When it comes to Fahaiqi, modern people mostly don't have a good feeling for him. Whether it is the old version of "The Legend of the White Lady" or Zhao Wenzhuo's "Great Wei Tianlong", it has made our brains form the impression that "Fahai does not understand love".
However, was the historical Fahai really an evil monk who broke up other people's families?
According to the records of the four documents of the "Chronicle of Jinshan Temple", "Chronicle of Dantu County", "Chronicle of The Three Mountains of Jingkou", and "Chronicle of Jingkou Landscape", the Fahai Zen master of Jinshan Temple is commonly known as Pei Touto. According to the research of the people of the time, Pei Touto was Pei Wende, the son of Pei Xiu, the prime minister of the Tang Dynasty.
According to records, Pei Wende was gifted, reading a lot of books since childhood, full of economy, and at the age of weak crown, he was admitted to the yuan, becoming the youngest Hanlin at that time. However, Pei Xiu had been in the official arena for many years, and he was well aware of the harm of his career, and did not want his son to give up his spiritual cultivation because of his youthful success, so he sent his son to the empty door.
On the day of sending his son out of the house, Pei Zaixiang also composed a "Police Proverb", persuading his son to devote himself to the Buddha:
"Sending a son into the empty door with sorrow should plant good roots in the morning and night."
The body and eyes should not be stained with wealth, and the Dao heart must be cold to the years.
Reading the sutra and reciting the Buddha's teachings, the bitter mind repays the four graces.
Suddenly, he became a great instrument, and he was honored in heaven on earth. ”
Pei Wende, who had just come to the monastery, could not bear the light diet and the lonely life, and was unwilling to practice asceticism anymore. However, the ancients revered filial piety, and Pei Wende did not dare to disobey his father's orders, and could only grit his teeth and persevere. In the days that followed, Pei Wende often complained during asceticism: "Hanlin carries water and sweats on his waist, how can the monk eat it?" ”
One day, when The Zen Master wude heard Pei Wende complaining, he casually mentioned the confused Pei Wende: "The old monk can consume all kinds of grain when he burns incense." After listening to these words, Pei Wende immediately felt that his body and mind were peaceful, and he concentrated on hard work and studied Buddhism. I don't know how many years have passed, Pei Wende has transformed from a frenzied teenager into a high-ranking monk and a Master of Buddhism.
It can be seen from the Chronicle of the Golden Mountain Temple that after Fahai became a monk, he first practiced in Hunan Province, and later came to Lushan to learn the Dharma. After the great enlightenment, Fahai came to the Zhenjiang clan to practice meditation at the Yamazawa Shinji Temple. However, when Fahai first arrived at Zexin Temple, the temple built during the Eastern Jin Dynasty had collapsed for many years due to disrepair, and the ruins were overgrown with weeds, and it was almost impossible to see that it was a monastery.
So, the elderly Zen master Fa Hai knelt down in front of the collapsed Buddha statue and vowed to renovate the temple and rebuild the golden body of the Buddha statue. In order to show his determination to the Buddha, Fa Hai cut off a finger and burned the zhi. After this, Fahai settled in a nearby cave and lived by cultivating grain in reclaimed wasteland, and while studying Buddhist scriptures, Fahai did not forget his vow to clean up the weeds and rubble on the ruins of the temple.
One day, while repairing the temple, Fahai accidentally dug up a jar of gold from the ruins. Fahai had been a monk for many years, and he had long ceased to be obsessed with yellow and white things, so he immediately handed over the money to Li Qi, the Taishou of Zhenjiang. Deeply moved, Li Qi sent a letter to Tang Xuanzong explaining the situation in Fahai. Tang Xuanzong was also touched by Fahai and returned the money to Fahai intact, asking him to hire craftsmen with gold to renovate the temple. After the temple was repaired, the emperor renamed Zexin Temple to Jinshan Temple.
To this day, there is still a small cave in the tasi of the Golden Mountain Temple, which is said to be the cave where Fahai lived.
With firm perseverance and perseverance, Fahai finally built the magnificent Golden Mountain Temple. The Jinshan Temple, built by Fahai, is one of the largest monasteries in the Jiangnan region, and in order to commemorate Fahai's contribution to the cause of Buddhism, posterity honored it as "Kaishan Peizu". After Fahai's death, his disciples carved a stone statue in the Golden Mountain Temple to commemorate Fahai. Zhang Shangying, a contemporary, also inscribed a poem in the Golden Mountain Temple: "Half of the stone chamber is a zen place, the name of Gaidai Gong is not easy to grind, the white python dragon returns to the sea, and the old man is left in the rock." ”
Fahai is a highly cultivated Buddhist Zen master, so naturally he will not do evil things that break up other people's families. However, as for the catch of the demon, it is not a figment, and the local legend is that Fahai once expelled a python spirit to eliminate harm for the people. The literati listened to hearsay and used this as a background to create stories such as "The Legend of the White Snake". The "Chronicle of the Golden Mountain" completely records the beginning and end of the Fahai Demon Exorcism: "Python Cave, the side of the right front, the steep and dangerous, into the depth of four or five zhang. In the past, the white python devoured people, and pei tou tuo repelled. ”
As we mentioned earlier, when Fahai came to Zexin Temple, the temple had fallen into ruins due to its disrepair. Why did the temple become a mound and no one repaired it?
It turned out that there was a white python living on the cliff where the temple was located, and every day the white python would go out of the cave to forage for food. But any ordinary people who go up the mountain to incense will become the food in the belly of the python. The common people did not dare to worship the Buddha, so that the temple incense was cut off, and it did not take long to collapse. After Fahai came to the local area, he fought with this great white snake that endangered the place. Fahai, who has been practicing for many years, is highly powerful, and the White Snake is not an opponent. However, the heavens have the virtue of good life, and Fahai did not kill the demon, but banished it into the river.
