herding sheep to see the King of Qin Guang. But just after a while, not even a roll call, you have to offer a fast.
On the second seventh day, the King of Chujiang praised:
Twenty-seven dead people crossed the Nai River, and thousands of teams waded into the river.
Lead the way to the bull's head and shoulders with a stick, and urge the ghost pawn to carry a fork.
Press: At this time, there is no meditation book, no karmic mirror, and naturally he cannot figure out the good and evil of the dead soul before his death, so everything depends on the abundance and frugality of the inspection. If the offerings are abundant and the merits are sufficient, the souls of the dead will cross the river safely and steadily through the Nai River Bridge, and conversely, they will be forked by the bull's head into the serpent-like and stinking water, and they will struggle to the other side.
On the third seventh day, the Song Emperor praised:
The dead turned to panic and began to realize that the road was dangerous and long.
Each of them knew where he was, and the group drove the King of the Five Senses.
Press: When it is not until the third temple is named, it can be seen that the promises that can be reincarnated with karma from the first seven are all flickering.
On the fourth and seventh day, the King of the Five Senses praised:
The scales of the five senses are hanging in the air, and the left and right children's karma books are complete.
It is better to turn heavy than to be willing, and to be low and to be self-reliant on the causes of the past.
Press: After the third hall is named, it is necessary to drive the minotaurs and pawns, and they will be trapped on the rugged Yin Mountain Road, and it will not be until the fourth hall that they begin to check the karma of their lives. Doing good and doing evil are already recorded in detail in the book of meditation. There are many sayings of karmic scales, one is similar to a balance, with the good book and the evil book each at one end, in order to measure the result of the offsetting of good and evil in one's person. The other is the scale used in the market in the past, as shown in the picture, hooking the soul of the undead with a hook, using the karma book as a scale, and judging by the low tail of the scale.
On the fifth and seventh day, the king of Yama praised:
The king of The Five-Seven Yamas was silent, and the sinners hated and did not give up.
Ce Fa looked up at the karmic mirror and knew that the previous world was clear.
Press: This hall is a continuation of the front hall, those who refuse to admit the sins of their lives, there is a karmic mirror, a photo will replay the actual situation at that time, the audio and video are excellent, see if you dare to deny it!
The sixth and seventh days passed and became kings:
The dead are six or seven times stuck in the dark path, and they are afraid that the living people will insist on being stupid.
Day by day only look at merit, heaven and hell are in Suzu.
Press: The karma has been decided, and it is time to send out the souls of the dead, some who have ascended to the paradise world, and some who have entered the iron city and hell and roasted on the iron bed, which is said to be the basis for what they have done in their previous lives. That being the case, isn't it a slur to say that the promise of being born with the seven fasts will eliminate sin? Only a small number of ghosts were dispatched to this temple, and the rest continued to move forward.
On the seventh day, the King of Taishan praised:
Seven seven meditated on the way to the yin body, specifically asking parents to meet their relatives.
At this time, the blessing karma is still undecided, and it depends even more on the cause of men and women.
Press: This is the last seven days, which can be seen as the last chance by the undead, because after missing it, what awaits him will be longer and longer detention intervals. People who have heard in detention facilities say that this period of time is the most difficult, and the longer they are detained, the more they want to pretend to get out. Therefore, at this time, the relatives of the undead should be more considerate of their feelings, and what the outcome is, all depends on the merits you have done. The writing and statue of the meditator in the picture marks that Qiqi is a good day for the relatives of the deceased to bleed heavily.
The 800th Day of Equality King Praise:
The hundred-day dead were even more frightened, and they were shackled and whipped.
Men and women strive to cultivate merit and avoid going to hell.
Press: After the seventh seven, most of the undead souls should be reborn, leaving not much left, the future is slim, and it is even more frightening. At this time, the ratio of ghosts to sinful souls is closer, which means that the undead have more chances of being whipped.
The 91st year of the City King Zanyue:
After a year of hard work, men and women practice he merit and effect.
