Liu Xiu, the founding emperor of the Eastern Han Dynasty, was very far-sighted, and his wise successor, Liu Zhuang, the Emperor of Hanming, was also very competitive, and the martial arts of Wenzhi could be used as a mirror for future generations. Liu Zhuang and his son Emperor Zhang, Liu Zhuo, jointly created a vigorous and prosperous situation, known in history as the "Rule of Ming Zhang", Siyi Binfu, Kyushu Anle, and Hundred Generations admired.
However, what more people know is that Emperor Hanming once had a dream—a very bizarre and magical dream, and it was in the process of discussing this dream that he inadvertently did something—to introduce Buddhism to China, which was indeed an epoch-making event. Over the past two thousand years, Buddhism has had a profound impact on Chinese literature (the translation of Buddhist texts alone has added more than 35,000 new languages to China), art (including architecture, sculpture, murals, calligraphy and music, etc.), science, philosophy, folklore, etc. Buddhism blended with Chinese culture and became part of the splendor of ancient Chinese civilization.
So, what kind of dream did Emperor Hanming have?
Don't listen to legends and read history books.
Sima Guang's Zizhi Tongjian (vol. 45) records this incident: "In the beginning, emperor heard that there was a god in the western region, and his name was Buddha, because he sent him to Tianzhu to seek his way, and he obtained his book and shamen. From this sentence, it can be seen that liu zhuang, the emperor of the Han Dynasty, heard that there was a Buddha in the West, so he sent someone on a long trip to Tianzhu (present-day India) to retrieve the Buddhist scriptures and return the monks, so he was the first emperor to introduce Buddhism to China. But Mr. Sima Guang was very strict and did not write about the origin of this matter.
From the perspective of time, the time when people were sent to take the scriptures was "the eighth year of Yongping", that is, 65 AD, and there are many records that show that in the previous year, Emperor Hanming had this dream.
Fan Ye said in the "Book of the Later Han Dynasty and the Biography of the Western Regions": "Emperor Ming of the Ming Dynasty dreamed of seeing the Jin people grow up and have light on top of them, in order to ask the group of subjects. Or: 'In the West there is a god, a buddha, whose shape is six feet long and golden.' The emperor then sent tianzhu to ask the Buddha's Taoist law, so he made a picture of China. ”
Fan Ye was also very cautious, using the word "hereditary" in front of Emperor Hanming's dream, which was almost the common method of news reporting that could not be realistic in modern times, but he remembered the content of the dream very clearly: in the dream, Emperor Hanming saw a golden giant with light on his head. The next day, he informed his courtiers of the dream. There are learned people who return: there is a Buddha in the West, who is six feet tall and is golden. The emperor's dream must be a Buddha.
In the "Later Han Dynasty" written by Yuan Hong of the Jin Dynasty, there is no "transmission" character, which directly records its events: "In the beginning, the emperor dreamed, saw that the Jin people grew up and had sun and moonlight, in order to ask the group of subjects, or: there is a god in the West, whose name is Buddha, and its form grows up, and asks him about Taoism, so he maps his image in China." ”
The difference in his description of the "Buddha" is that "the item has sun and moonlight", which is a bit difficult to understand, the sun is golden, the moonlight jade color, is it staggered or the secondary presentation?
The monks invited back at that time were Shu Mo Teng and Zhu Fa Lan. The Forty-Two Chapters Sutra translated by Zemoten is the first Chinese translation of a Buddhist sutra in Chinese history.