There is another theory about this legend.
According to the "Biography of a High Monk", as early as eighty years before Fahai came to Zhenjiang Yunyou, a Lingtan Zen master appeared in the local area. It is said that he was the nephew of Emperor Wuzhou, and he once paid homage to the crown prince. Not knowing what changes had happened, the Lingtan Zen master looked at the pale red dust, fell into the monk, and traveled all over the world. When the Lingtan Zen Master came to the Golden Mountain, he encountered a giant python halfway up the mountainside. In order to prevent the python from hurting people, the Lingtan Zen Master fought with the python for a long time, and finally expelled the python.
Perhaps because the prestige of the Lingtan Zen Master was inferior to that of the later Fahai Zen Master, the locals pieced together these unrelated people and things, fabricated them, and derived the version of the Fahai Exorcism.
Ming Dynasty scholar Feng Menglong's "White Lady Yongzhen Leifeng Pagoda" can be called the most original version of the legend of the "White Snake" series. In this version of the legend, Fahai still appears in a positive image. The enmity between him and the White Lady is also out of justice and justice, which has the meaning of replacing Skywalker. However, somehow later, the legend gradually changed its flavor, and Fahai changed from a highly respected demon exorcism mage to a vicious monk.
Regarding the true identity of Fahai, there are many different theories circulating in the field of history.
According to the "Inscription of the Master of The Path Mountain of Helin Temple in Runzhou", Fahai was not Pei Wende, the son of the prime minister, but a Zen master in Jinling during the Middle and Tang Dynasties. And Fahai's brother is none other than Master Jingshan. Both Master Fahai and Jingshan were disciples of Master Niushoushan Wei, and the disciples and monks of Fahai's generation both had a "Fa" character in their names.
The "Fahai" entry in the Great Dictionary of Personal Names published before liberation was explained as follows: "Fahai, Danyang Zhang's son, character Wenyun." Less than a monk in the Helin Temple in Runzhou, the general learning, the circle into the oneness, the name of the unique enlightenment, the dissection of the indecisive righteousness... In Tianbao, the lawyer of the pre-Yangzhou FaShen, is promoted to Yan Ran along with Tan Yi and Ling Yi. Fu and Zhushan painting gong are forgetting their friendship. ”
There is also a theory that Fahai was a guangdong Qujiang person who had worshiped the Six Ancestors Huineng to practice. Among the dozens of disciples of the Six Ancestors Huineng, Fahai was the more accomplished one. In his early years, Fahai saw the Six Ancestors Huineng at the Dafan Temple, and under the enlightenment of the Six Ancestors, he had an epiphany and took refuge in Buddhism. Later, Fahai followed the six ancestors to listen to buddhism. It is said that Liu Zuhui could not read, so Fahai recorded all the lectures of his mentor and compiled them into the Six Ancestral Altar Sutras. This is the first Buddhist sutra in the field of Buddhism in China, which has played an irreplaceable role in the spread of Mahayana Buddhism.
Every "Fa Hai Zen Master" in the preceding article is otherworldly and has nothing to do with the enmity and enmity of the world. However, no one expected that the Fa Hai Zen Master "sat idly in front of the Buddha, scolding from the play", which became a scoffed existence by posterity.
I still remember that in "On the Fall of leifeng pagoda", Mr. Lu Xun mentioned Fahai more than once, and Fahai occupied far more space than the legendary heroes and heroines. In Mr. Lu Xun's pen, Fahai is a down-to-earth autocratic dictator and a representative figure of feudalism. Fahai interferes in the love of folk men and women as a defender and obstructs the marriage life of Xu Xian and the White Lady. First, the non-believer Xu Xian was forcibly detained in the Buddhist temple, and then the White Lady was suppressed under the Leifeng Pagoda. As a pioneer of thought, Mr. Lu Xun naturally hoped that the Leifeng Pagoda would collapse as soon as possible and the White Lady would be liberated.
To be fair, Mr. Lu Xun is knowledgeable and strong, and may not know the original provenance of Fahai's image. If this is the case, why does Mr. Lu Xun want to take Fahai as the negative image and write a special book? Through examination, it can be seen that There is also a hidden feeling in Mr. Lu Xun's writing. Mr. Lu Xun once experienced an arranged marriage, and his mother found a marriage for him at home, that is, Mr. Lu Xun's wife Zhu An. However, Mr. Lu Xun's favorite person was his student Xu Guangping. He, who respects filial piety, cannot choose a free marriage, so he can only implicitly express his wishes by writing articles.
"The monk should have just chanted the sutra himself. The white snake is self-obsessed with Xu Xian, and Xu Xian marries a demon, what does it have to do with others? He wanted to put down the scroll, and he was going to move the wrong, probably with jealousy, that was simply certain... At the beginning, the White Snake Lady was pressed under the tower, and the Fahai Zen Master hid in the crab shell. Now it was only the old Zen master who sat quietly alone, and could not come out until the day when the crab was broken. Could it be that when he built the tower, he did not think that the tower would eventually fall? ”
Therefore, what Mr. Lu Xun wrote is not the fahai that really existed in history, but the defender of feudal despotism. Moreover, the content of Mr. Lu Xun's pen is based on the legend of the "Legend of the White Snake". Also interpreting Fahai in his own way, Lu Xun's ideological height is completely different from the hype of modern people on Fahai.
Resources:
["Biography of the High Monk", "Chronicle of the Golden Mountain Temple", "Leifeng Pagoda of Bainiangziyong Town", "On the Fall of Leifeng Pagoda"】