The six reincarnations are still undecided, and the sutras are created to create images out of the mystery.
Press: By the time of the Ninth King, there should be very little left. The family of the deceased who has survived for a year should be particularly anxious and seize the last opportunity to fight for the reincarnation of the deceased. So he wrote the scriptures, made statues, and handed over the "merits", and the meditators asked the city king to see them, and the ghosts were finally rescued. The ghost in the painting has a grateful look, as if he has finally met the Qingtian Grand Master.
The fifteenth to third years of the five reincarnation kings praise:
The last three are Guanjin, and likes and dislikes are only based on good karma.
Within a thousand days of unkindness and worry, the fetus will give birth to the dead and save the dead.
Press: Some of the undead are already born at the first seven, and some have to wait until more than a thousand days later. The most lamentable thing is that the yin and yang are separated, the information is not clear, and all the relatives of the undead are looking forward to the death as soon as possible, but on the other hand, they can only think that he is still in the custody of the Five Wheel King' Highness. This "Ten Kings Confession" must not be stopped halfway through, it must persist to the end, and the final result is still not knowing anything.
In another version of the "Ten Kings Sutra", the content depicted in this picture is richer, so that the deceased family who made the "Ten Kings Offering" understands that after three years of tossing and turning, the probability of being reincarnated as a cow and horse is still very large. What to do? Only next time invest more in the housework. But this time it was not completely adrift, at least those who were imprisoned in the iron city hell when they became kings were released, and they were reborn to be cows and horses.
These figures and praises are not in line with this article of the Ten Kings Sutra, and it is said that they are distorted of this sutra, but rather that the intention of this sutra is expressed more explicitly, so the actual impact is also greater than that of this sutra.
Three
Originally a Yama King, now it has suddenly become ten, and each has its own division of labor, and the germ of this great change in the nether world has occurred in the literature and is almost impossible to find. During the five-generation period, when dynasties were frequently changed, there was no official concern about this, that is, orthodox Buddhism, and there was no relevant written record at that time. Then folk, there should always be some stories and legends, and there are no more. The heyday of the Ten Kings Faith, that is, the Five Dynasties and the beginning of the Northern Song Dynasty, not to mention the theme of the Ten Kings' Underworld, even if it is a ghost story that makes the Ten Kings revealed. All we can see now is a few sporadic examples from the Southern Song Dynasty notebook novels.
Because the Ten Kings and the traditional system architecture of the Underworld cannot be combined, the occasional story of the Ten Kings is also often contradictory to the narrative of the Ten Kings Sutra. The Southern Song Dynasty's anonymous "Ghost Dong" Volume IV has a cloud: there is a Yang Concubine in Hangzhou, who after her death, she dreams of her daughter and travels to the Underworld, "Looking at the ten people sitting around the temple, the dignity of the guards, said: 'This ten kings are also. I was able to enter and leave his harem because of my merits in life. The Ten Kings divide the Ten Kings into ten halls in the Ten Kings Sutra, but somehow imagine the ridiculous shape of the ten kings sitting in a circle. And Hongmai's Yijian Jiazhi volume VI "Yu Yilang Release" article says that Yu Yilang was hooked into the underworld for the second ghost pawn in the third year of Shaoxi, "Ten people in the temple sat in a row, wearing the king's clothes." Asked why, he said, 'The Ten Kings of the Underground House are also.' The two judges held the booklet on their side. Russia was escorted to His Highness to examine what he had done before his death. The king asked, 'What good karma can be returned?' At this time, the ten kings did not sit in a circle, but sat side by side like mud tires in the temple. Each king had two judges on his side, which became a matter of twenty judges squeezed in behind the ten kings. This pattern of collective office is obviously extremely incompatible with the phased "inspection and fasting", so it can only make the appearance of the official government to try the case, and it can only be accepted by one king, and the other nine kings are watching. But if ten prisoners come, won't the ten kings each judge one prisoner, and will they not be in a mess? And the Yijian Dingzhi volume 15 "Nie Jin eats anorexia" article, it is said that the Beijinger Nie Jin introduced the Qingyi people into the underworld, "seeing that all three people are kings, sitting according to the case", not to say that there is only one king in the palace, it is afraid that people will mistakenly think that there is only one king of Yanluo, but also feel that the ten kings are too crowded together, so they sit together like "three tribunes". It can be seen from this that the theory of the Ten Kings is not only rejected by Mr. Jin, but even the common people are unwilling to make up a story that can be told more roundly.
