Since ancient times, the relics of senior monks have been sacred objects revered by monasteries and believers. After the death of Master Xuanzang, he left behind the bone relic. Today, there are nine temples around the world dedicated to Xuanzang Relic.
Why were the bones of the monk divided into nine parts and enshrined in different places? In which country are these relics enshrined?
Today, we will talk about the whereabouts of the relics after the death of Master Xuanzang.
Relic is an Indian Buddhist saying meaning the remains of a monk. The remains of some monks form crystals after cremation, which are also called relics. The Xuanzang relics we are going to talk about today belong to "bone relics" from the perspective of categories. From the Buddhist point of view, only a monk of immeasurable merit can cultivate a relic.
The Buddhist scriptures say that only a practitioner can form a relic through the practice of the three aspects of precepts, concentration, and wisdom, plus the great desire power he has accumulated in his previous life. Because there are very few monks who have reached this level, each relic is extremely precious. It is an incorrect practice to measure relics in terms of ordinary values. The connotation of the relic lies in culture.
It is said that when the Buddha attained nirvana, cremation produced a total of one stone and six buckets of relics. At that time, the eight kings of India competed for the relics of the Buddha, and each of them won a piece of Buddha bone. These kings brought the relics of The Bones of the Buddha back to their kingdoms, built pagodas and enshrined them, allowing the Buddha to bless his people.
Since then, it has become a practice in Buddhist circles to enshrine high monks, and in modern times, well-known masters such as Hongyi, Yinguang, Taixu, and Zhangjia have left behind a varying number of relics after their death, and these relics have been enshrined in the monastery intact. Xuanzang's reputation in the Buddhist community is very high, so Xuanzang Relic has always been the object of respect in Buddhist monasteries.
In February of the first year of Lin De, xuanzang, a senior monk of the Tang Dynasty, died at the Yuhua Temple in Chang'an and passed away. In April of the same year, according to the will made by the holy monk Xuanzang before his death, his bones were buried in Bailuyuan. Emperor Gaozong of Tang attached great importance to the funeral of Master Xuanzang and spent a huge amount of money on the construction of the Xingjiao Temple in Bailuyuan. For a long time afterwards, Xuanzang's bone relics were enshrined in this temple.
Xingjiao Temple survived the Anshi Rebellion, but failed to survive the Yellow Nest Rebellion. In this national unrest, the Xingjiao Temple was burned down by the rebels. Fortunately, the monks in the temple took away the bone relics of Master Xuanzang and placed them in the Zige Temple on the South Mountain. The great turmoil of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms caused a depression in religion for a time. The Zige Temple in Zhongnan Mountain rarely had incense in the chaotic world, and it did not take long to be depressed.
By the time of the Northern Song Dynasty, Zige Temple had become an ancient temple of barren mountains that no one cared about. The monks in the temple fled and fled, and only a few old monks who remained in the temple were dying. If these old monks passed away, I am afraid that the temple would be completely decadent and disappear into the dust. The Jinling FanchaZhi has clouds:
"The ancient monument Sanzang Pagoda was built on the left side of the temple during the Tang Dynasty, and the monks of the Song Tianxi Temple could go to the Zige Temple in Shaanxi to get the top bone of Tang Xuanzang and return to the pagoda here."
The abbot of Tianxi Temple, Ke Zheng, could not bear to see Xuanzang's parietal bone unattended, so he asked the abbot of Zige Temple to hand over Xuanzang's parietal bone. Subsequently, the abbot of Tianxi Temple personally invited Xuanzang's parietal bone to nanjing Tianxi Temple, where incense was flourishing, and set up a pagoda to worship. Since then, Xuanzang's bone establishment has formed an indissoluble relationship with the city of Nanjing.
From the Northern Song Dynasty to the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, the Tianxi Temple, which had been renamed Changgan Temple, still maintained its peak incense. There were many believers in Jinling, so the temple funds were not worried, and later more lay people funded the construction of a stupa in Nangang to relocate the top bone of Xuanzang. Unfortunately, the economy was depressed at the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, and it was not long before the Changgan Temple in Nanjing was also decadent.
In the tenth year of Chengzu Yongle, in order to promote the development of Buddhism, the imperial court funded the renovation of the Dabao'en Temple on the original site of tianxi temple, and built a glass pagoda that can be called the "seventh wonder of the Middle Ages". In front of the tomb of Xuanzang Sanzang Pagoda, a towering Sanzang Hall rose from the ground and became a landmark building of Dabao'en Temple.
Although we have no chance to glimpse the incense of Dabao'en Temple, in the "Complete Map of Dabao'en Temple" painted by the Qing Dynasty, we can still see the Sanzang Pagoda located on the east side of Dabao'en Temple. Temples have always been directly linked to the income of incense, and the more incense is flourishing, the more thoughtful the monks' care for the bones of the Buddha. For hundreds of years, Xuanzang Buddha bones were protected by the people of the time. During the Qing Dynasty, Dabao'en Temple ushered in a comprehensive renovation, and the Sanzang Pagoda was renewed.
Things are uncertain, xianfeng six years, dabao'en temple is facing a devastating blow. The war of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom swept through the south, and Jinling was also taken by anti-thieves. Due to the discord between the Dabao'en Temple and the Taiping Army, it was destroyed by the Taiping Army, the ancient temple and pagoda were destroyed, and the bones of the Sanzang Buddha were buried deep underground. At that time, people thought that the bones of the Buddha in Sanzang had ceased to exist with the destruction of dabao'en Temple, so the world gradually forgot about it.
