In the beautiful yin of Lushan Mountain, there is a magnificent temple that has lasted for more than 1600 years, it is south of the incense burner peak, north of the Lingzhu Mountain, in front of the temple is the creek, called Tiger Creek, which is the Pure Land Ancestral Court Donglin Temple, which has been in the pure land of purple smoke for thousands of years. The story of "Three Laughs of Tiger Creek" and Tang Ying's inscription for the Three Laughing Pavilions has been passed down through the years.
"One flower, one world, one leaf and one like the same", first from the "Huayan Sutra", this kind of distinctive Buddhist language, originally only appeared in the Buddhist world chanting and enlightenment, as well as the exchange of faith in men and women in Buddhism, how can it be enjoyed by all sentient beings in the mortal world, and use it as a talking point after tea and dinner, associated with Confucianism, Taoism practice and people's daily lives? This is thanks to a person who has made important contributions to the art of ceramics and the art of calligraphy and painting in China, his name is Tang Ying.
Tang Ying (also known as Tang Snail), a native of Shenyang, was a ceramic artist of the Qing Dynasty. He was good at painting, riding horses and archery, and at the age of sixteen he entered the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Imperial Palace. In the sixth year of Yongzheng, Tang Ying was appointed as the assistant officer of the Jingdezhen Royal Kiln Factory. He managed the Royal Kiln Factory for more than 20 years, successively firing palace porcelain for the Yongzheng and Qianlong dynasties, all of which are fine products, so the official kiln at that time, also known as the Tang kiln, left a strong ink in the history of Chinese ceramics, and today's collection circle is also known for collecting Tang porcelain.
Later, Tang Ying was ordered to take up a post at JiujiangGuan, and during this appointment, Tang Ying toured the Lushan Donglin Temple and wrote the inscription of the three laughing pavilions in front of the temple:
Bridge across Tiger Creek, three religions and three streams, three people and three laughing words;
Lotus blossoms in the monk's house, a flower is a world, and a leaf is the same.
Based on bizarre legends, this couplet gives full play to the lyricism of the couplet' borrowing scenery and the characteristics of exploring and hunting, and the dialogue is rigorous and the sound rhyme is sonorous, which shows Tang Ying's poetic talent to the fullest. Once this association was passed down, it did not go its way and was admired by the world.
This couplet also brings us a legendary story of applauding the talents and praising confucianism. Lushan Donglin Temple is the center of Buddhism in southern China and is the ancestral court of the Pure Land Sect of Buddhism, and the first ancestor of the Pure Land Sect is the Huiyuan Monk. Legend has it that Hui Yuan and the Eighteen Noble Sages formed a lotus society together and practiced purification together.
▲Lushan Donglin Temple
In the sixth year of the Taiyuan Dynasty, they wanted to go to Luofu Mountain in Guangdong to retreat to promote the religion, passing through Xunyang (Jiujiang, Jiangxi), and seeing that the Lushan Peak forest was idle and quiet, they settled here and built the Donglin Temple to lead the Qing cultivation. Hui Yuan deeply understands the scriptures, and also practices Confucianism, especially shan Lao Zhuang. In order to immerse himself in the study of Buddhism, he once vowed to "not leave the house, not to be vulgar, and to send guests to the Huxi Bridge."
One day, the poet Tao Qian and the Taoist monk Lu Xiujing came to visit, and the language was very close, it was too late, and they did not give up, and when they sent each other, they did not feel that they had crossed the stream, and the tiger sounded, and the three of them looked at each other and laughed, and they said goodbye. According to this legend, the descendants built the "Three Laughing Pavilions" in front of the creek to commemorate it. In the Song Dynasty, Li Longmian first made three laughing pictures, which Zhiyuan praised; Shi Ke of the same generation also made three laughing pictures, which was greatly appreciated by Dongpo many years later. And Tang Ying of the Qing Dynasty also inscribed this legend according to this legend.
The story doesn't end there, because it leaves us with some thoughts, and the story is meaningful only if we write reasonable answers to those thoughts.