In my opinion, although the Ten Kings Sutra has changed the pattern of the nether world in a few decades, it has not really penetrated the hearts of the people. The common people may be full of fear for the ten kings, but they have absolutely no good feelings, and they do not expect to receive mercy and forgiveness from them for the souls of the dead. All the common people could do was obediently and even numbly pay for it according to the rituals of the Ten Kings.
Most of the names of the Ten Kings were written out of thin air. In the Southern Song Dynasty, Shamen Zhipan compiled the "Chronicle of the Buddha" Volume 33, he once tried to find some basis from the classics to prove that the "Ten Kings Sutra" was not completely fabricated, and as a result, he examined six from the Tibetan classics. However, three of them, the King of the Five Senses, the King of Chujiang, and the King of Qin Guang, all of which are cited by Zhi Pan, come from the Yi Jian Zhi and the Ti Zhi Jing, both of which are hundreds of years later than the Ten Kings Sutra. Using the books of the Song Dynasty to examine the titles of the five dynasties at the end of the Tang Dynasty is regarded as the inversion of the end of the book. The remaining three, the King of Yanluo, the King of Pingping, and the King of Taishan, are well founded, but the King of Equality is a paraphrase of the King of Yama, and the King of Taishan is transformed from the King of Taishan Province, that is to say, these three are actually one person, just like the Monkey King, also called Sun Wukong and the Great Sage of Qi Tian, so that the Ten Kings Sutra gives a King of Yan Luo three chairs. The author of "Ghost Dong", who does not believe in the ten kings, accuses: "The king of the wheel of the four heavens, the one who covers the people and is several in the heavens, is not the lord of the underworld, but is listed in the ten kings!" The "Four Heavenly Kings" mentioned here are the "Reincarnation Holy King", which is found in the Ahan Sutra. The Ten Kings Sutra uses its name to remove the word "holy" in order to describe the tenth temple Yan Luo's position as the "wheel" of the six reincarnations, which can also be regarded as "reasonable", but the reincarnation saint king has nothing to do with the underworld, so it cannot be said that he is the predecessor of the reincarnation king. Later, some people also tried to explain the names of the ten kings, saying that "Emperor of Song" refers to the emperor of the Song Dynasty, "becoming a king" is also known as "King of Fencheng", which is the capital of the Song Dynasty, and "King of Chujiang" refers to the Nai River in the underworld, which can also be said, but what is proved is that the names of the ten kings are made up and have nothing to do with Buddhism.
As for the most important question, how can one Yan Luo become ten, of course, it is not that no one has considered it. It was probably at that time that some people used the "Eighteen Little Kings" of Hell as the cause of the "Ten Kings", so the author of "Ghost Dong" questioned:
If you can't see what you see, when you believe in the words of the Buddha, the Buddha doesn't know what you say, and there is absolutely nothing to do. The Buddha said that the Lord of the Demon Luo Gai had fallen into the Name of the Brahma of Hell, and stopped the ear of the King of The Demon Luo. The remaining eighteen kings are found in the Ahan Sutra, the names are all Sanskrit, the king is a prison, he is a subordinate of Yan Luo, and his righteousness must not be bad. The saying of the Ten Kings does not know when it began.
Press: Tang Shi Daoshi's "Fayuan Zhulin" Volume VII "Hell Division" quotes the "Ask the Hell Sutra" and the "Pure Degree Samadhi Sutra", saying that the king of Yan Luo was born:
The king of Yan Luo, he used to be the king of Bisha. Fighting with the Vita King, he was defeated in strength and vowed to be the Lord of Hell. Eighteen men led a million men, with horned ears on their heads, and all of them were indignant, and they all swore an oath: "Then help to cure this sinner." "The king of Bisha, the king of Yanluo is now." Eighteen ministers, the little kings are. Millions of people, all of them are.