This event is also recorded in the preface to the Forty-two Chapters sutra in the seventeenth volume of the Taisho Zang:
"Emperor Xiaoming of the Former Han Dynasty, who dreamed of seeing a god at night, with a golden body and a sunlight, flew in front of the temple, and was very happy and very happy. Tomorrow asked the courtiers, why is this God also? There is a psychic Fu Yi who knows: "The subject hears of Tianzhu, and there is the one who has attained enlightenment, and the number is called Buddha." Lift it lightly and fly, and destroy its gods also. So I realized. The emissaries Zhang Qian and Yu Lin Zhonglang sent Qin Jing, The Doctor's disciple Wang Zun, and twelve others to the Great Moon Branch to write the forty-two chapters of the Buddhist scriptures. ”
"Flying in front of the temple" and "flying lightly" should be the imaginary elements added by the editors, the Japanese still do not understand the history of China, there are two obvious mistakes in this preface: First, Zhang Qian is also a Western Han Chinese, who died in 114 BC, how can he cross to the Eastern Han Dynasty and go to the Western Regions to learn the scriptures? Then he would have to live more than two hundred years to complete the task. Second, Fu Yi was also the emperor of Han Zhang, and during the reign of Emperor Yongping of the Ming Dynasty, he was still studying hard in Pingling (northwest of Xianyang, Shaanxi).
In addition, what is recorded here by the person who went to ask for the scriptures is also different from the Zizhi Tongjian, not Wang Zun, but one named Qin Jing, and the other called Cai Yan (yīn). When the two of them painstakingly traveled to the Great Moon Kingdom in the Western Regions (around present-day Afghanistan), they happened to meet the Tianzhu monks Remoten and Zhu Falan who were preaching there. Cai and Qin invited the two monks to Han to preach about the Buddha, and they also used a white horse to carry a batch of Buddhist scriptures and Buddha statues. In the tenth year of Yongping (67 AD), a group of four people arrived at the capital Luoyang. For this reason, Liu Zhuang ordered the construction of a monastery in the style of Tianzhu, and the first temple in Chinese history, the "White Horse Temple", was created.
Liu Zhuang's story of seeking Buddhism is known in history as "Yongping Seeking the Dharma".
By the way, After Cai and Qin returned from seeking the Dharma, they told the emperor: Every fifteenth day of the first month of the Indian maha is an auspicious day to visit the Buddha. In order to promote Buddhism, Emperor Hanming ordered that the fifteenth night of the first month of the first month of each year be "lit to watch the Buddha" in the palace and monasteries, attracting hundreds of people to come to watch and play. Later, it evolved into an important traditional festival, the Lantern Festival, which is the obvious influence of Buddhism on Chinese folklore.
Some people think that the introduction of Buddhism to China with the Han Ming Emperor as a target, this dream is the origin of Chinese Buddhism, it seems that this can not be said.
Statue of the Hanming Emperor
In 65 AD, the year of Emperor Ming's dream, he wrote an edict to his half-brother Liu Ying, the King of Chu, which was later included in Fan Ye's "Biography of the Ten Kings of Later Han and Guangwu", which impressively wrote: "The King of Chu recited the whispers of Huang Lao, the Ren Ancestral Hall of Shangfu Tu, the Holy Fast for Three Months, and swore an oath with God. It was also redeemed to help the feast of Ipsai and Sangmen. ”
This is the famous "Edict of Redemption", which not only talks about the religious ceremonies of the floating slaughter sacrifice and the three months of fasting, but also appears as a special translation of Buddhist names such as U Pasa (Upasai), Sangmen (Shamen), etc., indicating that there were already monks and monasteries at that time, and the spread of Buddhism had begun to take shape.
The author found that there are monasteries in Shanxi that began in the Han Dynasty, and the time is not later than the White Horse Temple. Therefore, the "Yongping Seeking Dharma" can only be regarded as the official introduction of Buddhism. Emperor Hanming sent envoys to seek the Dharma, and his role was to accelerate the spread of Buddhism to China.
Book of the Later Han Dynasty: "Emperor Huan of Hou was a good god, counting the floating figures and Lao Tzu, and the people were slightly devoted, and then they turned prosperous." ”
Reference Books: Book of the Later Han Dynasty, Zizhi Tongjian, Later Han Dynasty, Forty-Two Chapters of the Classic