Great Tang Southern Emperor

"But why is this Buddha tooth different from the one in Zhuangyan Temple?" Someone stood up and asked.

Li Zhen sneered and said: "I don't know about this palace. The Buddha tooth in my hand is passed on in an orderly manner. The information obtained from the Lion Kingdom can be reversed to find that Sakyamuni sat down. On the contrary, the Buddha tooth in Zhuangyan Temple is the It was obtained in an unknown place by the divine monk Faxian...so you shouldn't ask this palace, you should ask Faxian."

The Buddha tooth he mentioned in the Zhuangyan Temple is also one of the relics of Sakyamuni Buddha. It is said that after Sakyamuni Buddha's cremation (cremation), there were many relics left behind, but only four of the teeth were transformed. Among the four tooth relics, only two have survived.

The tooth relic of the Buddha is not only the most important thing today, but also an extremely precious treasure in the era after the Buddha passed away.At that time, in order to compete for the Buddha's relics, all countries once stood under the city with elephant soldiers, horse soldiers, chariot soldiers, and infantry soldiers waiting in full formation, threatening to spare their lives and take it with their strength.At this critical moment, a Brahmin monk named Xiang intervened and suggested that everyone share the relics equally to avoid wars.This proposal was accepted by the kings of the eight countries who came to compete for the relics, so the relics were divided into eight parts (there are many relics left by the Buddha, in addition to the tooth of the Buddha, there are also hair, muscles and bones, etc.), and each country please go back to build a pagoda Enshrined, that is, the Buddha Tooth Relic Pagoda.This event is called "Eight Kings' Relics" in the history of Buddhism. In the long history, Buddhist relics gradually spread to all parts of the world due to various reasons such as wars, state destruction, looting, or theft.

In the history of India, foreign invasion and internal strife have continued, and struggles between foreign races and pagan religions have also emerged endlessly.Not long after Shakyamuni Buddha passed away, King Vairocaka (Liu Li King) massacred the Sakyas: "There are hundreds of thousands of stupas in the northwest of the big city, where the Sakyamunis were killed."King Vairocaka was the Kesha clan, and he captured his clan┄ and slaughtered him. His corpses piled up like firewood, and his blood flowed into pools.The sky polices the hearts of the people, and the remains are collected and buried ("Da Tang Western Regions"). '

In addition, the struggle between Brahmanism and Buddhism is also extremely sharp.In [-] B.C., the central part of ancient India and King Bushamitra of the Jia Dynasty took Brahmin as the national teacher and implemented a comprehensive and cruel policy of attacking Buddhism.At that time, more than [-] pagodas in the territory were destroyed, all monks and nuns were killed, and Buddhism was destroyed.The history of Buddhism is called "the difficulty of Chinese and Indian law".This method is difficult to force some monks and nuns to snatch Buddhist relics from the stupa and flee to various places.In order to protect the Buddha's relics from being snatched while fleeing, some monks even cut open the flesh, hid the relics, and then sewed them up to escape the country.In the following hundreds of years, the important relics of Shakyamuni Buddha gradually spread abroad.Some of them spread eastward to Buddhist countries such as the Lion Kingdom; some of them spread westward to Buddhist countries such as Wuchang Kingdom (in present-day Pakistan).

Among them, the tooth of the Buddha that was passed on to the east finally fell into Khotan. The tooth of the Buddha in Zhuangyan Temple was brought back from Khotan by Fa Xian, an eminent monk in the Southern Dynasties. Passed: "Xian first heard about Meng Gong's journey to the west, borrowed from the supernatural, and vowed to forget himself to see the holy site."In the Song Dynasty (Southern Song Dynasty) and Yuanhui three years (AD [-]), Jinling was planted and traveled westward to Bashu.The road goes out of Henan, passes through Ruirui, and arrives in Khotan.If you want to travel to Congling, you will go back to Khotan when the plank road is cut off.Received one Buddha tooth and fifteen relics.Buddha's tooth is in Wuchan country, from Wuchan to Ruirui, from Ruirui to Liangtu.It has been ten to five years since I sold my teeth and returned them to Beijing.Keep secrets of etiquette and be ignorant. '

Although Fa Xian did not dare to make it public after he was invited back to the tooth, it was discovered by Xiao Ziliang, the second son of Emperor Wu of Qi, King Jingling more than ten years later.Xiao Ziliang therefore wrote "Praise of the Buddha's Tooth" and "The Story of the Buddha's Tooth".In the last year of Jianwu ([-]), Faxian passed away, and the tooth of the Buddha is still preserved in Shangdinglin Temple.