The Book of Asking Hell also says, "Eighteen kings, that is, the Lord leads eighteen hells." Then this "Eighteen Little Kings" may be the original of China's "Eighteen Layers of Hell", but it cannot be juxtaposed with Yan Luo.
There is also the saying "Five Yan Luo" in the Buddhist scriptures. Volume 48 of the Fayuan Zhulin quotes the Five Messengers of the King of Yan Luo, saying that Yun Yan Luo was originally a person, and that when a person died, he fell into hell, and Yan Luo "asked for the sake of the five messengers." However, this statement can still not be regarded as the cause of the ten kings, because this is the king of Yama appearing in five different forms of messengers in five times, not the five messengers at the same time.
In addition, the Buddhist scriptures also have the saying of "two kings". The second volume of the "Translation Of Nominal Collections" explains "Yan Demon": "Yiyun Yan Demon Society, this cloud 'double king'. Brothers and sisters are the lords of hell, brothers rule men' affairs, sisters rule women's affairs, so they are called 'double kings'. ”
Yama may have two or five, or he may as well have ten. These are all yan luo's eclectic, and it can be used as a reason for the birth of the "ten kings", but they cannot explain the fundamental reason for the emergence of the ten kings.
The Ming Dynasty King Kui said in the "Lihai Collection" "Ghosts and Gods": "Buddha, the old saying of the ten kings of the difu, gai is the righteousness of the ten stems." Its fifth title is the most honored yan luo, and the position is the middle of the penta earth. "I really can't think of any connection between the Ten Kings of Heaven and hell, Yan Luo is in the middle, so how can the other nine kings match the five elements?" In addition to Wang Kui's dream words, yu Fan, a late Qing dynasty man, has another "ghost story" in the first volume of the "Notes of the Right Tai Xianguan": "The Yang Dynasty spreads the Ten Halls of Yan Luo, and this Tang system is also." The Tang Divided the World into Ten Paths, so there were also ten halls in the underworld. Then Yu Fan himself questioned the ghosts in this story: "Emperor Taizong of the Tang Dynasty divided the world into ten daos, and in the twenty-first year of the new century, he divided the south of the mountain into the east and west roads, and added the Qianzhong Dao, but the Tang system of the ten daos was not long ago, and after the middle of the leaf, when Yan Luoyi was added in the underworld, why not stop the ten halls?" ”
Wang Kui and Yu Fan were not pedantics, but the reason why they said these dream words and ghost words was not because of a momentary ignorance, but because they had never seen the Long Lost Ten Kings Sutra, so they could only guess at the word "Ten". In addition, they may be like the scholars and doctors since the Song Dynasty, they did not want to take the ten kings seriously at all, but just wrote it down at the slightest thought.
Four
In fact, the answer to the mystery of the Ten Kings lies in the Ten Kings Sutra itself. The core of the Ten Kings Sutra is the "Ten Kings Inspection Zhai", and the solution to the mystery lies in this "Zhai" character.
The Ten Kings Inspection Fast is divided into two parts, the first part is the "Seven Seven Fasts" from the first seven to the seven seven.
The "Seven Seven Fasts" are mentioned in the Yogi's Treatise on the Earth. There are five theories about the reincarnation of a person in the bardo after death: Yiyun is "extremely urgent" and reincarnates immediately after death. The second is that after death, you must live in the bardo for seven days, and after seven days you can be born, regardless of the season. The third says that the bardo body must live for forty-nine days before it can be born. The fourth says that we should follow the conditions of our birth, without limiting the time and day. According to the Fifth Treatise on Yoga, Yun: "If you have not attained the cause of birth, you will live for seven days, and you will come back from the dead." Even if it is seven days of death and life, since then, it is decided to be born. For details, see The Yogi's Treatise on the Earth, Volume 1, "The Second One of the Local Points of Mindfulness", which is actually a synthesis of the first four types of birth, meaning that the bardo body is reincarnated into reincarnation if it encounters the condition of being born within seven days. If seven days are not born, it is extended for another seven days. Thus until the day 7749, there is no unborn.