Hui Yuan, who lived in the Eastern Jin Dynasty, was the first ancestor of the Pure Land Sect of Buddhism and a practitioner of sinicizing Buddhism, and died in 416. Tao Qian was an outstanding poet and poet from the early years of the Eastern Jin Dynasty to the early Liu Song Dynasty, known as the "Sect of Hidden Poets" and "the Originator of Pastoral Poets", and was the first cultural giant in Jiangxi, and he died in 427.
Lu Xiujing (406-477) was a famous Taoist priest of the Southern Dynasty, who established and perfected the Taoist ritual of fasting, founded the far-reaching classification of Taoist classics in the history of Taoism, and became a generation of Taoist masters. These three people are the representatives of Buddhism (Hui Yuan), Confucianism (Tao Qian), and Taoism (Lu Jingxiu), and being able to sit together and drink tea and discuss the Tao is also a blessing for the integration of the three religions.
However, according to historical facts, although the age difference between Hui Yuan and Tao Qian is thirty years old, it is still in an era, and it may be possible to make friends; and Lu Jingxiu was only a ten-year-old child when Master Hui Yuan died, and it was obvious that he was traveling with the master.
"Tiger Creek Three Laughs" is only a legend, not a historical fact, and the reason why this legend has been repeatedly praised and praised by people, and publicized and circulated in art forms such as poetry and painting, it should be affirmed that it conforms to the aesthetic psychology of society and people and people, and reflects the strong desire for national exchange and cultural integration.
The three religions of Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism are the three main bodies of traditional Chinese culture, and from their emergence and development to their gradual formation, it is a process of gradual integration and development of natural history and natural culture, and it is also a process of the development of the philosophical ideological system of the sages to the folk folk teachings. Chinese Confucian thought began with King Wen, originated from the Duke of Zhou, and flourished in Kong Meng.
After Han Wu "deposed a hundred families and respected Confucianism alone", through the Han, Tang, and Song dynasties, Confucianism that respected Confucius as a saint was gradually formed, and its ideas of "loyalty and filial piety" and "benevolence" and the norms of "self-cultivation, family unity, governance of the country, and peace in the world" became the main idea of maintaining the long-term stable development of China's feudal society. Chinese Taoist thought, which began in the Yellow Emperor and flourished in Laozhuang, was used in the early Han Dynasty, honoring Lao Tzu's "Tao Te Ching" as the highest model, advocating that "Tao" is the fundamental law of all things, and "virtue" is the material embodiment of its laws.
▲Master Huineng
Chinese Buddhism and Buddhist thought were introduced from India in the Han Dynasty, through the Han, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties to the Tang Dynasty, the Six Ancestors Huineng Master pointed out the direction to the public with his own testimony, pointing directly to the mind, the original mind of knowledge, and the nature of seeing, and was called "the monk of the people" by Chairman Mao. In his Six Ancestral Tantras, Huineng integrated the Buddhist concepts of "color" and "emptiness" with the Confucian theory of mind and the quiet and inaction of Taoism, further developing the essence of "Zen", thus forming Sinicized Buddhism.
Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism each occupy a place in the history of Chinese civilization and have played different roles in different historical periods. However, from the perspective of the process of historical progression, there is a trend of integration of seeking common ground while reserving differences, and this trend is particularly obvious during the Tang and Song dynasties.
Therefore, the theme of Huxi Three Laughs stood out in this period and flourished, and spread to the Ming and Qing dynasties. Whether it is the three laughing pictures handed down by the famous families after the Song Dynasty, or the three laughing pavilion inscriptions of Tang Ying, it has spread throughout the temples and rivers and lakes, becoming a charm of elegant and customary appreciation and unique quality. At the same time, it also shows that behind the unity of the three religions and the same origin, it means that the people have long hoped for a cultural essence of unity, harmony and social stability.
(Picture from the internet, thanks to the original author)
2021.10.19
Author: Zhong Xiaofeng
Editor: Mao Secret", "White Wave Love"