Then this Buddha tooth was circulated in China several times, and finally fell into the hands of Chen Gaozu Chen Baxian, and after he won the world, he held a special meeting for the Buddha tooth. Later, when Chen was destroyed in the Sui Dynasty, the Buddha tooth disappeared again. Bring the tooth of the Buddha to Beijing (Chang'an) as a offering to the Zen Ding Temple, and the eminent monk Faxi is specially invited to manage it.Zen Ding Temple was renamed Zhuangyan Temple in the first year of Tang Wude (618 AD).The tooth of the Buddha was enshrined here until the first year of Guangming (880 A.D.) before it was brought to Sichuan by Tang Xizong. After several twists and turns, the tooth of the Buddha was discovered at the beginning of the [-]th century, and it was enshrined in Lingguang Temple at this time. , rarely go out.

Chapter 1043 Buddha Tooth Relic

Chapter 400 Buddha Tooth Relic

Because this Buddha tooth was brought back by Faxian, it is also called Faxian Buddha tooth, which is different from Wukong Buddha tooth (good name, is it left after Sun Dasheng's Nirvana?), Daoxuan Buddha tooth and so on.

It’s just that Li Zhen was skeptical about the authenticity of this tooth, and Faxian only said that he got the tooth, but never mentioned how he got it, so let’s speculate about the origin of this tooth—first, This tooth of the Buddha was definitely not obtained from others in a fair manner, and it is impossible for him to steal it. After all, the tooth of the Buddha is so precious. Anyone who knows it, whether they believe in Buddhism or not, will definitely hide it carefully. , it is even more impossible to trade it out.

And if it is obtained by the country, even if the country dares to show the tooth of the Buddha, it will definitely send layers of guards, and it is even impossible for ordinary people to get close to it.Even if King Khotan was moved by Fa Xian's Buddhist teachings and presented him with the tooth of the Buddha, he would never be allowed to leave his country with the tooth of the tooth.

Therefore, the Buddha tooth must have been cut off in the inheritance, and then caused the tooth to be covered with dust. In the end, Faxian got the treasure in his hands-then the question came, how did Faxian determine that this Buddha tooth must be the relic of the Buddha child?Is it because of the Buddha light shining on it?We must know that since the development of Buddhism, there have been countless eminent monks. There may not be any people who are comparable to the Buddha. Does it have to be the Buddha to leave the relics? (Although Sakyamuni is called the Buddha, he is still a person after all. There may be people who are more powerful than him in the latecomers. After all, this is a historical text, not a fantasy text, and there is no such thing as inheritance.)

Compared with the Buddha tooth brought back by Fa Xian, the inheritance of this one in Li Zhen's hand is very straightforward, it is simply a straight line.

As I said before, because of the struggle between Brahmanism and Buddhism, Brahmanism gained power, and Buddhism suffered great persecution. The monks used various methods to carry Sakyamuni relics to Central Asia and other countries in the west, and some spread to the east. It entered the East India and took root here. Among them, the Buddha tooth relic changed hands several times, and came to the ancient India of Jiajia around the fourth century AD, where it was offered as a treasure by the king at that time.

Until 21 A.D., the ancient India Jiajia Kingdom was attacked by neighboring countries. King Ghaseva feared that the tooth of the Buddha would be snatched by the enemy, so he ordered his daughter Hemanli to send the tooth of the Buddha to the Lion Kingdom and hand it over to the Lion King. Gite Chalimiwen offering, because the Lion Country is isolated overseas, and the Lion Country itself is not a weak country, so the Buddha's tooth has been greatly protected here and has always stayed here—according to the historical According to records, if Li Zhen hadn't come, this tooth of the Buddha would have been passed down in the Lion Kingdom. Until the [-]st century, it was still enshrined in the Kandy Buddhist Temple in Sri Lanka, becoming one of the only two tooth teeth left in the world.

Therefore, Li Zhen has every reason to doubt the authenticity of the Faxian relics. After all, Li Zhen's Buddha tooth must be real, but the shape of the two Buddha teeth is so different, so the Buddha tooth of Zhuangyan Temple is likely to be fake.

Moreover, not only is Faxian a Buddha tooth found from a garbage dump, but also this tooth was stolen and lost many times after it came to the land of China. The last time it was discovered and presented by King Yuzhang of Sui Dynasty, this It's even more suspicious, isn't this too coincidental?Why are all the good things falling into the hands of your royal family—it’s not uncommon in history to have fake tooth relics.