Based on the "Yoga Theory", the "Seven Seven Fasts" created a program that is not in the "Yoga Theory", that is, the family of the deceased can use money to solve the "cause of birth", one is that the birth can be accelerated in time, and the other is that the result of birth can be selected, such as the best reincarnation to the rich and noble family, and the worst is not to enter the animal path. In addition, this money must be converted into "merit", even if the money is given directly to the monk, which is also called merit. Merit can atone for sins, can increase blessings, and is the "prevailing currency" of the Buddha's country that preserves value and hides the smell of copper. Specific to the "Seven Seven Fasts", that is, to do merit every seven days. If the first seven merits are complete, according to the Yoga Treatise, they can be reborn. But if it doesn't turn around, the family of the deceased doesn't know that the two seven, three seven, and so on will continue to do. The monk will naturally tell you that if the deceased is reincarnated in the middle of the way, the rest of the merit will be enjoyed by the filial son, and in any case, people will always die, and sooner or later they will use it.
The Seven Seven Zhai is the product of the combination of Buddhism and Chinese characteristics, dating back to the Northern Wei Dynasty. The statues of Yungang and Longmen Grottoes that can be seen now range in size to several feet in size, and some of them may be the meritorious relics of the Seven Seven Sects. However, from the Northern Wei Dynasty to the Sui and Tang Dynasties, Qiqi Zhai never asked the King of Yan Luo to throw away his job in hell and run to "inspect the fast".
As I understand it, Buddhism calls the donor the giver, and the merits given are naturally transformed into the karma of the benefactor, planting melons to get melons, planting beans to get beans, and these merits are naturally transformed into karma. And arranging the "inspection of fasts", just as the officials accept bribes, but also hire a manager to unpack the package on the spot, weigh the silver, and check the color, that eating is also too ugly, I am afraid that Hezhen does not care about it. One of the "reforms" with Chinese characteristics in the Ten Kings Sutra on the "Seven Seven Fasts" is the insertion of the "Inspection Fast", and the person in charge of the Inspection is the King of Yan Luo, who was transferred from hell.
So Yan Luo moved the equipment of hell and the minotaur Aban and all the men and horses to the underworld, and it can be seen from the "Ten Kings Sutra Map" that it is also the iron hell fire bed, and the sword mountain sword tree, and those "bardo bodies" are crying under the whip. And the Ten Kings Sutra says with great eloquence that it was His Holiness who brought Yan Luo from hell, and no one was allowed to express any objection. Of course, the family of the deceased has no objection, but to quickly do merit to atone for the sins of the deceased. After one king after another, after seven days and forty-nine days, there are not many bardo bodies left that have not been reincarnated, and according to the Yoga Sutra, all of them should be reincarnated. Therefore, even if the seven kings of Yama are inspected by the king of Yama, seven kings of Yama are enough, so why not set up ten kings?
First of all, it should be clear what the focus of the propaganda of the Ten Kings Sutra is, that is, what purpose it wants to achieve. I think that the "Ten Kings Inspection Fast" is just a means, and the initial purpose is to promote the "Seven Seven Fasts". Not only is it because the seven fasts are Buddhist things, but also in terms of economic efficiency, it is more cost-effective to complete seven fasts in forty-nine days than to do ten fasts in more than a thousand days. However, from the Northern Wei Dynasty, the Seven Seven Zhai began to appear, and for hundreds of years, it did not open up much market among the believers, precisely because it was very unsuitable for China's special national conditions.
