Speaking of monks, most people's first impression is that the monks who have a light on their heads and abstain from big fish and meat only eat vegetarian food such as cabbage and tofu every meal to fill their hunger. Recently, many monks are not afraid of wine and meat, live in mansions and drive luxury cars, and even marry wives and have children, and the videos and rumors of this batch of "wine and meat monks" have appeared in the major media in an endless stream, making many people question this belief.
So, what exactly does wine and meat mean to monks? Did the monks have to eat vegetarian food after the introduction of Buddhism to our country?
In fact, the Buddhist precepts make it clear that being a monk is not a vegetarian, but it is forbidden to eat "meat". We may wish to take apart the Chinese character meat to interpret, the meat word is a cursive word, this word does not reflect the meat side of the head, what does this mean?
It shows that at the beginning of the introduction of Buddhism to China, "meat" did not refer to meat such as big fish and big meat as we understood it. Those who have studied the Buddhist scriptures should know that the pronunciation of the word "meat" in the Buddhist scriptures is not the traditional "meat", but to be pronounced as "smoked", in fact, it means a dish with unpleasant smell.
The phrase "Buddhas don't eat five spices" means that Buddhists cannot eat five smelling vegetables such as green onions and garlic. Therefore, the chicken, duck, goose, beef, sheep and fish meat we usually say is not "meat" in the eyes of Buddhists, and it is more appropriate to call it "fishy". Nowadays, many monks in the temple eat away from meat, but never avoid scallions and garlic, which is actually a kind of inversion. Nowadays, foreign monks from India, Sri Lanka and other countries, and monks from Ethnic minorities such as Mongolia, Tibet and Dai in China are allowed to eat meat.
After talking about the Buddhist understanding of "meat and fish", let's look at the different requirements of different Buddhist sects.
We know that people who practice Buddhism usually choose two different schools: Mahayana and Hinayana. The size here is not the size in the traditional sense, and there is no distinction between the two genres. There are fundamental differences in the constraints of these two streams, the biggest difference being whether or not meat can be eaten, which is called "fishy". The purpose of Mahayana Buddhism is to transform the world, but before attaining enlightenment, one must first attain self-sufficiency, which is a bit of a "do unto others what one does not want", so monks practicing Mahayana Buddhism must fundamentally abstain from eating meat.
There is a difference between the practice of Hinayana Buddhism and Mahayana Buddhism, and the monks who practice Hinayana Buddhism usually only pursue self-discipline, so there is no specific precept on whether or not to eat fish. Of course, whether the Hinayana Buddhists can eat meat must also be analyzed on a case-by-case basis, and if a certain piece of meat is specially prepared for the Hinayana Buddhists, then this piece of meat is resolutely inedible to the Hinayana Buddhists. So why? It turns out that if the Hinayana Buddhists want to eat meat, they must eat three "pure meat", what are the three "pure meat"?
First, "animals that are not killed before my eyes";
Second, "not an animal that was killed specifically for me";
Third, "This animal is not suspected of dying because of me."
In addition, there is a kind of monk who can eat meat, that is, a monk who is incurable from a disease, and this monk is called "bhikkhu sick person" in the Buddhist scriptures. From this, we can see that the Buddhist scriptures are still relatively close to life, and the sick monks need to supplement nutrition, so it is understandable to eat some meat. At the beginning of the introduction of Buddhism to China, the Buddhist scriptures only had the precept of abstaining from "meat", and did not let the monks abstain from "fishy", so when did the monks start to prohibit eating meat?
It was more than a thousand years ago, after The Southern Dynasty Emperor Xiao Yan issued the decree "The world is forbidden to kill".
Although Xiao Yan was an emperor, he was also a very devout believer, and his belief in Buddhism reached an almost paranoid level, and he even made some incomprehensible moves. Because his faith was too firm, Xiao Yan repeatedly left the palace and went to the temple to become a monk. This can upset the Manchu Dynasty, the country can not do without a monarch, shaved head Xiao Yan naturally can not withdraw to deal with the major affairs of the country.
In the end, the officials of the imperial court had no choice but to take a large amount of silver money from the national treasury to "redeem" the emperor from the temple. Just imagine, the emperor's redemption price is naturally not low, so several times down the southern dynasty treasury almost bottomed. Moreover, such an emperor who was obsessed with religion naturally often studied Buddhist scriptures. The emperor did not hold the recital of the chapters every day, but various Buddhist scriptures, and even memorized many sutras backwards like a stream, and deeply remembered the "abstinence from killing" in the Great Pan Nirvana Sutra.
The scriptures stipulate: "Abstain from killing." Xiao Yan thought, just kill the life tube to kill the life, it must not be complete, simply not allowed to eat meat, meat can not be eaten, see what is the use of killing you?
In order to quit killing, Xiao Yan started from himself, calling himself the "Three Treasure Slaves", abstaining from alcohol and meat, and even made a vow of "if you break the vows and be willing to fall into hell forever". After that, Xiao Yan felt that it was not enough to abstain from killing himself, and he also issued an edict to the whole country advocating vegetarianism, monks all forbade the consumption of meat, and the gods and ancestors of heaven and earth who were subjected to incense could not use meat to worship. In other words, the meat such as the three animals on the offering table that was once sacrificed was all changed to pasta after Xiao Yan's edict.
In fact, the reason why monks cannot eat meat is inseparable from the social atmosphere of the Southern and Northern Dynasties of Wei and Jin, we all know that Wei Jin practiced metaphysics, and most of the celebrities at that time did not eat meat, because most of the celebrities at that time did not eat meat, because of "metaphysical talk".
Hindered by the identity of Emperor Xiao Yan, the people of the world could only let the Emperor who believed in Buddhism toss and turn, that is, from this time on, the precept of "not eating meat" for monks was gradually inherited by Buddhists. After that, every monastic monk had to observe this precept, and even today, there are still people who feel that Buddhists do not eat meat from the very beginning of Buddhism.
Resources:
"Liang Shu Benji First Emperor Wu", "Zizhi Tongjian Liang Ji", "Why Can't Chinese Monks Eat Meat?"? 》