It's just that Li Zhen's conclusion is destined to be unacceptable, especially those who doubted him just now stood up and questioned him: "So, does Your Highness mean that the Buddha tooth in the Zhuangyan Temple is fake?"

It's just that before Li Zhen responded to his questioning, Li Shimin, who was on the main seat, was furious: "Presumptuous, what is your identity? How dare you question the prince? Don't say that the prince just reasonably doubts the authenticity of the Buddha tooth in Zhuangyan Temple, even if he Do you really doubt, and what you suspect is justified? You were suspected not to verify the truth of the prince's suspicion in the first place, but to open fire on the prince instead? What? Do you think that suppressing the prince's suspicion, your fake Buddha tooth Can it become real?"

"Your Majesty calm down, I don't mean that."

Being reprimanded by Li Shimin, this person was terrified and knelt down in a hurry to explain, but how could Li Shimin listen to his explanation?

He said coldly: "Okay, you don't need to explain, you can go down first."

"Yes, thank you, Your Majesty, for your kindness." The man was overjoyed: this was a surprise. Although he was reprimanded, Li Shimin had a big heart, and it was impossible for him to be dismissed or punished for such a trivial matter. On the contrary, he actually He kicked himself out, but it was a happy news - the tooth of the Buddha appeared in the world, but at this time, the banquet was in full swing, and no one could leave and could not pass the news.But now that he has been kicked out, he can spread the news as soon as possible.

"Hmph!" Looking at the back of this person leaving quickly, Li Zhen let out a soft snort. Li Zhen could understand what this person was planning without even guessing, but it didn't matter, since he dared to Naturally, he had a plan to show the tooth of the Buddha in front of the world. Otherwise, how could he take out something that could cause a collective explosion in Buddhism?Just store it up and make a fortune in silence, wouldn't it be good?

Since he took it out, it is naturally reasonable-before Li Zhen wanted to establish a Buddhist society to restrict Buddhism, but Xuanzang he chose just mentioned it, and was assassinated the next day. Although Buddhism quickly pulled out a The Mercy Hall was blamed, and the court did not pursue it much, but all discerning people knew that the mastermind behind this matter must undoubtedly be Buddhism.

If you can make the Buddhist sect lose their composure and kill the monks of our sect, you will understand how much the Buddhist Association has stimulated the Buddhist sect. For him, Li Zhen, he wanted to get rid of him quickly, but he never found a chance, so it was hard to make a move.

In fact, what Li Zhen didn't know was that when he went out to sea to find Spice Island, Buddhism actually secretly dispatched a fleet of ten merchant ships loaded with [-] elite soldiers, intending to send Li Zhen overseas. It's a pity that the luck of this fleet is really bad. Within three days of going to sea, it ran into a typhoon that was forming head-on. As a result, the entire fleet was blown to pieces, and they were all blown to nowhere I don’t know how many people survived in the end—anyway, none of the five hundred elite soldiers has survived until now.

Chapter 1044 The Truth

Chapter 4 and One

In fact, it is not only Buddhism who wants to kill Li Zhen, just like Buddhism, Li Zhen also wants to get rid of Buddhism quickly. Since the unsuccessful assassination in the Nanyang War, the two sides have been dying endlessly.

The previous Xuanzang was just a temptation, but unfortunately the reaction of the Buddhist sect was too extreme, and he directly killed the killer. Even Li Zhen was taken aback, and did not dare to do it again in a short time.But now that the tooth of the Buddha appeared, he would not let go of such a good opportunity. He planned to try it again with the tooth of the tooth to see if the relic of the tooth of the tooth could shake their hearts.

But according to Li Zhen's estimate, this time should be enough.

What is the Buddhist Association?

To put it nicely, it is a department of the imperial court to facilitate the management of Buddhism. To put it bluntly, this department was established to limit and weaken Buddhism.

It can be imagined that once the Buddhist Association is really established, the popularity of Buddhism will inevitably decline, and if Taoism rises again, it may never have a bright future.

And what is the tooth relic?

To put it mildly, this is the relic left by the Buddha, which is of great significance, but all Buddhist disciples are obliged to redeem it.

To put it bluntly, it is just a piece of broken stone, it is nothing but beautiful, and it can be sold for two taels of silver at most.

On the one hand, it is a stone that cannot be eaten or used, and has only a little symbolic meaning, but on the other hand, it is related to the future of Buddhism.