Therefore, the second major "reform" of the Ten Kings Sutra is to change the seven seven fasts to the "ten king offerings", that is, after the seven seven days, the "hundred days", "one year" and "three years" of fasting sacrifices were added. This reform is more important than the previous one because it solves the problem that has always prevented the "Seven Seven Zhais" from expanding the Chinese market.
According to the Chinese funeral, the parents die, and there are several important days after the funeral. That is, the "Ritual Book and Miscellaneous Records" said that "march and burial", "Xiaoxiang festival" and "three years of mourning".
"Doctors, scholars, and servants, three days and funerals." In the three days before the funeral of his parents, the filial piety will "cry endlessly." After the funeral, the filial piety thinks of his parents, day and night, and when he mourns, he cries, saying "the cry of timelessness." This "crying without time" must be stopped after the "burial in March", which is what the rites say about "weeping", and after March it is indecent to "cry without time".
Doctors and scholars should also perform the "Yu Ceremony" after the "March burial". Because the burial is to send out the form of the parents, when you come back, you must take back the soul of the parents, and this spirit is attached to the wooden lord, and Yu Li is to set up the wooden lord in the family temple to make it yu safe. After Yu An sacrificed his deceased relatives, he only had to be in the family temple or ancestral hall, not before the tomb. Of course, this is only the saying that sacrifices are made at the temple, and those who advocate sacrifices to the tomb do not pay attention to this set, or they still have to go to the grave to cry for sacrifice. According to the "Book of Rites and Rituals of Shi Yu Li", "The Three Sorrows of The Soldiers", that is, the bereavement of their parents, must perform the Yu Ceremony three times to ensure that the soul of the deceased relatives is indeed attached to the wooden lord. After the three ceremonies, it was nearly a hundred days before the death of the person. Therefore, when the government gave a holiday to Xu officials who had lost their parents, they limited it to "100 days", and after 100 days, they should return to Yamen to work as errands. This rule was simply set as "100 days of crying" when tang shi repaired the "Kaiyuan Ceremony", and after 100 days, it was necessary to work normally, and after that, it was impossible to cry whenever it wanted. Of course, before or after work, you can "cry at home". It can be seen that "100 days" is an important program in Chinese funerals, and for "scholars", filial piety is performed at home before 100 days, and filial piety is performed in office after 100 days.
An important ritual after the "Hundred Days of Weeping" is "Xiao Xiang". On the anniversary of the death of the parents, the sacrifice of Xiaoxiang should be performed, and the "auspicious" person, Yoshiya. After the sacrifice, it is necessary to "change clothes", that is, to reduce the mourning clothes, the man to the head, the woman to bring, and the man to work again do not wear filial piety hats. Eating does not have to be so simple, originally can only drink cold water, nibble dry food and can not eat vegetables and fruits, can now eat. If it is only the common people, not strictly bound to ancient rites, then after XiaoXiang, meat is not indispensable, and marriage is not impossible. However, after Xiao Xiang, he was still serving in the mourning period, could not remove the mourning clothes, and could not participate in entertainment activities, while the imperial court officials still had to keep the system at home.
Finally, there is the end of the "three-year mourning", after the twenty-fifth month of the death of the relatives, that is, after the second death day, there is the "Great Xiang" sacrifice, and then after the interval of January, that is, twenty-seven months, there is another sacrifice. After the sacrifice, the filial son can live like a normal person. Of course, the special "filial piety" can also be buried for six years, or even a lifetime of linen and vegetables, that is his personal choice, can not force others to learn as an example. Not only morally but also legally, it is mandatory to serve three years of death and mourning, and this "three years" is actually twenty-seven months, which is more than two years. The "three-year mourning" must be practiced from the Son of Heaven to the common man, and the so-called "death by oneself causes mourning for three years, and the love is the end and the righteousness is exhausted." However, there are special provisions in implementation. For example, the Son of Heaven could not be vacant, so he changed the day to the moon, and one day became the first month, and after twenty-five days, he performed the Great Xiang Sacrifice. For imperial court officials, they must leave the system during the three-year mourning period. As for the common people, if you let him not go to the field for three years, or if he has to serve filial piety when he goes down to the field, then not only will he starve to death, but the state will not be able to collect taxes, so "the courtesy will not be lower than the people."