In 1942, China was facing the most painful period. At that time, the militarist Takamori Ryusuke, who was stationed outside the Zhonghua Gate in Nanjing, led the army and civilians to the former site of The Great HoonJi Temple in an attempt to build a shrine here to worship the japanese ghosts and gods. (It is also said that Takamori Ryusuke built an airfield, and some people say that the Japanese built a military warehouse at that time) When minfu broke ground, he excavated a stone letter from the soil, and the stone letter was carved with words, describing the ins and outs of Xuanzang's relics.
Who is Xuanzang? Founder of Eastern Buddhism.
We know that Japanese Buddhism spread from the Central Plains, so Xuanzang was also well-known in Japan. When the cunning Japanese discovered that there was a Buddha bone that might be Xuanzang in this stone letter, they immediately "invited" cultural relics workers from the Nanjing area and ordered them to identify the Bones. After the judgment of the cultural relics workers, the Buddha bone was really Xuanzang's master. Realizing the value of the relic, the Japanese immediately blocked the news, killed the migrant workers involved in the excavation, tried to cover up the truth, and unknowingly transported the bones of the Buddha back to Japan.
Similar cultural plunder has been staged frequently throughout history.
The purpose of the Japanese was simple, that is, to send Xuanzang Buddha bones to Japan without China noticing, and then concocted a legend of Xuanzang's eastern crossing, making Xuanzang part of Japanese culture.
Fortunately, the Japanese ruse did not succeed, and although the Japanese soldiers blocked the news, there were still many migrant workers who knew about it who leaked the news. After this matter was disclosed, it quickly set off an uproar in public opinion.
On February 3, 1943, the news about the excavation of Xuanzang Buddha bones was published in the National Daily. A few days later, the Central Radio, The China News and other media also rushed to report on the incident. Because reporters from all sides were closely following, the Japanese army was forced by public opinion pressure to admit the fact that Xuanzang Buddha bones had been excavated, and displayed the excavation report to the outside world.
Gao Sen's troops handed over the Bones of the Buddha to the Government of Wang Jingwei, during which many excavated cultural relics, including the Relics of the Bones, were handed over. Master Xuanzang was so famous that all walks of life at that time asked for the bones of the Buddha. In the end, the Nanjing Wang Jingwei government planned a distribution ceremony, dividing the Buddha bones into three, one for each wang Jingwei government, Beijing, and Japan.
Later, the Wang Jingwei government reburied the stone letter containing the bones of the Buddha in Nanjing, at the Pude Temple in Nanjing, and later, it became the Little Jiuhua Mountain on the shore of Xuanwu Lake. The Relic of the Buddha Bones in Nanjing was later divided into two parts, one of which was enshrined in the pagoda of Xiaojiuhua Mountain, and the other of which was kept by the Jimingshan Cultural Relics Preservation Committee.
This Buddha bone from the Central Cultural Relics Preservation Committee changed hands several times after 1949 and finally came to the Nanjing Museum. In 1953, the Nanjing Museum sent the bones of the Buddha to the Pilu Temple in Nanjing for worship. In 1963, 1,300 years after the death of Master Xuanzang, Qixia Temple was preparing to hold a commemorative ceremony, and specially invited this Buddha bone. In 1973, the Nanjing Lingkuo Temple was repaired, and the Buddha bones were transferred to the Pagoda of Buddha Teeth near the Xuanzang Memorial Hall.
The relics invited by Beijing are more special, and earlier this Buddha bone was sent to Zhongnanhai Tuancheng. Later, the bones were divided into four pieces, and one was sent to the pagoda of the Tianjin Great Compassion Temple, which was later given to Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru for diplomatic activities and is still enshrined in the Landa Temple. The other was enshrined in the Beihai Guanyin Hall, and was later invited to Fayuan Temple and Faji Temple. Unfortunately, this Buddhist bone disappeared after the turmoil of the Cultural Revolution and is suspected of being destroyed. The third copy was sent to The Wenshu Monastery in Chengdu and is still there. The fourth copy was originally sent to the Liurong Temple in Guangzhou, but was also missing during the Cultural Revolution.
The bones of Xuanzang Buddha, which were taken away by the Japanese, were first sent to Masudae-ji Temple in Tokyo, and later to Ci'en-ji Temple in Saitama Prefecture. In 1947, the Buddhist Association of Japan raised funds to build a stupa at Ci'en Temple, dedicated to the bone relics of the holy monks. Two years later, the pagoda was completed, and after a bone-bearing ceremony, the relics were officially enshrined in the pagoda of Ci'en Temple. In 1955, the Buddhist Society in Taiwan, China, applied to the Japanese authorities, so the Relic of the Buddha bones of Ci'en Temple was divided into two, and one of them was transferred to Taiwan for preservation. Today, this relic of Buddha bones is enshrined at Xuanzang Temple in Sun Moon Lake, Taipei.
The above is the place where the Buddha bone relics returned in the middle of the last century.
Later, some Xuanzang relics were continued to be divided and transferred, but there was no loss. The Relic of the Buddha Bones at Linggu Temple in Nanjing was split in two and sent to Xuanzang University in Hsinchu City, Taiwan.
In 1997, the Buddhist Association of Taiwan founded the Xuanzang Humanities College, and the founder, Master Zhong, came to the mainland and applied to the Linggu Temple, hoping to share a relic to be enshrined on the campus of Xuanzang Humanities College. In order to achieve this goal, Master Zhong and Zhao Puchu, president of the Buddhist Association of China, went one after another to win the approval of the State Council.
Eventually, in the eager anticipation of the people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait, the Buddha bones were escorted to the treasure island of Taiwan. This flourishing period of Buddhism has promoted cross-strait relations, which is indeed a fortunate thing for the country.
Resources:
["The Mystery of Xuanzang Buddha Bone Relic", "The Biography of the Continuing High Monk", "Youyang Miscellaneous Tricks"】