As long as you are not mentally retarded, you will know how to choose - but Li Zhen doesn't care, it's just his temptation, if the Buddhist sect can't agree to his request, then the Buddhist sect will watch the Buddha's tooth relic hidden in the Tang royal treasury, never Let the sun never see the light of day, as long as Buddhism can bear such a reputation, then of course Li Zhen doesn't care.

However, Li Zhen felt that after this trial, the conflict between Li Zhen and Buddhism would really come to the fore. The blessing of the imperial court, even if it fails in the end, is nothing. The power of Buddhism is destined to be hit, and Taoism has a bright future, at least it can form a situation where two tigers compete, instead of the current Buddhist dominance. have a huge impact.

If Christianity, Islam, and Persian Zoroastrianism can be introduced in the future, it will completely form the five parties to check and balance each other, and Buddhism will no longer have the grand occasion of "480 temples in the Southern Dynasty, how many buildings are in the mist and rain".

The banquet ended in such a strange atmosphere, and everyone retreated full of thoughts. They knew very well that although it was still normal for the time being, it would not take three days or even two days, or even less than one day, or even less than one day. Maybe things will change early tomorrow morning—although the tooth of the Buddha seems to be just a stone, its meaning is too great. If the price of sacrifice is not too high, if they can redeem it, they will still use What he redeemed, of course, as for Li Shimin's willingness to exchange, it depends on Li Shimin's own will.

"Your Highness, I'm really in a cold sweat today." Li Zhen was lowering his head in thought, when Liu Hongji suddenly caught up and said, "Your Highness, I have followed your Highness's instructions, but His Highness can really guarantee that the Buddhist sect will not be able to find out." Yan Ni, won't you trouble me with this minister?"

Of course things are not that simple, what Sinharapu dedicated, what from the Lion Kingdom?

Yes, the Lion Kingdom is indeed owned by King Sinharapu, but the relic is not the treasure of the Lion Kingdom royal family. It is the treasure of the entire Lion Kingdom and even Tianzhu Buddhism. It is only temporarily sheltered in the temple of the Lion Kingdom. Sinharapu Where does the king have the right to use it without authorization?In fact, King Sinharapu is just a backer.

This is of course the result of the Tang army’s interrogation—ten thousand troops directly formed formations and besieged the entire temple, blocking the temple gate for three days and three nights, threatening to set fire to the temple if they did not hand over the treasure. .

The monks on the mountain are used to being pampered and pampered. Where have they seen such a scene?All were terrified.

Facts have proved that not all monks are eminent monks like Xuanzang who can sacrifice their lives for righteousness, but more of them are people who are greedy for life and afraid of death. Facing the fear of death and the threat of soldiers outside, the monks inside can't even hold on for three days I was completely resigned, and finally handed over the Buddha treasure—not only the tooth relics of the Buddha, but also the relics of the eminent monks of the past dynasties were picked over and over again, and all those with a bit of magical characteristics were taken away. Those monks were afraid People confuse fakes with genuine ones.

Fortunately, the final facts proved that the group of monks were still very courageous. After many verifications of the Buddha tooth relic, Liu Hongji finally confirmed that the earliest relic donated before was the real one. This surprised him quite a bit, but This can be regarded as saving the lives of those monks.

It's just that after snatching back the Buddha's tooth relic, Liu Hongji felt anxious. The influence of Buddhism in Datang is terrible, and with the connection between Datang and Tianzhu, this matter will be known to the Buddhists of Datang sooner or later. In this way, it is difficult to guarantee that the Buddhist forces will not stand up for Tianzhu Buddhism. If the imperial court does not make decisions for him, then he will really be in trouble.

Of course Li Zhen knew what Liu Hongji was worried about, and explained with a smile: "Don't worry, after such a big incident, Buddhism will focus on the Buddha's tooth relic in a short time. I won't care about other things, why this matter is what I ordered you to do, and if someone is held accountable in the future, they won't look for you."

Liu Hongji was embarrassed by what Li Zhen said, and explained in a muffled voice: "I didn't mean that, I even came to the battlefield, and the mere Buddhism is really not taken seriously by me. The main reason is...Your Highness. I also know that Buddhism is not easy to provoke... I am afraid that they will really target you... After all, you are still our direct superior."

Li Zhen didn't point it out, just smiled and said: "Hehe, it's good if you have this kind of intention, it's just Buddhism, I have my own way to solve it."

"In this way, the minister can rest assured."

"Okay, you can go back."

"Yes, I retire."