The above-mentioned "hundred days of weeping", "Xiaoxiang" and "three years of mourning" are all written in the imperial court's meritorious orders, and it is illegal not to carry them out. According to Buddhism, the souls of relatives who have been reincarnated after the Seven Seven Fasts have been reincarnated, and no matter which of the six paths they have entered, they have nothing to do with filial piety. However, according to the imperial court's meritorious orders or folk customs, you will still have to "cry for a long time" in the next fifty days, and then you will have to serve three years of mourning, otherwise the government will trouble you, and the neighbors will discuss your conduct, causing great risks to your future. For an official who must be mourned for three years and a family of middle-class or above (the poor cannot expect to be able to do the Seven-Seven Fasts), if he wants to perform the Seven-Seven Fasts, it is equivalent to sending off the spirits of his parents twice, and the soul of the deceased has already entered the reincarnation fifty days ago, how can you get it back to the ancestral hall and send it back to the ancestral hall and family temple after a hundred days? Therefore, for ordinary people, it is natural to prefer to serve three years of filial piety than to do the fast of seven or seven.
Therefore, if you want to promote the Seven Seven Fasts, you must resolve the conflict between it and the three-year mourning, that is, you must make the filial piety full of three years according to the Chinese funeral rites, and "the love is exhausted" in order to let the soul enter the cycle of reincarnation. After hundreds of years, the monks finally understood that there was no other way but to compromise on their own, so the "Hundred Days of Weeping" became "One Hundred Days of Equality King", "Period Year Xiaoxiang" became "One Year Over The King of the City", and "Three Years of Mourning" became "Three Years over Five Wheel King", but the three years of China were only twenty-seven months, and the three years of the Ten Kings Sutra were really more than a thousand days.
This compromise of the Seven Seven Fasts to Chinese etiquette did not begin with the Ten Kings Sutra. As early as the Northern Wei Dynasty, which was promoted as early as the Seventh Seven Dynasties, it was mixed with Middle-earth mourning customs. The Biography of Hu Guozhen of the Book of Wei records that Empress Dowager Ling's father, Hu Guozhen, worshiped the Dharma and died in his eightieth year, "From the beginning of the edict to the seventh day, all of them set up a thousand monks' fasts, so that seven people became monks; in one hundred days, ten thousand people were set up, and two or seven people became monks." This is the first time that the Seven Seven Fasts appear in the history books, and the country treasure believes in Buddhism, so it is used. However, Emperor Xiaoming of Wei was the lord of a country, and the sacrifice of a hundred days would not be provincial, so it could only be mixed between China and the West. The history official book this is for special cases, but also to ridicule its chaotic system. Also "Northern Qi Shu Sun Linghui Biography": Linghui was the master of the King of Nanyang, Gao Qi, and was nicknamed the Great General, and Linghui led the Great General Sima with the Wang Division. After Gao Hui was reprimanded, Ling Hui was abolished, "From the end of every seven days and 100 days after qiu's death, Ling Hui Heng set up a fast for the monks and turned to the path." This is also an example of mixing the Seven Seven Fasts with the 100-Day Festival. It is worth thinking that the background of this mixed use is the non-Han regime of the Tuoba clan. In the great chaos of the five dynasties at the end of the Tang Dynasty, the share of non-Han warlords and ethnic minority regimes was not small. The Hu and Han people in the northwest and the Central Plains live in a mixed way, and the mutual penetration of customs, even if it is not called "li collapse and happiness", but the Han etiquette system is indeed in the weakest period. This background provides a certain convenient door for the unconventional "Ten Kings Classic" to enter the void.
The Ten Kings Sutra is actually an "expansion" of the Seven Seven Fasts. In the past, the Middle-earth funeral was occasionally mixed with the Seven Seven Fasts, but now it was synchronized in time and fixed as a rule in the form of "sutras". Of course, this does not mean the integration of the Seven Seven Fasts with Chinese funeral customs, but it is only to deceive oneself and avoid the embarrassment of some practitioners of the Seven Seven Fasts. In fact, the first two of the three programs of 100 Days, Xiaoxiang and Three Years are not so important, as long as they can guarantee the three-year mourning. However, there was a thousand days between "Seven Seven" and "Three Years", which was too sloppy, so it had to add two more programs, so "Seven Seven Fasts" became "Ten King Offerings". Ten Yama kings appeared in China's underworld as never before. The obstacle between the "Seven Seven Fasts" and the "Three-Year Funeral" is broken, but the poor soul of the undead has to suffer in the underworld for two more years and three hundred days in order to satisfy the filial piety of the filial piety, but in this way, is it still "filial piety"? Isn't the promise of being exonerated immediately after death by making the "Seven Fasts of Life" and being able to be exonerated immediately after death, which still conflicts with the "three-year mourning"? Such paradoxes are so full of the Ten Kings that a sane person would find absurd when he thinks about it. Each of the first seven kings was separated by only seven days, and the last two kings were separated by more than seven hundred days, and the author of "Ghost Dong" sighed at this deliberate but helpless arrangement: "Or is it the suspense of secrecy? When it is the monks who deceive the fools for this. ”
Five
Against the background of the national war and the lax etiquette system at the end of the Tang Dynasty, the Ten Kings Classic finally achieved unexpected success. Some people like to explain such phenomena in terms of the success or failure of religious struggles, but it is not appropriate. The success of the Ten Kings Sutra is not the victory of Buddhism in the nether world, the Buddhist scriptures have been distorted and tampered with, I Buddha Rulai has become the general backstage of the Ten Halls of Yan Luo to intimidate and squeeze the believers, and the image of Buddhism itself has also been greatly damaged. And I suspect that the disappearance of the Ten Kings Sutra from the Chinese people so cleanly and completely will not be a natural phenomenon, and it is likely that some force is driving it to extinction, and this force is most likely orthodox Buddhism.
After the appearance of the Ten Kings Sutra, the king of Yama became the well-known lord of the underworld, so can it be said that it was the victory of the king of Yama? Nor can it. Before the Ten Kings Sutra, there was no difference in essence between the King of Yan Luo and the King of Taishan, except for their different names, and despite their Buddhist tendencies, there was always a fair appearance in the trial of the sins of the undead. The function of the Ten Temples of Yan Luo in the Ten Kings Sutra has been diluted, and their main duty is to "inspect the fast" and shamelessly plunder the greatest benefits from the believers. Even after the "Ten Kings Inspection Fast" gradually faded from people's lives, in people's minds, the impartiality of the King of Yan Luo was inferior to his cruelty, and "Yan Luo" and "King Yan" became synonymous with the arbitrary killing of no humanity.
The success of the Ten Kings Sutra is only the success of a small number of monks, who pretend to use the name of Buddhism, but have no faith to speak of, but are just a group of small people who take advantage of the superstition and ignorance of the faithful to grab a lot of money. Therefore, the prosperity of this speculation is only about a hundred years at most. After the middle of the Northern Song Dynasty, the water and land dojo arose, and it was approved by the scholars, and the Ten Kings' Offerings quickly declined and died. As for the King of Yama, although he had become the "evergreen tree" of the underworld, as a price, he had completely lost his original religious color. After the Ming Dynasty, the Ten Kings of Difu, as the subordinates of "Dongyue" and "Chenghuang", became the fierce pawns of the secular autocratic regime. At this time, in addition to the ten kings of the first hall of Qin Guang, who was in charge of the book of life and death, and the ten halls of reincarnation, the other eight kings were divided into eight great hells, and then each led sixteen small hells, and returned to the position of the lord of hell. As for the Ten Kings, who were only in charge of fasting, it is estimated that they had been abandoned before the demise of the Ten Kings Sutra.
Editor-in-Charge: Huang Xiaofeng
Proofreader: Yan Zhang